> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.basselsj.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Musicians: Sketches
- URL: https://www.basselsj.com/musicians-sketches/
- Published: 2017-08-21T03:55:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-05T05:49:16.000Z
- Description: Graphite and charcoal studies, 2017 to 2020, drawn from photographs. I saw a passive fighting merit in the musicians at my sister's gigs, then went looking for the same thing in players I had never met.
- Author: BasselsJ
- Tags: Musicians: Sketches, #refinement, #project, #Sketches & Studies, #Pencil, Pen, Charcoal

My sister was a rising jazz musician struggling to make her way, and the struggle is what caught me. There was a passive fighting merit to the musicians I met at her gigs, and many carried the charisma of a fighter partway through the gauntlet.

I went looking for it elsewhere. These are drawn from photographs, mostly of players I never met and some of them well known. Studies rather than portraits: I was after the quality, not the person.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-charcoal-Jazz-sketch_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-charcoal--YoYo--music-theme-_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-04-21-14.34.52_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-04-21-14.35.00_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-05-07-01.28.16_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-04-21-14.35.10_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-04-21-14.35.28_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-05-07-01.23.33_E.jpg)

Graphite and charcoal, 2017.

I began studying music theory with an accomplished trumpeter around this time, and I still study the trumpet now. Music has never been something I was passionate about listening to. I saw it as a way of molding, of understanding, of peeling back the fabric of things. I have always looked at it more as a medium, which is what I am working through now.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-05-07-01.23.49_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-08-28-00.05.41_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-08-10-23.12.48_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2017-05-07-01.30.16_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2019-02-04-18.25.13_E.jpg)

Graphite, 2017 to 2019.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2020-jazz-charcoal-sketch-1_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2020-jazz-charcoal-sketch-2_E.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3f/3f/3f3f7cd7-0d80-48d1-990a-cf54b706ed68/content/images/2023/04/2H7A9964_E.webp)

Charcoal, 2019 to 2020.

The sketching was short-lived. Colour arrived during it, and the motif got wider and more transparent. The Toronto players I had actually met became [their own series](https://www.basselsj.com/toronto-jazz/).