On-Location Comics: A Sequence of Being Alive

 

4/21/24 Maple Leaf and Northgate

A couple of months ago when I first viewed Drewscape’s video about how he makes urban sketches as if they are comics, it blew my brain wide open. A short time later, he made another brief video about an activity he calls “real-time” autobiographical comics –basically sketching on location and completing a diary comic on the spot instead of further refining it in the studio later. While I’ve had intermittent interest in comics for a few years, what Drew was talking about opened my mind in a new and different way.

As is my habit whenever a creative idea grabs me, I dove in deep, first on the Internet (which was mostly unsatisfying) and then in books. I’ve had my nose buried in three of Scott McCloud’s books ever since: Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics. Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art, which preceded McCloud’s books, has long been considered “the bible” of comics creation. However, I think McCloud not only goes deeper and wider in his probe of all things comics-related; I also find his books to be more readable and less academic than Eisner’s.

Other books I am planning to re-read are Lynda Barry’s Making Comics, Syllabus and Picture This. I had initially devoured these “bibles” of autobiographical comic-making a few years ago when I was working on developing imaginative drawing skills.

Although I’ve read a few graphic novels that I’ve enjoyed, I’m hardly well-read or knowledgeable of comics, especially fictional stories. For example, I’m not sure I’ve ever read an entire action/adventure superhero-type comic book. As always, my primary interest is in urban sketching, and my fascination is with how it can be approached as a non-fiction comic – a form of autobiographical comic.

4/24/24 Maple Leaf and Northgate

Throughout my reading of McCloud’s books, I kept getting hung up about two aspects of comic-making that he believes are integral: the “sequential” nature of comic art and the “story” aspect. A comic tells a story through a sequence of drawings (and usually, but not always, with words). Yet when sketching on location without the opportunity to edit or rearrange panels later, it is very difficult to know what the sequence should be or what the “story arc” will be (in a traditional fictional way).

McCloud is very clear about one thing: The medium of comics is not defined by content. Any type of content can be presented in comic form if the result falls within the definition that his vast research (not to mention geeky pondering) has led to:

Comics (n.) plural in form, used with a singular verb. 1. Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.

I could have chosen to be like Drew and simply enjoy sketching on location with a comic approach (he doesn’t discuss the concepts that trouble me; he just happily sketches). But I’m too much of a geek myself and maybe also a bit of an academic: If anything could be comics, then I wanted to understand the comics genre enough to find a way to make comics from urban sketches. (I also enjoy the study to find the answer.)

It was obvious from both McCloud’s and Eisner’s books that sequence is a key criterion to qualify as comics. McCloud goes so far as to state that single-panel comics appearing frequently in newspapers (he showed The Family Circus as an example), which typically include a drawing with words, technically do not qualify as comics because one drawing is not a sequence.

4/28/24 Maple Leaf

If I made a series of related urban sketches (all from the same location and within a small span of time, for example) and put them with words, would that qualify as comics? Drew would probably say yes, and I wanted to, but I was troubled by the term “deliberate sequence” in McCloud’s definition. If I rearranged the sketches, wouldn’t my page of panels have the same effect? I might have a common theme, but if there’s no story arc to determine the sequence, it’s not a deliberate sequence, is it? Hmmm.

4/29/24 Northgate

I kept reading, and the answer came in McCloud’s second book, Reinventing Comics: the Evolution of an Art Form, which continues where Understanding Comics left off. I realized that I had been taking the term “sequence” too literally – a series in a particular order such as A, then B, then C. Showing a simple example, McCloud indicates that a “sequence” does not necessarily have to follow a story arc or logic:

For even a few simple lines, when placed in sequence, can capture the rhythm of the unbidden images our eyes encounter every day.

In the very next panel (all of McCloud’s books are written in an ingenious comics form), he puts to rest the other aspect that I had found troubling:

The rhythm, not of a narrative, a story, or a play put on for our benefit, but of the simple experience of being alive on Earth.

From Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud
(apologies for the poor image; the book will not lie flat in my scanner,
so I had to shoot it with my phone)

What is an urban sketch if not a drawn observation of the simple experience of being alive?

