SKETCH DRAWING CONTEST #5 | KYOTO CITY STREET

This is a side street in KYOTO, located in the central part of the island of Honshu, Japan. It has a population of 1.5 million and is a major metropolitan area. wiki

This is my entry for @sparkyez's #sketchdrawing contest.

I've regularly seen scenes of Japan's city scape since childhood from watching animes. I love how in their city, you can still find old blended with the new. Can you see the roof made of kawara (Japanese clay tiles) above the biker's head? What about the lantern hanging on the left hand corner? These are very much common sights despite flanked by electricity posts and countless billboards.

A city is not all big highways and towering skyscrapers. There are countless smaller streets like this one which are more interesting to explore for me!

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Process

Once again, Noelle is drawing at night! So the process shots are going to be a bit um, shadowy? Warning, warning, warning: I am no master of Japanese characters, so all writing on the boards are 100% incorrect. ^sorry!

First things first, I draw the outline using a mechanical pencil, 0.5mm 2B. It makes much cleaner lines and are easier to erase. There are mechanical pencils meant to be used for art (e.g. Faber-Castell has them). I am using my new Staedtler one.

☆ヾ(*´▽｀)ﾉ

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I start to ink using a fine tip marker for the lettering on the signs and the bicycle wheels. I don't have a particular order when drawing or painting. I go slowly and look back at the drawing from time to time to see if it works or looks good. Corrections are hard when you're already in the inking process. Phewwww.

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Up close shot. I use more of the fine tip marker to line things which are nearer to me. I love that kawara roof!

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I use the finer .005 pen to outline the more distant objects.

Lastly, I add shadows to the ground, sides of the posts and the biker's jacket by simply making lines with the .005 pen.

I had a lot of fun drawing the messy wires above too.

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All done. :) You can check out @sparkyez's contest here.

Thanks for dropping by,

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