Not everything needs to be sunshine and roses, even close to home. Capture some of the darker, more serious elements as well for an honest, rounded impression. Let yourself feel what you’re sketching, whatever that emotion may be. But remember, there is beauty and interest in decay. It’s a kind of patina that the Japanese call wabi-sabi. It’s a poignancy you don’t want to miss.
Warren used ink and watercolor to capture the complex shapes of gas pumps, tanks, car doors and more.
Sweden’s Nina Johansson caught the almost foreboding area under a Stockholm overpass, with concrete barriers and walls covered in dark graffiti. Ink and deep values speak of the mood she was after.