And with that, I felt satisfied: My urban sketches – the simple stories from my walks – can be comics, too.

Geek-worthy study

Diary Comic Challenge Follow-up

 

4/22/24 I paused Fran's recorded Facebook yoga class to draw these poses.

As reported mid-month, I gave myself a challenge to draw a diary comic daily for the 30 days of April. Although I completed the challenge, some “comics” were not much more than single panels of sketches accompanied by words. I tried to up my game the second half of the month by working toward a story arc in each comic or at least some kind of narrative. Again, some were hardly worthy of being deemed “comics” (reading Scott McCloud’s books has significantly raised the esteem of the comic genre in my mind). However, I did learn a lot from my practice, and I think it shows in these, which are the best of the second half of April.

4/24/24 Drawn from memory and imagination

In addition to the regular practice, an important goal of the self-challenge was to see if I even liked making diary comics. Indeed, I enjoyed it very much and intend to continue – maybe not necessarily daily but often enough to maintain the habit. As long as I continue to grow creatively and learn from it, any activity is worth doing.

Drawn from imagination and photo reference.

(Some comics I am not sharing because they are, after all, my diary and therefore personal. However, I probably will share some eventually as my exploration of diary comics continues.)

5/1/24 I didn't get around to making a comic on April 30, so I finished up on May 1. Although these were drawn mostly from memory, for the last one I Googled "dog peeing" images to check my work. Studying the images impressed me! Dogs keep their heads low to shift more weight to the front and improve their balance -- just like I do in some yoga poses. Drawing from close observation always results in learning!

Seattle Chinese Garden for International USk Week

 

5/1/24 Seattle Chinese Garden

When I looked at my blog to see when I had last sketched at Seattle Chinese Garden, I was surprised to find that it was six years ago. I think USk Seattle has met there since, but I must have missed that outing. In any case, it felt familiar yet fresh to be back there again with other sketchers.

Since the garden’s annual Peony Festival is next weekend, we were all hoping we’d see some blooms, but our recent weeks of cold must have discouraged the flowers. I know how they feel, since I was fully dressed for winter – sweater, down parka, gloves – and I was still chilly from the brisk wind, even though the sun was out. As a result, my choice of sketch subjects on Wednesday morning were determined by whether I could stand in the sun.

I began with a curved pavilion rooftop where Tom was sketching (upper right, top of post) and a peek of the “Dragon Seeker” stone sculpture (lower right), which was made in Thailand more than a century ago. (I sketched more of the carp the first time I visited the garden in 2015).

Wandering through different parts of the garden, I came upon a bamboo grove with lovely sunlight filtering through. Of course, a scene like this begs for watercolor, to which I sighed and conceded. As usual, I felt the obligatory tug to use a medium that would be a struggle but that also compels me (below).

Bamboo at Seattle Chinese Garden

Relieved to be done with that, I continued wandering the well-tended garden and made two more additions to my main comic-y spread. It’s always satisfying to put a few finishing borders and captions on.

I busted open a fresh Uglybook this week. The blue
pages are darker than I prefer for the toned way I like
to work in these, but my current comic format is more
flexible, so we'll see how it goes.

In case you can’t read the sticker (made by Kate), May 1 – 7 is International Urban Sketchers Week (see the hashtag #USkWeek2024). Sketch groups around the world are having events this week to raise awareness of USk and, of course, to sketch together as we did.

Caffe Ladro with Soundtrack

4/26/24 Caffe Ladro, Roosevelt neighborhood

After sketching at Caffe Ladro last week, I looked back at the sketches I had made the last time I was there. The subject matter I chose was mostly the same, as was the basic style (using colored Uglybook paper in a tonal way). But composing a variety of snippets together on a single page somehow gives them more of a theme, as if they belong together and are not random.

Reading Scott McCloud’s books on comic design has made me more aware of sounds as a part of the medium. Like “BAM!” and “CRACK!” and other noises comic super heroes make as they bash their enemies, all sounds in comics must be evoked with written words. Caffe Ladro was playing a steady ‘70s soundtrack that day, so I put some lyrics in the borders.

