The Devil's Bridge

[Balaji]

I was looking for another sketch today when I stumbled upon this one. I don't think that I have shared this here.

This sketch was probably made in 2008 or 2009 when I was moving to pen and ink from graphite and charcoal. And as you can see from the note on the sketch itself, this is a study copy of a sketch by Peter Caldwell. It is from his book Pen and Ink Sketching.

 

[Enyaw]

Very nice piece

 

[Joy]

Wonderful values and more detail than your other fine works. Beautifully rendered.

 

[Balaji]

Wayne and Joy...Thank you.

 

[Balaji]

Wonderful values and more detail than your other fine works. Beautifully rendered.

Unlike the works that I am posting now, this was a copy of another's work, which I did to study it. (I have mentioned that on my sketch itself.) Peter Caldwell's book is very inspiring. I did a book review of it for an art forum that I was (and still am) part of. I must have spent around 150 to 180 minutes on this sketch, and that without having to work out the composition, perspective, and so on, because I was only copying a finished piece of artwork.

Initially I used to attempt detailed sketches regardless of whether I was sketching from reference photos or from life. But, as I started sketching more and more on location, I started to reduce details in such sketches, so that I could do more sketches at the same location in the time available. I would spend around 45 minutes on a sketch on location, and then move on to the next sketch. If required, I would add some details or tonal values later, at home, on the incomplete sketch.

But then I developed some hand tremors, which kept increasing until they became a worrisome issue. In 2024 I starte doing very quick sketches to see if that would help me overcome these tremors. They have helped very much.

Most of the sketches that I have posted recently are quick sketches done then. Many of them were done in ten, fifteen, and twenty minutes.