End of November Sketching Notes

End of November Sketching notes

This month involved a couple of different exercises for sketching: an imaginary one-eyed monster in colored pencil, a combination portrait of my two sons in charcoal pencil and a building in a landscape (Dover Castle, England) in pastels. All were a challenge in their own ways, both in content and in the material used.

The challenge of doing a one-eyed monster was that I usually do not draw things from my imagination, much less monsters. So in trying to visualize a monster, and then a one-eyed monster, I thought of what does a monster mean to us and why do we have monsters and are they imaginary or do we indeed have some real ones. Then my thoughts continued with a monster with one eye and the ones that were in myths. The first that came to mind are the Cyclopes in Greek and Roman mythology. The next monster on my list was “Mike” from the 2001 Walt Disney movie, Monster, Inc. So one type of monster was very scary and fearful, and the other was one with friendly attributes. I decided to pursue the “scary” monster for my drawing, but really did not know where to start, except with one eye (given in the directions for the drawing exercise). While defining a monster to myself, I thought also about our inner monsters and how they can be “one-eyed” or those with one focus. My drawing became a monster that evolved out of a scribble – the eye first and then the other parts, several hands, and a flask for collecting the dreams of others, leaving them without hope. That probably is my biggest fear is not having hope and dreams to follow – so that became my monster’s activity. I named the monster a “dream snatcher” (http://www.flickr.com/photos/katjulin/6318780554/in/photostream).

The second drawing is a combination of two portraits of my two sons. It is from a photograph that I took when I went out to visit them in Los Angeles and we walked out to the end of the Santa Monica pier and we stood awed by the Pacific Ocean. I titled it “Two Brothers Gazing at the Pacific Ocean” (http://www.flickr.com/photos/katjulin/6372963603/in/photostream). I have not worked in charcoal pencil since the 70s so it was an effort to try it again. I like how it creates contrasts of dark and light and will work with it more.

For this week’s drawing, our group was to use pastels. I have been trying different techniques with pastels – smudging and just sketching and this week, I kept to the sketch technique. I wanted to do architecture in a landscape, so I chose a photograph that I had taken this summer while traveling in England. It is of “Dover Castle”( http://www.flickr.com/photos/katjulin/6408682825/). I do like the colors of pastels and intend to also work more in this medium too.

It is inspiring to be working in a drawing group, because it keeps me obligated to turn in at least one drawing a week, based on the theme or assignment for that week. Being in this drawing group has helped me keep working in art (since it is easy to not find time, because there are so many other things to do too). The assignments have been varied and it has been interesting to be trying different mediums over the year. It is a drawing group that is doing a drawing a week for 52 weeks and it will end this December. I have enjoyed the different artists in the group and hope to keep in touch with them. Some of them are working on a traveling journal together, of which I am one, and it is traveling around and over to Germany as it is being worked on by members of the drawing group. It will be interesting to see the final art journal with all of our entries.

As the drawing group ends after 52 weeks of drawing together, I would like to keep doing a drawing a week and more as I can. I am also looking at posting more in Urban Sketchers - there are weekly theme assignments on their blog site too (http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbansketches/). Their theme for this past week was old buildings/new uses (http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbansketches/discuss/72157628042033541/). Now they are introducing themselves this week - old and new members, so it is interesting to see who is involved in drawing urban environments (http://www.flickr.com/groups/urbansketches/discuss/72157603435751639/page2/). This blog will help keep me working as I make entries to talk about the work. I look forward to more feedback too as I go.

Well, on to Week 48 of the drawing group work. More next week.

Becoming natural with using blogs . . . .

Again, I start to try to use this blog area. Life is so busy that it is difficult to be consistent in keeping up a blog. But I am seeing the value in it and will try to add something to this blog more regularly.

What inspired me is Dagi's blog. http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/2011/11/drawing-lab-2011-landschaftenlandscapes.html
I have been participating in a Drawing Lab that Jeannie (http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog/) put together for 52 weeks (for the year of 2011). In looking at her blog, Jeannie has a really nice landscape drawing on it below her books and photos (scroll down). For week 43, we all did a landscape and Dagi posted some on her blog website. It was neat to see it being shared and this gave me more encouragement to start working on my own blog site. The landscape drawings are very nice, and Dagi's adds a nice contrast as being a fresh looking sketch from her window at work. It is spontaneous with a lot of feeling. i like pencil sketches for their narrative value and detail.

More to come next week.

