Making Paper Cut Sketches is a Lot of Fun - Try It!

I regularly draw at kid's activities - and often these are really good, intense life drawing classes. But doing that several times a week for several years gets to you and you start thinking up new ways to practice - so I've picked up some color paper and scissors and now challenge myself to make a paper cut-outs of the movements and poses.

I made a folder with all of the sketches done with scissors: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/sets/72157688760574933
A couple of technical notes: 

1. Scissors. I love victorinox knives but the scissors were killing my fingers after one class - so I got small scissors from my sewing kit (these actually have rounded tips - I want to try some sharp scissors too soon. 

2. Using smaller pieces of color paper was a great idea as I often have to rotate the paper and even fold and move it quickly to catch the shape of the movement and dealing with the large paper was just ugly (and wasteful).

3. Carrying ziplock bag for all the tiny pieces of paper that are leftover saved me from extra cleaning after the class.

4. Having a glue stick and some extra pieces of paper with me gave me a chance to compose some of the pages right on the spot and it felt more like a complex scene made right there rather than a bunch of quick gesture sketches.

I want to try:

1. Some unusual scissors

2. Exacto knife

3. Making more compositions with the holes (negative space) left after I cut out a figure

4. Making multi-part pieces (I tried it with the cello and it did not work well but I think it's worth experimenting.

Sketchbook #115: My Life Drawing Class.

On all of these pages I used a very thin ballpoint pen (skb ballpoint pen) which is full of character and, as all things with character, it's not so easy to control. I can create many shades of gray with it and can draw and write in the most impossibly-small handwriting - which helps sometimes to get things off my chest or add some special details that only I will notice. The only issue I have is that the pen gets a bit of a blob of ink on it's tip pretty often and they smudge - but there is certain charm in that too :) And dirty fingers.

Everyday Life - from Sketchbook of this Spring.

Sketchbook #113: People

More people in my sketchbook: Reading time, fellow sketcher I met in a cafe (we sketched each other but did not connect more than that - too many people in between :) and more from my life drawing class - which is working on a black belt in taekwondo right now :)

Sketchbook #113: Black Belt Training

I try almost all the exercises that these black belt candidates do and find it extremely surprising that they can keep at them for such a long time. Though doing it on your own and in a group are two different things. Hopefully, all of them will make it to the black belt in June...

Sketchbook #113: My Life Drawing Class

Another series of quick gestured during the sparring. Black belt training continues.

Sketchbook #113: My Life Drawing Class

Black Belt Training continues. The faster they get the more I hope for the stretching break :)

Sketchbook #112: Black Belt Training

Sketchbook #112: Black Belt Training

Black Belt saga continues with more training, tai-chi, stretches, preliminary testing and me drawing people who go through this for the first time and those who've been through this already several times and those on support team. I miss dogs who used to come to the training sessions but we changed location and I almost never see the joy of "my master is running by" :)

Sketchbook #112: Black Belt Training

Black belt journey is filled with many repetitions of the same techniques. As kids and adults go over the same set of exercises trying different approaches, tips, and tricks for better form and a stronger result I find myself doing the same with the sketching same poses over and over - this time I decided to draw negative spaces around people.

Sketchbook #112: Black Belt Training

I continue my record of the journey to the black belt - parallel pen, black ink and lots of hot tea during a very early morning training.

Sketchbook #112: Black Belt Training

Sketchbook #112: Black Belt Training

These training sessions happen early in the morning and even though I bring a full set of watercolors with me I haven't used them yet - too cold! But little by little all the heat that comes from a group of good 20-30 people running and jumping penetrates my senses and then I can start thinking about color. Though by that time my feet are too cold and I have to run too ;)

Sketchbook #111: Black Belt Training

There are several dogs that come to the black belt training sessions. I am not sure they are into this whole belt thing but they bring a lot of enthusiasm to this early morning adventure of ours!