I don’t know if McCloud would say that I’m making comics, but my urban sketches have taken on a different dimension influenced by a comic style. As someone who was never interested in comics as a kid (let alone as an adult), it surprises me that the style appeals to me so much. But like anything in art, inspiration sometimes comes from unexpected sources if we stay open to it.

This dog didn't make it into the comic, but he was still worth sketching.

H Mart Food Court

 

4/25/24 H Mart food court, Lynnwood

Roy and I are both on fire with diary comics. This time we met at the H Mart food court in Lynnwood for lunch, comic talk and real-time comic-making. My goal was to look for a visual story and create the story arc on the fly, but I didn’t find one. It’s OK, though, because I had a lot of fun sketching small food court scenes and arranging them in a visually appealing, comic-y way. I think of any drawing like that as good practice for when I do see a story.

Sorry that I had to cut the spread to make the images large enough to be readable. In this case, it doesn’t matter if you read left to right first or top to bottom. But if sequence were important (as it should be for a true comic), I couldn’t necessarily cut it as I did. You can see the full spread below.

Technical note: Sometimes I feel cramped by the page-spread size of my usual A6-ish-size Uglybook, so this time I grabbed a larger-size Uglybook to see how that feels. It’s exactly double the size, and its opened-up landscape format has a long and narrow comic strip feel. I wouldn’t take this size on my walks, but it’s ideal for places like cafes and food courts where I have a table.

The full spread and the media I used: Pilot Juice and other acrylic pens and Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Dual Pens.

Downtown Mill Creek

 

4/23/24 Downtown Mill Creek

After a meeting with Gabi Campanario in Mill Creek, I had an opportunity to explore this small suburb about 20 miles north of Seattle. Starting at the Saw Mill Café where we had lunch, I wandered down Main Street and around the town center. A short walk away is the entrance to North Creek Trail, with the creek below and surrounded by trees. The town was so peaceful and quiet that it felt like 6 a.m.

By 2 p.m. when I was getting ready to leave, it was warm enough to take the top down. On my Interstate 5 drive north, I saw a stunning view of Mt. Baker, which I can’t see at all from Seattle. On the way home, Mt. Rainier was out in all her glory. How fortunate I felt to live in an area where I can see two spectacular peaks coming and going.

Yowza! That was one fabulous avocado toast!

About that avocado toast mentioned in my sketch notes? Holy-moly, check it out at right! It’s a far cry from the usual piece of bread with a few green slices!

Technical notes: I meant to sketch these vignettes with a comic-like design, but it turned into one of my least attractive attempts at that. I tried to cram too much on the page and ended up with a mess. In addition, my color choices weren’t the best. I like the bright red Flair Dual Felt Pen, but the green Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Dual Tip Marker couldn’t stand up to the red or the yellow Uglybook.

The Shapes of South Lake Union

 

4/27/24 South Lake Union

Spheres selfie

Although the wind and drizzle made Saturday morning feel colder than 51 degrees, USk Seattle made a good turnout at South Lake Union. With rain in the forecast for the throwdown time, I was glad I had gotten a tip from Gabi about The Stumpery, which has a large sheltered area. Part of Amazon’s Urban Arboretum near the Spheres, The Stumpery is a collection of old-growth cedars that originated in the Olympic Peninsula. Some as old as 500 years when they died, the stumps attracted several sketchers (one made a cameo appearance next to the Space Needle in my sketch).

The star of the sketch outing was the vintage Elephant Super Car Wash sign. Amazon received the sign from car wash owner Bob Haney after the business closed in 2020. A beloved Seattle icon for more than 60 years, the elephant gave several sketchers an opportunity for a pop of pink.

In my favorite way lately, I walked around the South Lake Union area dominated by Amazon buildings and tried to capture a variety of small shapes and textures (top of post). Although the Amazon Spheres were another favorite subject among sketchers, I had sketched them often enough in the past that I didn’t feel compelled to sketch them again. Instead, I made a selfie reflected in the Spheres’ geodesic glass panes.

