I don't understand how people get bored. It's a complete mystery to me. How is it even possible when there are so many things you can do to amuse yourself? I have a million and one projects on the go that I can dip into when I have nothing else to do. My problem is those projects too often get shelved because I never have nothing else to do.
Here's one of them. I started this a little while back when my friend, designer
Emily Pickle, bought me a couple of Chagall and Renoir sticker books. At the same time I'd bought a couple of cheap little sketchbooks that were on a buy one get one free offer. So I dedicated one to copying the stickers. But, copying them upside down
Now, I'd heard about this technique a long time ago, when I first started drawing. I'm sure it was through
Danny Gregory but I can't be certain. I didn't really give it much of a go back then. I was too caught up in making everything look perfect, and hadn't really learnt to trust my own judgement. Anyway, I only really started playing around with the technique, properly, a few years ago. Now, I really love it and use it often. Especially with portraits.
So how does it work? Well, it's really quite simple. I'm sure many of you already know, but for those who don't (and being self taught and not having that art school background, I had never come across these techniques before hanging out with illustrators online), here's a quick demo.
As I said, I was given these little sticker books of paintings from a series by the great painters. I'm not really a Renoir fan, but that really doesn't matter at all. And, as for Chagall, well, although I knew his work I hadn't studied it until now. And now I really am a big fan. I stuck all the stickers on the left hand pages of the sketchbook. You don't need stickers though. You can use absolutely anything as subject matter.
Then what you do is you turn the book upside down. See below.
All I have used is a fine pen and then a thicker pen; like a brush pen, a calligraphy pen or anything with a thicker nib. A marker pen will work just as well although they often bleed through the paper.
I started by making a line drawing. This exercise is all about looking. Really looking. Starting in the top left hand corner and trying to copy, as best you can, the photo or image you're working from. Stop wondering if you're getting it 'right' and just keep looking. Resist the urge to turn it the right way up until you've drawn the whole image in.
THEN you can turn it around. It's never really going to be 'perfect'. There'll always be a quirkiness about your drawing, but I think that's the joy of doing this. I always find I make the eyes huge.
When I'd completed the line drawing, and turned the book around, I shade the drawing with the thicker pen. There's no reason you can't do all that while the image is still upside down. I just like brining it together like this at the end.
I've since found some more stickers of Japanese art which should complete the sketchbook (after I've shared them out with Emily Pickle, that is).
I should add that your first attempts may look absolutely nothing like the image you are copying. Mine certainly didn't. I've done a huge amount of this stuff since getting into it. But it's amazing how quickly I got better at it and how confident the drawings became. But, I guess that's the same of anything you do.
This one above, is one of my favourites.
One warning; if you do decide to dedicate a whole book to this technique, no matter how much you try, this will at some point happen...
My sketchbook project if now available to view at the arthousecoop with a login or you can just view it here on my blog. My theme was "I remember you." I decided to make it into a comic strip book chronicling the many rejections I received from women over the years. I assume this will most likely land me in hot water with some but ah well. The past is the past and now we can just laugh it off, right? Good, I'm happy you agree.
I've been a busy bee for the past few weeks. One of my big accomplishments was finishing up my Sketchbook Project 2012. I really enjoyed letting loose and experimenting with this project. I started it at a time when I literally hadn't drawn a thing in MANY months. I hit a major creative slump last year, and the combination of this and the PiBoIdMo challenge really whipped me into shape - and unlike how I feel about physical exercise (hee hee) I LIKED it! Getting started was tough, but once I marked up a few pages, images just poured right out. I played with technique and style. I didn't worry much about making mistakes - they just turned into happy accidents.
I encourage anyone interested in trying the Sketchbook Project to just do it. The book was a lot shorter this year than the 2011 books, so that made it way less intimidating for me. I can't wait to go visit the books on tour with other artist friends too. Go check it out here.
For the sparse amount of free time I've had this is the most productive I've felt in at least a year! I've been loving the PiBoIdMo challenge this year. Not only the amazing posts from all the guest authors and illustrators (thank you Tara Lazar!) but the actual results! Halfway through the challenge and I'm going strong. I feel like once I took the pressure off myself to finish certain goals, the ideas are just flowing out for the challenge. I know hard work is ahead when I try to revisit these ideas and write picture book drafts, but I'm looking forward to picking from so many different directions.
I'm also happily working away in my Sketchbook Project. Another place that I've just let loose without worrying too much about the results. I really have been missing out by not painting in my sketchbooks. It's really quite freeing!
I think this falls under the category of "Too much of a good thing"! Sketch plus Photoshop.
I've just recently updated my Zazzle shop with lots of fun Halloween products. Check it out!
Pumpkin Trick or Treat bag
here.
Scary Spider Trick or Treat bag
here.
Scary Spider T-shirt
here.