Getting started again - 52 weeks of an online Drawing Lab

To keep myself on a regular schedule of doing some sketching and drawing, I decided to sign up for an online Drawing Lab. This one was intriguing because it lasts for 52 weeks - the whole year of 2011, with a required drawing once a week.
You can see some of my posts for the Drawing Lab weekly drawings on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/katjulin/

This is some information on the Drawing Lab that I am doing the drawings for:

Drawing Class by Jeannie (Jewelry by Jeannie) ..... She says.....
"What if I told you, you can draw? What if I told you, drawing is fun-not scary? What if I told you I'm going to teach you how to draw this year like a real artist? You might be saying to yourself right now, "I can't draw," "I'm not creative." Nonsense, I said that too.

Having a foundation of basic drawing skills will help you in all of your creative work. In the same way that running a marathon can give you skills in perseverance, discipline, and focus which affect all areas of your life. So learning to draw teaches you to "see" and focus, developing your hand."

Go here for more information on the class.

http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog/2010/12/13/drawing-lab-2011-52-weeks/

February
I have good intentions to try to work on this blog and post ideas for discussion with others about drawing and sketching, but my schedule has been very busy. I will try to make time this spring. Another year has past?!? Where does that time go?

May 2010

Time goes fast. Hard to believe it is halfway through 2010. The last couple of years have been of discovery within and making attempts to take the time to create more.
Strength, belief in self, and conviction, tenaciously following through with my dreams, is what I need to do now.

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs

Analogies for a professional blog - presentation vs discussion

This has been a difficult two weeks for me coming to terms with my professional "blog." As a first experience in writing on line, I realize that there is an audience. In writing this web log, I would like to share content that is substantive and of value to the reader. This feeling that I need to be putting a well-thought out essay on line each week has been intimidating for me and has slowed me down considerably. I know I am able to write about interesting ideas, but I have not found the time for doing short papers with well-thought out ideas. As a professor at a college, there are many different responsibilities involving teaching and advising students, service on university committees, service to the professional field, and professional/scholarly work. Even after teaching for over twenty-five years, I still have not adjusted to finding the time, or managing my time in a way to do all of it well.

Therefore, the addition of a web log to these activities has been difficult. I do see the value in the experience of doing the journal or log on line and will continue to attempt to integrate it into my schedule. In trying to make an entry every week, my plans have changed to include ideas that are in progress or beginning in their development. Instead of well-thought out studies in essays, that might be presented as ideas in a poster session at a conference, my new analogy for this writing is like a transcript of a dialogue in a café. It would be similar to sitting down with a colleague over a cup of coffee sharing an idea. As one does this, in an informal setting such as a café, the ideas are able to be more fluid and flexible, open to change and to collaboration.

As I continue this web log on design sketching, I will be dropping in to my “web café” to share a thought or two on what I have been working on that week. I welcome comments and look forward to being invited to someone else’s blog site to read about their ideas on design process and sketching/drawing and other related areas. My main objective at this time is to focus on the relationship between sketching and understanding the use of a variety of places by people in a variety of ways. How the designer perceives the place is reflected in the design sketch. The sketch can also attempt to indicate how the people perceive the place through their use of it. The sketch can also be thought of as a type of building evaluation by the designer. While observing the place to do the sketch, the designer’s drawing can indicate actual use and include comments on that use. As I continue contributing thoughts to this web log, the relationship between sketching and observation, perception and evaluation will be some of the ideas that I intend to expand upon.

My first sketch posting is of my downtown. It is an observation of a north side section of Main Street in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. As a sketch, it attempts to show an overall view of several buildings in a row. It is basically an observation of the basic building shapes. Its value is simple at this stage: observing existing forms. Further work for it would be in the area of including people in the sketch and expressing more feeling in the sketch (to indicate the designer’s impression of the place and its use).

Visual Notes

My week has been a busy one and I do not have as much as I would like for this week's entry.

Over the last few months, I have been looking over the literature on sketching to find several interesting references to use in exploring the area of design sketching and its value and application to the design process. In attempting to take the broadest view, I find useful the description/model given by Norman Crowe and Paul Laseau in their book, Visual Notes for Architects and Designers. Although it was published in 1984 (Van Nostrand Rienhold), the ideas presented are still relevant today, over twenty years later.

Crowe and Laseau remark that the value of design sketches or visual notes can be integrated into the creative design process in three areas: recording information, analysis of information, and solving design problems.

For the current study that I am doing, my focus is on the first area of recording information and more specifically observing environments. Design sketching is a complex area of study and covers a wide range of drawing types and disciplines. As I explore this area, I am beginning with observational sketches as a focus area. My own work in sketching will be doing observational sketches of Main Street buildings in the city center of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I will be posting some of these sketches from time to time. As a new activity of doing a web log, I am slow and hesitant but intrigued by the medium for communication with others interested in this topic.

In trying to describe the experience of place, I am using all senses along with the visual aspects in sketching, including notes on sounds, smells and the touch of weather (there have been some very cold days out there sketching over the last month). My thoughts are somewhat disjointed as I write in this Friday’s log and I hope to organize them better as I continue in this endeavor.