By the time I filled the spread, my gloveless hands were starting to complain. I retreated to Kitanda Coffee to warm them up and finish writing the captions on my urban sketching comic page.

Ameya, Natalie and me at Shake Shack.

After the outing, Natalie and I stopped for lunch at Shake Shack, where we met Ameya. He had missed the throwdown, so it was fun to share sketches over lunch and do a little more sketching as we chatted.

4/27/24 Shake Shack with Natalie and Ameya. (In case you're wondering, SLUT stands for South Lake Union Trolley.)

Despite the cold and rain, it was a terrific day of sketching with my tribe in a part of downtown that’s full of dynamic urban shapes.

Metro Market Comics: Real Time and Memory

4/21/24 Crown Hill Metro Market

When Ching and I got together last week, it turned into an opportunity for both a real-time diary comic (Drewscape’s term for sketching on location with a comic approach) and a memory-based one. The first spread (above) is the “story” of things I saw at Crown Hill’s Metro Market café as we chatted and snacked.

Later that day when I was taking a walk, I started thinking about an encounter we had at the café (below). My page layout isn’t too pretty, but I’m pleased that the spread is a sequence of scenes forming a story arc. In addition, the text and images provide complementary information without being redundant. Reading the classic book about the comics genre, Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, I’m learning that those elements are central to the definition of comics.

Yay – a successful diary comic!

4/21/24 comic diary from memory

Review: Paper Mate Flair Dual Felt Tip Pens

 

Flair Dual Felt Tip Pens (I unceremoniously tossed the blister packaging, so the product is presented in the raw.)

The Paper Mate Flair and I go way back – all the way to the late ‘60s (it came out in 1966). It was the first felt-tip marker I had ever used. Available only in black, blue and red, its rich, vibrant ink seemed leaps and bounds better than the crappy, leaky ballpoints of the era (at least the ones that I had access to). My piano teacher used a red one to notate my lessons, I had all three colors, and we were both delighted to have these revolutionary, new pens.

Although I think I continued to use Flairs through the ‘70s, especially after they started coming in many more colors, eventually they were superseded by gel ink, nylon points and other pens of better quality and brighter colors. By our standards now, the basic Flair felt pen was (and still is) exactly that – basic. Although it isn’t stellar, it stands out for its longevity: Other than minor changes to its barrel design, the Flair seems the same as it was in the ‘60s.

One flaw of the venerable Flair is that the felt tip mushed down quickly under my heavy hand (which was heavy even as a preteen) – much more quickly than the ink ever ran out. At some point, I recall a “point guard” was added to the tip (“Won’t mush down!”), but I can’t recall it making much of a difference. Anyway, I hadn’t used a Flair in decades, nor had I kept up with any newfangled developments, if any, the Flair might have had.

Suddenly one day on Instagram, a friend showed some work he had made using Flair Dual Felt Tip Pens – and one of the dual tips was a brush tip! Given my weakness for all things brush-like, I couldn’t order my pack of 16 colors fast enough!

The nostalgic part of me was relieved to see that even though the barrel is longer than the standard Flair’s to accommodate the dual tips, the basic design is mostly the same as the one I remember from my youth. The slender, well-balanced barrel is easy to hold and doesn’t add excessive bulk to my minimal sketch bag.

0.7mm tip

brush tip

Both the brush tip and the 0.7mm tip look like the are made of the same felty material that Flair is known for. I’m not positive about this, but I think the white cross icon on the end of the 0.7mm cap has remained unchanged. (I looked for images of vintage Flairs online to confirm, and while there are plenty on eBay, none showed the end of the cap.)

Iconic white cross still appears on one cap.

The palette of 16 colors (the largest set I could find) is OK for basic markers. I would have added a light gray and a brown and swapped out a couple of the similar peach/pink/carmine hues.

Flair Dual Felt Tip Pen swatches in Hahnemuhle Akademie watercolor sketchbook

Since the inks are water-soluble, I made swatches in a Hahnemühle sketchbook and gave them a swipe with a waterbrush. Water-solubility is decent, at least on this watercolor-sized paper; I can’t get as good a wash as these on Uglybook paper.