Pumpkin T-shirt
here.
I signed up for Sketchbook Project 2012, choosing the theme 'Treehouse'. I keep waffling on my approach. But even the waffling is good for me. I'm filling pages in my regular sketchbook with ideas for the cover, spreads, and possibly a very loose story arc. Who knows what the final product will be, but it's still great exercise for my drawing hand (and brain).
I'm also spending a little time working on my long-suffering picture book dummy. I hope to bring a revised version to a critique group next month. I have 4 pages to edit, and cover sketches to play with before then. I used to wonder at author/illustrators telling tales of how many years it would take for projects to reach fruition. Oh, how I totally understand that now!
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| Tracy Bishop |
Tracy Bishop and I headed up to San Francisco last week to view the 2011 Sketchbook Tour. I forgot to enter one number into my nav system, so we ended up in the design district, right next to an amazing cafe. We had the best potato salad and avocado BLT on foccacio ever!!! Luckily after some searching, we realized our error and made our way to the studio.
We were a little shocked when we walked into the venue. It was very sterile and we weren't allowed to browse the books. You have to request two and wait to get them. We were so unprepared! It's a good thing that there were two of us to come up with names. We had a hard time remembering more than a few artist's books we wanted to see. Tracy put out a quick call on Twitter to discover some more. If you go — bring a list!
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| Jannie Ho's Comic Sketchbook |
I loved holding these books in my hand and seeing the line work! I was surprised how many pages there were to fill! I followed along as
Jannie Ho posted her story, but was still surprised how long it was. What a lot of work! If you missed it, you can read it
here.
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| I'm holding Abigail Halpin's Sketchbook. |
I absolutely love
Abigail Halpin's sketches! If I could wave a magic wand, I'd wish for her skills and style. Her book is beautiful!
1 Comments on Sketchbook Tour 2011, last added: 6/23/2011
Last week's #kidlitart chat on Twitter was all about backgrounds. I think everyone struggles with them, including me. This illo is a case in point. I really struggled with this one and I'm still not sure if I like it yet. This piece was from a
sketch in my Sketchbook Project.
It was so much fun to follow favorite artists as they worked on their Sketchbook Projects last year. I can hardly wait until I get to see their books in person. For a long weekend at the end of March and beginning of April, the Sketchbook Project comes to Portland, Maine's Space Gallery. It's a fairly small venue, and I heard the Brooklyn opening was absolutely packed, so I hope that traveling with a group of friends will let me get my hands on the following artist's books:
Kathy Weller
Jannie 'Chickengirl' Ho
Ann Marie Piantedosi
Crystal Driedger
Elizabeth Caldwell
Laura Zarrin
Kelly Medina
It was a big relief to finally get this project completed and mailed out.
Unfortunately, I forgot to scan the cover. Seriously. It was a collaged bird with the title in a speech bubble. You would have loved it, trust me. Here I sit, red in the face. I can't believe I forgot. Sheesh.
I'm posting the last bits of my Sketchbook in two posts. Below is one of two collages I did. My collage technique is kind of a stream of conciousness type. I just glue down whatever strikes my fancy at the time and repeat the process with paint. It's the polar opposite from my illustration work. I named this one 'Dots' —clever, huh?
What do mice dream of? Cheese, of course.
Day in the Life: Our backyard got skunked.
Towards the end it got harder to come up with what to draw, so I broke out Drawing Lab for some inspiration. Here's some continuous line drawings. Fun, but yikes!
Another Drawing Lab exercise, draw like Dr. Seuss. This was so fun! I used a nifty brush pen I got from my friend Tracy.
Next up, the cover and the last spread.
Myopic
I thought I'd never finish, but here are the final nine sketches I did late last night and early this morning. I'm still having fun with the fast and loose style, but clearly a few of these were forced.
This dog is my favorite one I think out of this last bunch.
Sweet Dreams...
I love it when kitties cover their faces like this.
I'm too sexy for this page....
Fleeing the storm...
16 Comments on Ta-Da! Final Sketchbook Pages, last added: 1/21/2011
Three Generations
Well, today's sketches went mostly to the dogs! I flipped through the sketchbook to see how many blank pages I had left to fill (13) so I started with the ones I scumbled paint on.
Look at this sad, sad group of Corgis!
I love keeping things fast and loose for projects like this. I don't think anyone wants to see if you can do an exact life-like drawing of anything.
I actually think it's harder for most of us to make it nuts and crazy and goofy.
I had fun today. That's the whole point, right?
I love how I laid the paint down for this page. Mind you, I had NO idea what I was going to do until I did it. What freedom!
And it was so simple to close this in with a few distant cat-o-nine tails and a pond.
What do you think this little terrier sees?
Hey Mim...a fish???
