I am a big fan of Leonardo Da Vinci and I am sure many of you belong to the same category. He was a polymath, scientific innovator, and a gifted artist. What I liked about him was his skill in carefully documenting his observations. He has not only created detailed description of his thought but also he has drawn many diagrams to make things easier to visualize. This part of his personality allowed others to take notice of his work. Even today, many researchers can easily replicate his work thanks to his detailed diagrams and manuscripts. I wanted to do something like him in my documentations.
Documentation has been part of my routine since my college days. Later, during my consulting career, it has been merged with presentations and excel charts. I always felt more better way to present things. In a way, allowing people to visualize my solutions. Doing an online course ‘Design: Creation of Artifacts for Society’ gave me some perspective. I could see many innovative solutions to day to day problems but ran short of presenting them because of the lack of visualize presentation. It always felt as if I cannot draw, and if I cannot draw, it will never happen.
After keeping the thought of drawing for many years, since December 2019, I decided to start making doodles regardless of my drawing. Initially, I used a You-Tube tutorial to learn the basic aspects. Copying other people’s doodle as a practice did help. Maybe not very well, but I could still draw. Despite in-proportionate shapes, it was still a fun. From paper-pencil, it moved to white board markers.
Return Gift on my birthday
Thanks to social media, I received a lot of wishes on my birthday. Instead of a usual reply, I decided to make a return portrait. Using some help from Google, this was the best creative sketch, made using colors on a white board.
Color combinations
Using inspiration of other photos available, I started to sharpened my color combination on a white board. It has never been so much of fun to create someone, making them look angry, or bending their nose a little.
My own imaginations
Then, using my creative imaginations, I started sketching some completely different sketches. It has now become more than doodle. With color combinations and various different aspects, the experimentation has paid-off.
Next step
Although, I took drawing as a way to present my ideas, I have found interest in drawing people’s faces. So, I’m trying to self-educate in drawing real faces in the future. Also, to add more color combinations using editing software as done with my following picture.
Message to you
If I can learn to draw, you can also learn it. Every art form is easy to learn and practice. So start from today and don’t compare yourself with picaso, because you will be disappointed with yourself even before beginning any art. Just enjoy!
Ankit Khandelwal 