Most of the other Urban Sketchers fill their sketchbooks predominately with sketches and the occasional note. But that is not enough for me... I want my pages to tell the FULL story of my day!! This is resulting in an obsessive attempt to sketch every event in my day – quite a challenge under normal traveling conditions...but when I am surrounded by people(and wonderful artists at that!!!) and just want to spend the whole day talking to them... it is hard. Thankfully, the more I sketch while talking non stop the easier I am finding it!!! Practice helps a lot!
Anyway... Here are my pages from the day before the symposium ..... It was a fun filled day, running into sketchers left, right and centre and struggling to decide what to do and ignoring a headache(I only remember this part of the day now because I recorded it at the time)
This year I wanted to include more collage in my sketchbook so prior to my trip I was experimenting with a layout for my opening page for each day. The side of the page is a print out from a book of Portugal tile patterns(I adjusted the colour so that I could write over it) I LOVE maps but do find them a bit tedious to do – so I allocated the left side of this first spread for the map so that the book makes sense even if I never get around to drawing them. This year most of my maps have been (and will be) completed at home!
I wasn’t particularly happy with any of these individual images at the time but the most important thing is the page as a whole (the whole not the parts)... Just keep going, get someone to write on your book, change colour of your pen etc. All games that you can play to make a fun page. Of course I don’t mind those sketches now....
Ok – here is a ‘proper’ urban sketch. Sitting alongside the wonderful artist Omar - http://omar-paint.blogspot.com/
I love mixing up full page single views with the more random (food) pages. I find page after page of a single sketch in my own book a bit boring... More than 3 pages without a cup of tea and we have a sketchbook crisis on our hands!?!
My favourite page for the day... I was definitely in a complusive sketching mood and didn’t really have time to do a proper view sketch before our lunch arrived so just chose a corner of the buidling near us..I am always thinking to myself “what can I sketch – what time do I have to do it” And of course I sketched my lunch as well to record the event. I stuck the docket done and then continued sketching over the top. I should have gone and had a nap but I went to a tearoom(on my own) instead and wanted to devote a whole page to that so filled up the right hand side of this spread with another selective view from my table. While drawing I discovered a sketcher in view so I popped over to see who it was. It was Eduardo from Brazil!
Last week just before posting this page I decided to add more new gamboge to the building (it wasn’t actually that colour...but no one will ever know!?!) the extra colour which I then added to the top of the trees and the fountain structure really pulled the page together.
Tearoom sketch was nothing that special as I was keen to have my tea and go over and talk to Eduardo....but nice to have a simpler page. I made the mistake of not getting the tearoom card at the beginning so couldn’t fit it on my page. The sugar packet is a classic!!
Off to talk to Eduardo and Joao who he was meeting. After swapping sketchbooks I realised I didn’t have much time till I was to meet 2 more sketchers, Paul and Orling – to go out for a sketch! So I did another quick sketch of a single doorway...knowing that I would have a blank single page to fill at some stage. While I was sketching the great view below I was thinking about what I would do to fill it....so I bravely attempted to sketch my sketching companions. So you can see that I am thinking about my sketchbook all day... it is a game with me – “can I fit one more sketch in????” Crazy girl – I never stop!
A great view.... Deserved a nice double page spread!
Sketching my dinner despite feeling rather unwell with a headache – it was a way of distracting my mind and telling myself that I was ok (if you can sketch your headache can’t be that bad!) Very rushed loose outline of the gang at dinner...not sure I would have attempted this if I was feeling normal as my inner critic would have prevented me!
What a long post... so much goes into my sketchbook that each page has many stories attached to it... One of the reasons why I am addicted to sketching and recording my life in a little book!
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