Wildlife & Railway Art - Frédérique Lucas

Early 2018 I made daily drawings for a little while. Photo studies scribbled in the edge of my notebook, with a short something about the day. I wasn't in the best of places back then. A few days ago I came across that notebook again. I still love those drawings so I wanted to share some with you. Perhaps they can mean something to you too.

Namu’s sketchbook p7

So, unusually, these are all in order of drawing, just to show the progress. We’re in mid 2016 now and I feel that here my sketching took a big step forward. Instead of ‘meh’ as I have with most older work, here start the sketches I can look back on and actually like.

The first few pages are a mix from all over the place. Some made at home, some in Germany, some in Italy. On the first page you can see the original concept for ‘Dreams!’ I don’t know why but I started making a conscious effort to put more time and thought into my sketches, even the free hand ones made on the train. I think it showed. It’s pretty funny to compare the front view killer whale on page 3 with the similarly posed one from 2 years back. See what I meant with improvement? :p

And then came the real game changers - the photo studies. That’s the last two pages (and the hippos on page 3). I love these. They gave the satisfaction of making something correct while giving opportunity to work on technique. They’re some of my favourite pages in my sketchbook!

See all entries here!

The air tasted different that night.

Freedom was almost as palpable As the summer evening’s scent And the jackdaws that passed overhead Held endless possibilities Under their wings.