Towards the end of my six week Urban Sketching course at Crealde School of Art I like to bring my students to Aloma Bowl (2530 Aloma Ave, Winter Park, FL 32792) only 2 blocks from the campus. On Sundays Bowling leagues are competing and most of the lanes fill with talented bowlers who are serious about their game. My hope of course is that my students will feel just as serious about their sketch game. There are bars made out of the bowling ball holders at the end of the lanes and those high top bars make a great perch for the sketchers to work from.
I dash off a sketch as a demo to show students how I time the various stages of my sketch to finish in the several hours allotted. These bowling sketches are not as finished as my usual work since I also visit each artist multiple times giving advise and tips. The end of the bowling lanes where the pis are lined up offers a perfect horizon line which is something I talk extensively about when discussing perspective and composition.
Students are also encouraged to just do a sheet of studies of peoples gestures so that they loosen up and are not worried about the final composition at fist. Prior to the trip to the bowling alley we did a series of quick gesture drawings in the classroom. By goal is to loosen up the students enough so that they have something on the page from head to toe in the first 30 seconds and use the remaining time to add the “Icing” or detail that makes each sketch unique to the person being sketched.
The most challenging pose if of course the final “release” post as the bowler sends the ball down the lane. Everyone had their own stance as they release the ball and the pose is gone in an instant. The great thing is that they get up every few minutes and repeat the movement making it possible to attack the drawing multiple times and considering each angle and curve individually. This takes patience and perseverance and the realization and acceptance that no drawing is perfect.