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Audrey Anderson sketches everyday life Article Image

Audrey Anderson sketches everyday life

Posted on 6 October 2016

Audrey Anderson began sketching to "up-grade" her skills. Daily sketching is a discipline that is hard to start and keep going as you have to over-ride insecurities and programme a new habit at the same time. Using her sketchbooks, Anderson took her drawing outside the studio.

Anderson began researching sketching and tried various suggested exercises such as "draw everything you eat for a week". "I had to draw 3 times a day (other than my regular art practise drawing) and I had to draw fast, (well I was hungry and the food would get cold if I took too long)," says Anderson.

With that, Anderson created a "personal game" by drawing every day at the specific times of 8am, 2pm and 7pm. She wanted to explore what her life was like at specific times in the day and how it altered. "That was actually lots of fun, because some times there was no comfy stop to sit and draw something," Anderson says. "I just had to stand and scribble what was in front of me. I used a film app to capture each moment of the stop and sketch process what was really get to watch at the end of doing it for a month."

Audrey Anderson was born in Sunnyside, Pretoria, South Africa. She completed a BA Fine Arts (honors) degree at the University of Pretoria specializing in narrative drawing and graphic novel concepts. In 2016, she entered two artworks into the SA Taxi Foundation Art Award and was named overall winner. She is currently working full-time as an artist at Assemblage, a collective studio space located in Johannesburg.

Anderson states she gained a lot more than just drawing skills from her sketchbooking. "It really opened my eyes to observing the world around me, its not the same a taking a photo or using a photo as reference for a drawing. I underestimated to power of true observation and range of information I can gain from it," says Anderson. Through her sketching, Anderson was able to use proper observation to reveal things one would miss from simply looking at it. Her drawings capture not just the image but the emotional intent that came with it.