The Brief

Many illustrators use cameras to support their sketchbook process and complement their drawings. If you are working outside, you may find that taking some photos provides useful extra detail if you plan to develop your sketches later. 

They can also provide another perspective, alternative or additional visual reference material: a different type of record.  Knowing that you have the details can also influence your attitude towards your observational drawing, making you feel more selective or relaxed.

If you decide to take photos it’s important to make sure that you think about their function, and value, in relation to your drawings.  For example, it’s useful to use the frame to consider composition or viewpoint, and if you have a decent zoom lens to hone into specific areas of a scene.

Use camera/screen-based content as part of the sketchbook process: make the same route as you did previously, but this time using your camera, being especially conscious of diversifying viewpoints around key signpost images.  This time your focus will be on a selection of landmarks or features from your route that you feel a particular interest in.  Use this process to “see” them afresh, deliberately zooming in and out, moving from the macro to the micro, noticing textures, details and colours, as well as larger shapes and forms.  Maybe doing the route at a different time of the day, or in different weather conditions will give you a fresher perspective to the original route, or help you to identify newer components within it.

If you are able to print out some of the photos or make a file of them, select some images of your photographic journey to include in your sketchbook.

My approach:

Using a camera is, more often than not, part of my methodology to support my sketchbook. Knowing that I have a photo as a backup influences my attitude towards my drawing. I am more relaxed, especially when travelling with family, which means my drawing process can be cut short or interrupted.

It’s my safety net, but I do realise that this needs to be challenged at times, which I have done in previous exercises. It was a refreshing experience, and I had to fill in the missing pieces from my memory or imagination if my drawing time got cut short. This, in return, resulted in more interpretive drawings. It felt liberating not to have a photo backup.

Using my camera’s functionality and features, I am photographing parts of myself (for instance, my arm as I open the door) to make myself part of the drawing. Including myself completely changes the narrative compared to my drawings from the previous time I took this route.

Instead of stopping at each landmark, I would take a photo, find a comfy place to draw and make a few sketches referring to my screen.

I used multimedia from my two toolkits, which consist of watercolour, coloured pencils, crayons, and watercolour ink.

My journey started by walking from my front door to the park, finding a shaded spot under the tree, and drawing the pigeons. Using the camera’s timer, I was able to get a shot from the “pigeon’s perspective”, so to speak, by setting up the camera where the pigeons were feeding and moving back to my spot under the tree. (Figure 2, sketch 6).

In Figure 3, sketch 7, I flipped the camera around and took a zoomed-in shot of me standing under the tree, the houses, shrubs, and trees behind me.  I then walked to the Bay Area, and it was such a pleasure to zoom in and capture the seagulls. Using a camera when drawing wildlife can be helpful, especially when zooming in.  It can also be useful to bring binoculars when wanting to draw wildlife.

Figure 4 shows the drawings at the bay area. I continued adding my skirt to the drawing to give the perspective that someone is behind the drawing and an impression of my viewpoint. Taking a photo of the benches helped me capture the details of the mosaic even though someone would occupy the bench.

This time I noticed another crab mosaic on a small wall.  Last time, people were sitting on the wall, so I did not notice it.  I could quickly photograph the wall when it was free before it got occupied again. (Figure 4, Sketch 11)

In Sketch 12, I used crayon to capture the texture of the gravel curved barricade where water meets the land.  I tried throughout my drawings to use the media that best represents the texture or feel of the object I am drawing.  The weather changed, and the colours seemed to have a bluer undertone now that it was overcast.

Next, I walked to the botanical garden with indigenous plants by the bay area.  (Figure 5) By taking photos, I could really capture the details and was less under a time constraint.  Whatever I could not capture on-site could be added later.  I could even capture a snail on a rock before it moved away.

I then focused more on details such as the shapes of the leaves and the textures.  I tried to simplify the plants and capture the primary shapes and lines, contrasting textures against each other.  These drawings became more interpretive as I tried unconventional colours and used white paper as my lightest tone.  I also experimented using line drawings with patterns and contrasting them against flat shapes. (Figure 6)

The day of drawing is coming to an end.  It is remarkable how full my heart feels whenever I have a day like this, so I decided to capture that feeling in Sketch 19, Figure 7.  I used high contrast values in black and colour, and balanced the vertical lines of the hair with horizontal lines in the background representing plants and the horizon. The expression on my face was captured in the moment with a selfie, and once I had the photo on a screen, I could solely concentrate on getting the image on paper.

I walked back home with the feeling of a day’s work well done, knowing that once I arrived home, I have to start dinner and load some washing.

How did I use photos?

The relationship between the photo and drawing is different each time.  In Figure 8 I captured the snail on the rock but then produced a drawing that is more interpretive in nature.  The snail is bigger in drawing because I want the focus point to be the snail.  I have simplified the plants in the background so as not to distract from the snail.  I also made the rock green to draw attention to the snail and draw the viewer’s eye in and out through the dress and plant.

To me, photographs are a separate form of visual language. In Figures 9 and 10, the photographs were used to inform the shapes of the plants and provide a visual reference. In Figure 10, I used the same photograph but returned to my initial sketch and developed it differently.

What have I learned?

• I am more relaxed knowing that I have a photo as a backup.
• I could photograph myself and bring the person behind the drawing into my sketchbook.
• I could photograph a fleeting moment, such as an emotion, wildlife, or insects, and have enough time to draw it from the photo.
• Using the camera’s timer, I was able to get a photograph I would not usually be able to capture, especially when photographing wildlife.
• I could capture on-site what could be added later.