Two halves of a two-page spread from my old journal sketchbook. You can see the whole spread here, in my DeviantArt gallery. I'm also planning to erase the join sometime, when I'm a little less busy. Still, it's been about half a year since I drew this, and it's about time it saw the light of day.
I'd been meaning to work on more scenery and backgrounds. At the time, I had quit Kung Fu and was in the process of quitting World of Warcraft. One night while my husband went to Kung Fu class, I decided to get a ride to the University campus with him and sketch while he practiced. I had been intending to do some outdoor sketching, but by the time we arrived on campus it was raining and quite cold. I was looking for a vending machine that sold hot chocolate, and I ended up in the Central Academic Building, staring down at this little nook.
The area is surrounded by buildings and is always in shadow, so hardly anyone uses it. Sometimes people sit on the bench and smoke. But in the summer, there is hardly anyone at the University -- especially in the evenings. I think I might have been the only person in the building.
It was almost dark by the time I finished sketching. I got all the shapes down but didn't get the reflections from the wet sidewalks. When I came back the next day to take a photo so that I could finish the picture, much of the water had dried up. The dark blob beneath the bench is the last great puddle.
I haven't really done anything this complex since. I finally quit WoW, but I'm back in Kung Fu and it takes up a significant amount of time per week. Plus, I end up with shaky arms when I've overworked them. Still, it's better than sitting at home playing videogames all night. I hope to do more sketching this summer, when I switch from Kung Fu to cycling while the weather is good. The nice thing about cycling is that it takes you to new and interesting places, you can take a break there and draw something, and if you feel tired it's your legs that shake.
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