Aaaah, the gorgeous, aristocratic sight hounds! My husband really, really wants
a Scottish Deerhound. But here's a scribbly-wiggly gesture drawing of a Greyhound and his beloved red ball instead.
In between all of my nursing efforts this week, I've been busy filling my sketchbook. Since collage has been such an important part of my life this past year, I knew I had to include it. I've painted one collage in the actual book, but this one I created on a separate piece of watercolor paper. I plan to glue it onto one of the pages. The problem is I love it so much that I want to keep it.
I saw the above quote on someone's blog (so sorry I forgot whose). It's the Oregon state motto, apparently. It holds so much meaning for me this year as I try to grow my business. This morning I read a blog post by
Kelly Rae Roberts that goes along with this quote. It seems I'm being given signposts lately (from Oregon). I want to lighten my husband's load financially, so growth is very important.
I've been trying to come up with a word for this year. Last year's was 'Simplicity'. I didn't achieve that in quite the way I was expecting, but I did find myself letting go of a lot of things that weren't so important. I'm wishing housekeeping wasn't one of them, though;-) This year, the word isn't coming to me so easily, but I think it's going to be 'ACTION'. I'll let that sit for awhile and see how it feels.
With family members dropping like flies with the flu, I'm nursing and sketching as fast as I can.
Not sure I'll make it, but I'll do my best.
I've been a very busy girl today trying to buckle down and get the sketchbook done before Saturday's deadline. In between sketches I finished up Raven Maven #2.
Here's the front of her with a raven sticker and the #2 on her dress in the middle of the stamped heart. Her blue wings and shoelaces have glitter which doesn't show well.
The blue spiral sticker has glittler too. Once again her head was drawn and painted with acrylic paint and colored pencils.
Her head is tilted upwards because she's such a dreamer! She's going to trip over her laces if she's not careful.
Here's the back view with the #2 to signify she's the second one in a series, and my signature is below.
Here she is hanging out at the studio. I wish the glitter showed better.
She insisted on wearing Chucks too ;)
Yesterday I did this sideways peek-a-boo page of a kitty daydreaming about a yummy mouse.
Click to embiggen any or all pics!
I, for one, would love to see an alligator surfing…from a distance, that is.
The pattern of lost socks and a bad pun "Needler in a Haystack". Sorry, I couldn't resist.
My sketches are going back to doodles at this point. I don't mind. For this entire project, I've just drawn what I felt like at the time. I'm just enjoying the simple act of putting pencil to paper. My goal is to continue this practice after this project is complete.
Everyone got pajamas for Christmas except for my husband. He didn't want any, go figure. I was able to use my mom's serger, until the blades came loose. I then had to set up shop in my bedroom on a tv tray. It took a couple of late nights, but I did it!
Here's my youngest sporting his latest do—the Faux Hawk. I had to make his top twice because the pattern sizing was way off. He'd still like this to be longer, but I'm done for now. You can see a little bit of my psychedelic pjs behind his chair. I love these!!! I never want to take the off. They're the warmest clothes I own.
It's almost impossible to get my boys to model clothes at this point. I had to sneak this shot. A mama does what she has to to get the job done. After I made them, I realized that they look a little bit like Star Trek Next Generation. I swear that was an accident ;-)
Even the dog got pajamas. He's always shivering so he needed some! Here he is in his Toy Story bean bag chair over the heating vent. He's been there all morning. Tough life.
My favorite page of the Sketchbook Project!
I'm really excited that Kelly Rae Roberts is offering here ebook for a special one day only price of $89 (regularly $140)!! I had wanted to take her class when she taught it last year, but couldn't fit it in. Luckily, she later offered it as an ebook, so I bought it and read it last summer. I'm always interested in how successful people became successful and this book delivered on that. My goal is to implement more of her suggestions this year.
If you've been thinking about buying it, today is the day! Click the button on the left to order. (This is an affiliate link).
Here are a couple more Sketchbook pages. I feel like I'm running out of steam with this lately, but it has meant so much to me creatively. My sketching has improved with this regular practice.
It's been fun to treat this space as a finished product. Instead of freezing me up, it's had the opposite effect. I haven't sketched like this in ages! Most of my sketches in the past have been created for the sole purpose of filling my portfolio or completing a job. This has been just for fun with the bonus of feeding my portfolio.
I went to an old friend's house today for homemade soup and a play day.
It was so good for me to get out of my own space and just DRAW.
It didn't hurt that she has an adorable, loveable dog named Harry who is enamored with me.
The feeling is mutual.
Plain old Bic pencil as my tool, image inspired by the latest L.L.Bean catalog.
I made up the mistletoe-hangy-thingy.
Who doesn't love a puppy?
xo♥
Sketchbook Project 2011: Thumbelina
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congratulations! Your drawings are beautiful!
Yay Gina!It will be fun to find your sketchbook during the tour. I need to make a list of all the one's I definitely want to look at!