Kevin Zych

Live Sketching Free Tulip Day in NYC 🌷 Something I tell my students is, if you’re unsure what to draw, to look for verbs instead of nouns. Drawing people DOING things is always going to be more interesting, and actions, activities, and interactions can give you ideas how to illustrate the scene. In this case, a big event where thousands of people would be celebrating spring was perfect, so I packed my fountain pen and watercolor materials and went to town. #drawing #sketchart #livesketch #reportageillustration #illustration #art #nyc #nycevents #sketchbook

Reportage illustration is a form of visual journalism in which artists document their firsthand experience with live, on-location drawings. The Lunar New Year celebration in Chinatown is my most recent example. I’ve drawn at this event a few times and it’s become one of my favorite subjects. If you’d like to learn how to make quick sketches like this, check out my free drawing meetups in NYC and my new illustration course, Zero to Sixty. #drawing #illustration #reportageillustration #urbansketching #sketchartist #livesketchartist #nyc #chinatown #lunarnewyear

My sketchbooks are full of travel drawings, but the ones I made at Park City last month stand out as some of the best pages. 🏂✍🏻 Of course, there wasn’t a lot of time—we were having a blast zipping down the mountain—so most of them began as quick thumbnails drawn directly with my Sailor Fude Fountain Pen. 🖋️ Sometimes working in ink like this means accepting lots of mistakes, but I found a good rhythm and by the time I added watercolor, I knew they would hold up and represent the amazing time we had. As we were leaving, I found a patch at a gift shop that I’m going to iron onto the cover of the sketchbook, which is made of a thick canvas material. Overall, I’m really excited. It’s turning out to be an epic journal. 📓 🙌🏻#sketchbook #sketchbookideas #travelsketchbook #journal #art #drawing #drawingprocess #drawingfromlife #sketchartist #parkcity #creatorsearchinsights

Nothing beats drawing on location, but sometimes a little extra drawing or painting in the studio goes a long way. Here’s a quick look into my process using reportage from the Lunar New Year celebrations as an example. 🐍 Regardless of the subject or style, the goal is to complete (but preserve!) the feeling of the original sketches. After all, that’s the beauty of this craft! Between starting and finishing each image, there are a series of quick decisions that come together and since I could go on about this stuff forever, I’ve made a whole course about it. If you’d like to learn the same skills yourself, check out Zero to Sixty Sketchbook School, which kicks off on March 04 🏁🔥 #drawing #illustration #reporter #reportageillustration #nyc #artist #artprocess #learntodraw

Always a pleasure visiting and drawing new exhibits at @The Met 🖋️ Here are my sketches from “Monstrous Beauty” now on view through August 17. #drawing #livedrawing #sketchart #reportageillustration #themet #art