Hello Beautiful “arttrekkers”!
Here's your weekly summary and some new ideas to sit with and some gentle “homework” in the form of creative invitations and quests. As always, remember to ask yourself “What was my PLAY today?”. See you Friday at the River at 12noon (providing its not Thunderstorming out!) Let's have a backup plan to meet at my studio in case of severe weather. I’ll keep you posted on our chat.
once again
I hear of somebody who is going to settle down and
do their work,
painting or writing or whatever,
as soon as they get a better light
installed,
or as soon as they move to a new city,
or as soon as they come back from the trip they have been planning,
or as soon as...
it’s simple: they just don’t want to do it,
or they can’t do it,
otherwise they’d feel a burning itch from hell
they could not ignore and “soon”
would turn quickly into “now.”
~Charles Bukowski
Reconsidering the Sketchbook
WHAT KIND OF SKETCHBOOK
do you want to make?
What role will sketchbooks play in your life and your artistic practices? Explore the following link/blog to investigate how some well known artists have used a sketchbook practice and see what inspires you.
Link:
The Sketchbook Ritual:
What are your rituals you are creating around your sketchbook voyage and investigation?
What time commitment feels doable to you for a daily practice?
Would you work better if it was a consistent time every day? Or shifted to meet your needs on a particular day?
Brainstorm ideas around rituals that might work for you and personal structure that fits your needs.
THEN…
PUT IT IN WRITING.
NOW.
LITERALLY
Open your sketchbook to a random page.
Somewhere in your sketchbook write down what ritual/structure you are willing to experiment with. What are you interested in committing to?
make a list, a contract, a schedule…. Whatever format works.
Make it fun and pretty and turn it into ART.
INSPIRATION:
Watch the following video for inspiration. Jot down what inspires you as you listen. Also, check out the other videos by Art21. I love this resource!
Tala Madani (Iranian) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppVm9xAOUDQ
Here's a list of ideas to I started….
Immediate record of thinking process
Some things in the sketchbooks lead to future works
Keep track of ideas quickly - catch them as you can
The materiality of the drawing
Action of hand is related to action of thought
Investigate!!!
Make something into a sketchbook that never was meant to be a sketchbook
CREATIVE INVITATION:
Exercises to investigate marks/hands—
Let's dedicate our “class” sketchbook to simply exploring mark making and image creation through exercises and study. You can designate other sketchbooks with particular intentions OR have your sketchbooks be a combination of these things.
What feels most freeing to you? Easiest?
Sketches must be made from observation or present time. Important to work for direct experience, not from memory/imagination/made up. In our exercises there is always a direct source and that source is acknowledged.
Here are some exercises we went over in class and a few more we will get to at the river.
Directed Scribbling (start scribbling - then I direct : push hard, push light, go fast, go slow, etc)
Make as many different kinds of marks you can on a spread of pages.
Blind contour - Draw what you see (follow the vision)
Gesture drawing -Draw what you ‘feel’ (follow the movement)
One hand does blind contour/ one hand does gesture (switch)
Close your eyes- Draw what you hear. Document sound through movement. 2 hands at once.
Wrapped in string exercise (finding volume)
Creative Quest
FILL up one of your mini one page sketchbooks. (all 8 pages!) Complete it however you want. Give yourself some parameters if it helps you or total freedom if you prefer.
DAILY PRACTICE
One mark a day.
Begin a page in your sketchbook that is dedicated to “one mark a day”. Make one, and only one, mark on this page daily. You can define a mark in any way you like. Have no intention of what you are creating or what the outcome will be. Your only task to is add one more mark every day. If you want, you can document your journey by taking a photo of each days page so you can witness the progression. Its quite fun to do this.
Toodles & Doodles!
Jeneen