Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

 

The past week has been distressing, to say the least.

When I am agitated and upset, I depend on two things to calm myself: yoga and drawing. To practice yoga, I must inhale and exhale repeatedly, regularly, fully, focusing on making the poses that connect body with mind. To draw, I must focus completely on the form I see and the form I am making, a continual rhythm between body and mind, back and forth, like breathing. They both take my thoughts away from the source of the distress and bring me back to the here and now, my own body and mind.

After reading and viewing too much news, I walked around the neighborhood and made a sketch. Then I came home and unrolled my yoga mat. Inhale, exhale, repeat.

Pushing the Envelope

 

1/4/21 Through our bedroom's French doors.

I’m nothing if not efficient.

To encourage members to keep sketching during these bleakest of weather months ahead, USk Seattle has begun issuing prompts for our monthly “hold-ups” on Zoom. For January, the prompts are to either sketch street furniture (hydrants, lamps, utility poles, mail boxes and such) or use media that are not intended as art materials. (Alternatively, sketchers are always welcome to sketch anything they want as guided by the Urban Sketchers manifesto.)

Scanned image

Thinking about the two prompts for a while, I had intended to sketch the utility pole that dominates our bedroom view using non-art materials: a bright pink envelope that I had pulled out of our recycle bin and grease pencils. (I know that some artists do use them to draw with, but the intended purpose of grease pencils is for writing on glass, metal and other non-porous surfaces, so I decided they would qualify for this challenge.) Then a few days ago, Rob Sketcherman resumed his video series, USk Talks, and featured USk Paris. The group’s challenge to the community was to sketch a window view and include the window’s frame in the composition.

Done: I hit three prompts with one sketch.

(The image above was made with my phone. My scanner [at right] seems to have a problem capturing colors against the bright pink color. The pink is accurate, but the black grease pencil came out weird. I have the same issue when I try to scan the neon orange pages of my colored sketchbook.)

The New Normal

My risk for COVID-19 is no higher than it is for others “of a certain age,” nor is it for Greg. I’ve been so cautious and vigilant since March, perhaps overly so, that I started to wonder if I needed to loosen up. I wouldn’t do anything reckless or foolish to endanger myself or others, but maybe my caution was verging on neurosis. Many Facebook friends seemed to be going about their masked lives with some semblance of normalcy, and I found myself thinking, “I want to feel normal, too.”

Sunny and 72 degrees, it was a gorgeous afternoon – the kind we wait all year for. I had a prescription to pick up, and a favorite Starbucks is right next door to the pharmacy. With umbrella’d tables on a sunny, quiet patio, it has been the location of many sketches made on early summer days, celebrating al fresco weather.

All the way there, I tried to imagine what my new normal would look like: I’d heard that the Starbucks mobile pickup option was nearly contact-free – just order and pay with the app, then walk in when the drink was ready – so I wasn’t too concerned about that part. I was thinking more about the al fresco sketching part. After getting my drink, I could find a table and perch on a chair (sitting not too deeply, and certainly not touching the arms). The table, too, was to be avoided, except to hold my beverage. Oh, the cup – wouldn’t the barista have to hand it to me? So that means I’d have to sanitize my hands first before reaching into my bag for my sketch gear. And if I drank from the cup, I’d have to resanitize again before continuing my sketch (much easier than sanitizing my sketchbook and every pencil, not to mention my entire bag). Should I leave my mask on, in case people passed by too closely on the patio? But then how would I sip?

When I arrived, the patio was void of tables. Hallelujah, I wouldn’t be able to sketch after all! Inside, the barista handed me my beverage cup placed inside a large ceramic mug, which he held by its handle, so he didn’t have to touch my cup at all (at least as far as I could see). Of course, I had to open the door, so I sanitized my hands afterwards anyway.

Driving home happily with the top down, I relished my ability to be normal again.

The new normal.

Grim or Grin

2/24/19 ballpoint pen

After sharing a couple of self-portraits I’d done for selfie Sunday (like this blue one and the one I showed previously), several friends on social media remarked that while they saw resemblance, my usual “sparkle” (as seen in photos) was missing. What they meant was that my selfies show the intense focus required to draw a self-portrait from a mirror image, not my “social” face. From prior attempts, I knew that trying to smile while sketching is difficult – almost impossible. But you know me; I’m always up for a challenge.

For last Sunday’s selfie, I attempted to grin and bear it (the red one). At first I thought I could cheat by drawing my mouth smiling, then move on to the rest of my face with my usual expression of dour concentration. But the problem is that the whole face – not just the mouth – smiles: the eyes (especially the crow’s feet!), the cheek muscles, even the nose. By the end of the sketch, my grin had deteriorated to a grimace, but here it is, folks – as sparkly as you will ever see me in a selfie.