I wasn’t too concerned about either the color range or water-solubility, though, because I had in mind a limited and specific use: Simple, cartoonish sketches of the type I have been making to practice diary comics in Uglybooks. I had been using black brush pens for this task, such as my favorites, the Uni Pin, the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Fude Pen with a “firm medium” brush tip and the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. As much as I love drawing with them, I often find the tips too broad for lettering on the scale of the small Uglybook A6-size page. With the Flair, I instantly saw that the dual tips would make an ideal, compact combo for thick lines, solid background coloring and fine lettering.

4/22/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood. After the loss of my black Flair, I challenged myself to use the other colors in warm/cool pairs. Since the ink is transparent, the colors are influenced by this Uglybook's strong yellow paper color, but I like the contrast.

Ironically, despite having all 16 color, black became the most useful for those tasks, and I started wishing it were available solo. This wish became more urgent when, after only a week of use, I lost the black Flair while sketching at U Village last week. Also ironically, my biggest disappointment in losing it was that I hadn’t yet photographed how mushed-down the brush tip had already gotten. So the disappointing attribute about Flairs that had made me stop using them decades ago hadn’t changed any more than their iconic appearance: They still mush down under my heavy hand. The 0.7mm tip seems to be holding out, though.

Another drawback is that if you pause the pen point on the page, the ink will feather a bit and may also bleed through. Using it in Uglybooks, this surprised me, because I have not experienced that with most marker-type pens or even juicy fountain pens. The only inks that have bled through Uglybook’s hefty 80-pound paper are Sharpies or oil-based waterproof inks.

If you let the pen point pause on the paper, it can leave
a dot, which then bleeds through (see right image).

Bleed-through from sketch at left.

I hunted online to see if black was available individually, and so far, I’ve come up empty-handed. However, other than for the fun of the hunt (which I can’t underestimate; I certainly enjoy a good sporting hunt), I don’t need to replace the lost black. I’m now challenging myself to use the other 15 colors, and it’s fun to pair them – one cool, one warm – to complement the paper color. Since the comics and other sketches I make in Uglybooks are mostly colorless, using two inks together adds a bit of interest and contrast, especially with the graphic look I am trying to develop. Besides, I have many black Japanese dual-tip brush pens that probably won’t mush down as quickly.

Not ideal in use, but a good value.

While Flair will never be my favorite or the “best” pen for anything, it’s OK for this purpose – as long as I don’t expect the tips to last as long as the ink. And for that, the price is a good value (a lot lower than Tombow Dual Brush Pens and other Japanese brush pens, which I think are more durable). Scrolling through Amazon, I see a lot of inexpensive, dual-tip brush pens available in sets of gazillions of colors. My bet is that they are no better than Flairs (although if some are, I’m eager to hear about them!) and certainly carry no nostalgia benefit, so there’s that.

Unsurprisingly, the Flair Duals reignited my interest in dual-tip markers in general, so I started digging through my stash. I had almost forgotten about a small set of Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Dual Markers. Newish on the market, these pens contain the same waterproof ink as the rest of the Pitt Artist Pen line except that they have a broad brush tip on one end and a fine tip on the other. I’ll probably review these somewhere down the line. Spoiler alert: I like ‘em better than Flairs.

Woman Who Walks Cats

 

4/20/24 diary comic from memory

For the second half of my 30-day self-challenge to make daily diary comics, I have been focusing on developing narrative – whether the content is drawn on location or drawn from memory or imagination. This one from last Saturday is the best example so far of the kind of comics I am aspiring to: written and drawn from memory but based on actual observations and experiences – and no self-absorbed bellybutton gazing.

Walking home through my favorite alley, I met a woman and her two cats. After our brief interaction, I couldn’t wait to get home to draw the diary comic as quickly as possible while the images were still fresh in my memory. My comic compadre Roy and I regularly exchange comics, ideas and resources and discuss the genre. He made the excellent suggestion that my comic would have benefited from a third panel showing the woman and her cats walking away, for example. The three-panel beginning, middle and end is a classic story arc that works well with almost everything. I concur that it would have been better to end with a third image. My limitation in this case was the page size and format. I couldn’t fit another sketch on the page (the other half of the spread had already been used for other sketches), and it didn’t seem “right” visually to put a lone sketch on the next page. Planning sketches on a comic page layout is similar to planning a composition – both of which take practice! But I’m learning and loving the practice.

