Now That's Sketchy

Have you ever thought about learning something new? How about improving an existing hobby? That is where I find myself these days. After writing Life of Bāo, I thought, what else can I learn that seems out of my comfort zone? Sketching. Writing Life of Bāo pushed my limits. It was fun interjecting real facts into a fiction story. I learned much about China, my characters, and myself while writing. It took me months to plan and many more to edit, rewrite, edit, rewrite … You get the picture.

One sunny summer day, I walked into a bookstore and marveled at the shelves and shelves of books. “Oh my, Life of Bāo is just a grain of sand among all the sand on all the beaches in the world.”

Now to my new adventure - Sketching. Do I know what I am doing? Kind of. Maybe. Not really. For those of you who look at my site, you may say. “You do watercolor, Joel, so how hard can it be?” For me - very. I have learned that if you want to watercolor, you need to be able to sketch. Having your style is something that I lack. It is something that I want to achieve. Most importantly, it develops over time and with lots of practice.

So we begin. Welcome to my sketching section in Joels Creative Garden.