I only saw art as something I had to do in school. Art was never one of my favorite subjects in school growing up, and the only time I ever created anything was two days before submitting my art book. That changed, though, when I took VA as one of my subjects in grade 9. My love for art immediately grew, and I soon found myself painting in my spare time at home. But I did note that I was never very adept at sketching. My sketches were constantly out of proportion, either too big, too little, too left, too right, or deformed, which impacted my painting and the piece as a whole. To improve, I decided to start sketching in my free time, whether it is anatomy, commonplace objects, or surrealistic objects.

LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas of growth.
I started out drawing under the impression that I was an absolute beginner with no ability to sketch at all. But I was wrong, it turned out. I searched for reference images, such as pictures of various hand and eye movements, on Google and Pinterest for the initial sketches before copying them into my sketchbook. After making a few sketches, I recognized that copy sketching was a skill I possessed and did not have any trouble with. However, when I attempted to sketch still lifes of furniture, the living room, or even my imagination, I discovered that I was not able to accomplish it as well as copy sketching because I had to identify which part to shade and which detail to draw myself, rather than copying the artwork. My shapes were twisted, my proportions were improper, and my shading was uneven. Drawing pictures from my ideas and the things around me is, therefore, a skill I need to develop.

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
One of the challenges that I faced was managing time. When I made a goal of finishing 15 sketches in a month, there were times when I had to create a sketch on a weekday. Managing time to finish my homework and my sketch on that turned out to be more difficult than I thought because I found myself procrastinating after finishing either my homework or my sketch. To overcome this obstacle, I had to improve my time management abilities and make a schedule starting when I arrived home to make sure I completed both of my tasks and had enough breaks. I also added calendar reminders for everyday so that I do not forget to sketch if I can. Apart from time management, sketching helped me develop creative thinking skills. Since I had to sketch both, images from my mind and objects around me, I had to identify what I wanted to draw, the proportions, and the areas to shade to get the best effect on my own.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.
The idea of improving my sketching had been in my head for a long time. But initiating it was the hard part, with assignments and procrastination getting the best of me. During the Diwali Break, however, I realized I was falling back on sketching and decided to finally initiate the plan to get back on track. I started by learning the proper way to accomplish various shading techniques by watching videos and conducting research on them. Additionally, I looked for reference photographs with varying degrees of difficulty to help me as I transitioned from one level of difficulty to another. To ensure that I completed my assignments and sketches, I started by making a goal to complete one sketch during the weekend, no matter how small. This way, I was able to balance work and sketching without falling behind in either. Then, when I gradually took less time to finish a sketch, I took it a step ahead. I set a goal for how many sketches I would produce during the month. These drawings could be large or as tiny as an eye. 20 sketches each for December and January was my target.

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.
Improving my sketching skills was not an overnight task. It took me months of commitment to reach the level that I wanted. For me, weekends are spent relaxing and doing nothing productive. So creating a sketch every weekend and then eventually even on weekdays for months required commitment. In addition, I tend to give up on things if I don’t succeed right away. I considered giving up numerous times along my path of progress since my sketches were not “good enough” or exactly like the photo. But I persisted rather than giving up. I first tried a basic drawing of eyes to get practice and understanding of how to execute one specific shading technique and how to get the ideal shape if I was unable to complete a particular sketch of the eyes because the shading was too challenging. This encouraged persistence and patience.

In the end, the decision to improve my sketch proved to be a wise one because it allowed me to gain new skills in shading and sketching as well as other areas, such as improved creativity, hand-eye coordination, and time management, to mention a few. I also developed several learner profiles – inquirer while searching for new techniques to improve my sketching skills, open-minded while taking feedback on my sketching and how to improve, and thinker while coming up with new ideas to sketch. Improving sketching skills was a gradual process that required patience and persistence, but the rewards are worth the effort.