Nono.MA
Sketch.Nono.MA

Color or not

My drawing process is (nearly) always the same; I grab a pen, stroke the main lines of something I see, add detail, and shade. Afterwards, I make a decision based on how much I like the drawing and how much time is available to finish it—whether to add color or not.

I might get in love with the plain, black-and-white drawing and feel scared of spoiling the piece with watercolor even when I know color adds another dimension to the story told by my sketch. But I've been practicing.

The stress of coloring fades away the more I practice, and the positive feedback loop makes me color more of my sketches, improving my skill at the same time.

I've scanned certain drawings before and after coloring. This, apart from letting me keep a copy of the uncolored version of the drawing, might serve to train a machine learning algorithm which might learn how I color my sketches.


That fear of ruining what's half-done prevents us from improving.

Let's beat the resistance.

September 1, 2020
Nono Martínez Alonso


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Pencil sketch of Nono Martínez Alonso.