I ran across a discussion on Reddit a few weeks ago asking what the difference is between a drawing and a sketch. Some of the comments were interesting to read.
Like many in the comment section, I usually think of a drawing as being a more polished piece than a sketch. It has deliberate, measured, clean hard lines, and it takes forever to create. Like this.
Sketching is more raw, fast, quick little marks to get the features down on the page.
I use “drawing” and “sketch” interchangeably, and don’t worry about semantics. I’ve always wondered what I should call my artwork when I’m using oil pastels, tho. Is it a drawing or painting? I definitely wouldn’t call it a picture. When I think of the word “picture” I think of an image being produced in a nanosecond by a machine. I cringe when I hear artwork being called a picture, especially when artists do it.
I’ve seen many artists call their pastel work “paintings”, even though neither paint nor brushes were involved. It feels kinda weird to me to call it a painting when I didn’t actually paint it. Idk?
Some shots from my work table…
This is what I worked on this week - gouache portraits on paper. These will be available next week. The oil pastel portraits below are available on DPW. Links below each photo.
What I’ve been watching:
Summer Grill - stop motion video. Sooo good! I have such admiration for stop motion. Had to subscribe.
Mike Mignola: Drawing Monsters - documentary on Youtube
I’ve never watched the Hellboy movies or read the comics, but I enjoyed this documentary. I was under the assumption that Hellboy was a villain because he’s a “monster” & looks kinda scary. I was surprised to find out he’s a superhero.
I hope you have a lovely week. I’ll be popping in the notes section from time to time, so I hope to see you there.
My work is available on Daily Paintworks, and eBay.
There might be some details in the English language that I haven’t understood, but we have different words for sketches and drawings in Norwegian too. So here is my five cents.
Both terms describes an artwork made by mark making, but I would say the difference lies in the final intention in tour work. A sketch is something unfinished, raw and is made without the intention of being a finished work. A sketch can become/evolve into a drawing or a painting. I would say that a painting is mark making done with paint, regardless of the tools used for mark making. But the lines are blurry and not definite.