Trying to Spread My Wings a Bit

The last couple of days I've been concentrating on trying to capture things quickly onto paper using ink only.  At this point I'm not worried about perspective or composition........I just want to try and get on paper what I'm seeing the best I can in a quick lively manner.

This first one is the back of our house and my personal living area where I spend most of my days/evenings.

This next is Venetian Gardens not too far from where we live.  It's rather wonky but I enjoyed the process none the less.  My favorite part is the area of the two palm trees :-)

Next is a new bag I received to take my sketching gear out with me.  There are mistakes and even corrections I tried to make with the purpose of learning what to do and what not to do (as noted on the page).  But after worrying about the fact I sketched the strap in front of what was already there, I've seen where many Urban Sketchers do that as part of their normal sketching process.  More and more I'm leaning towards wanting to do that type of day to day sketching but I have lots to learn and practice plus breaking free of that feeling I need to get everything just right.

And this was a true learning experience reminding me why I'm not crazy about marker pens or brush pens.

This started out with pen and ink only using my Falcon pen.  My hand was rebelling with all the hatching and cross hatching to fill in the black so I went to a Black Pitt Artists Brush pen.  That was OK but then came the shadow.  I thought I'd try a Tombow marker pen - brush end to put in the gray.  The shadow was actually more defined but I did NOT like the streaks the marker made.  At least it was water soluble ink so I washed it out to what you see here.  Definitely not my intent but ................ what can I say ??  :-)