4/17/24 memory sketch

Speaking of practice, sometimes I make sketches that don’t get as far as becoming comics, but I still benefit from the practice. Shown here is a scene I witnessed on a different walk. Spotting a bunny, a man’s dog suddenly went ballistic, startling everyone involved, including me. It might become a comic someday, but it was important to capture the gestures right after my walk while still fresh.

Walk Comics

 

4/16/24 Mostly sketches made on location during my walk to Northgate, this page spread also includes an imaginary bit at upper left and the purpose of my trip to the optician. I use the FitBit footprint icon the number of steps I clocked, and the number of "active" walking that day to signify that this comic spread represents a walk I took. It is my diary, after all, where I have always tracked health and fitness goals.

Since even before the pandemic, sketching has been a regular part of my daily fitness-walking routine whenever weather permits (and sometimes when it doesn’t). In fact, the potential for a sketch has always been the carrot at the end of my exercise stick.

My sketch subjects haven’t changed – they’re still the mundane bits I find along my walking route. The difference now since I discovered the comic format for urban sketching is that the same sketches have context.

4/17/24 Maple Leaf and Green Lake neighborhoods. It's fun to mix different line widths available with a Flair Dual pen. I'll be reviewing it soon.

Instead of floating singularly on the page, the small sketches are linked by the story of my walk that day. Although it’s not exactly a narrative with a story arc, it shows how, within walking distance, one neighborhood can include both a luxury convertible Porsche and a tent for a homeless individual. Or maybe the story is nothing more than a typical Thursday morning in Maple Leaf when trash is collected and squirrels run by.

4/18/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

4/20/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Maple Leaf’s Most Iconic Intersection

 

4/18/24 The intersection of 88th NE and Roosevelt Way NE, Maple Leaf

Cloud City Coffee was the site of some of my earliest urban sketches, and I’ve sketched there many times since. On a fabulous afternoon last week – it was 62 degrees and sky the couldn’t have been bluer – I noticed that the shop had gotten several new outdoor tables. After its recent remodel that includes a new tented area, the new tables are no longer blocked by parked cars, so I had a better view.

A fresh Uglybook cracked open! I filled the last one in less than 2 weeks!

Behind Cloud City’s iconic sign is an even bigger icon: Maple Leaf’s beloved water tower (also one of my earliest urban sketches). I made a page of small sketches celebrating spring’s arrival (officially recognized as whenever I have my first iced latte al fresco) and possibly Maple Leaf’s most iconic intersection.

Technical note: Although it probably doesn’t look like a comic, I consider this a comic-y diary because I made a more conscious effort to tell a story about this intersection, not just make random sketches of whatever I see. Does it help to seem more comic-y to include commentary as I did? Maybe in a traditional comic, a character (or persona of the author) would be making those comments in voice bubbles, but I also know that some comic artists write text as captions. Super excited about this new format for my urban sketches, I’m having fun trying out different things to make it my own.

Comic Diaries with Roy

 

4/17/24 The panel at upper left was imaginary. The rest of the page spread was sketched on location at Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park. 

My friend Roy has become a comic diary afficionado as I have. We met at Third Place Commons last week to talk about the process, exchange ideas and, of course, make comic pages. Fans of comic artist and urban sketcher Drewscape, we were both taken with his video about “real-time” autobiographical comics. It’s really no different from the kind of urban sketching Roy and I always do, but framing the practice with a comic approach gives context and “story” to drawing whatever we happen to see or experience.

I really admire and aspire to Roy’s sequential narrative and strong graphic appearance. Learning from him, I’m trying to apply more solid blacks to backgrounds, which adds to the comic book look and serves as a compositional tool to aid the viewer’s eye. You’ll see more of my attempts in tomorrow’s post.

Look how comic-booky Roy's page spread looks! I aspire to that -- or my own version of that.