3/3/19 grease pencils

#InkTober2018 Finale: Lessons Learned

10/29/18 Zoka Coffee

Every InkTober I learn something, even if it’s not necessarily what I set as my objective. When I’ve attempted using ballpoint in the past, I didn’t stick with it long enough to learn from the exercise. This year I was hellbent on staying with ballpoint for 31 days, if only out of obstinance. Today, more than 31 sketches later, I’m happy to say that my obstinance paid off. Here’s what I learned:

 

10/28/18

• The modest Bic Stic – the kind I have taken from hotel rooms and filled the kitchen junk drawer with – has become my favorite ballpoint for sketching. The most like “the pencil of pens,” I can vary the pressure and build hatched layers to create values. I actually purchased some very inexpensive Bic Cristals with the intention of using them for InkTober, but very quickly I preferred the Stic, which has a finer point and ever-so-slightly-less-cheesy plastic body.
• A major benefit of ballpoint over every other medium I’ve tried is that it is happy with nearly any kind of paper, no matter how cheap or thin and regardless of surface sizing. Scrap receipts, newsprint, expensive European sketchbooks – they’re all the same to the egalitarian ballpoint. For example, ballpoint enabled me to finally make use of a Shizen Design notebook, which contains paper too thin for most other media. The book’s colorful pages were a bonus during monochrome InkTober when I was craving color.
• If I lose its cap, a Bic won’t dry out, and even if I lose the whole pen, it sets me back about 25 cents at most.

  

  10/23/18

• I daresay ballpoint is the ideal sketch medium to take to Gilligan’s Island (my ongoing hypothetical game of developing the most minimal sketch kit possible). In a pinch, I could bum one off a restaurant server, a hotel clerk, the professor or Mary Ann and sketch happily for a very long time on any paper the island happened to have. (Coincidentally, I came to this same conclusion several years ago when I found myself sketching with a ballpoint during a presentation.)
• While I practiced hatching last year also (with a variety of pens), sticking with one type of pen this year kept me focused and enabled me to discover and appreciate ballpoint’s nuances. I see noticeable improvement in my hatching skills.
• Ballpoint is not versatile enough to cover the wide range of subject matter and time constraints I like to tackle. For example, for a one-minute-or-less sketch (like the one of the fire marshal with the green man bun, which required a brush pen), ballpoint is too fine and slow, and while I enjoy all that hatching, it takes time. It’s unlikely to ever become my favorite medium, but I’m surprised by how much I’ve grown to like it. The Bic has earned a permanent place in my bag.
• Beyond the chosen medium itself, subject matter was another interesting aspect of InkTober. As a daily exercise, it wasn’t always "inspired"; in fact, more often I simply chose something handy in my studio or kitchen. Very often, the object was boring at first glance (that postal scale is not inspiring by any stretch), yet surprisingly, as soon as I began drawing it, I found it fascinating because I was "seeing" it for the first time. Over and over again, it happens: The subject matter becomes much less important than the act of drawing and being fully engaged with the act of drawing. 

10/24/18

I already blogged about sketches made at Starbucks and the SoDo Reserve store; the rest from the week are shown here. The entire month’s sketches are in this Flickr album. Here are my learnings from InkTobers past: 2017, 2016 and 2015.

How did your InkTober go?

10/27/18

10/30/18

10/31/18

Minimalism Challenge Completed!

My minimal sketch kit for the past 2 months.

The last page of my Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook has been filled, which means my self-inflicted minimal sketch kit challenge is over!

After years of daily-carrying a full palette of colors and a formidable arsenal of pens, pencils and markers, how did it feel to have only nine implements in my bag for the past two months?

Weight: The first thing I appreciated right away was how lightweight my bag became. As a former sufferer of shoulder issues, I try to be conscious of how much weight I carry in a messenger bag. I never thought my former daily-carry was harmfully heavy, but once I slimmed the bag down, I realized how much easier it is to carry less.  I’m going to be more mindful than ever about what I put back in; I’m motivated to keep the bag as slim as possible.

Color: I thought that going from my usual 25 colors to two (in a single blue/red bicolor pencil) would be an extreme case of withdrawal for my color-junkie system – but I found it easier than I expected. If it had been the middle of summer or while traveling, I probably would have found it intolerable, but I didn’t miss color much during the bleak gray of winter. Certain colors, however, I did miss almost immediately – especially the bright yellow I use often for traffic cones and heavy equipment.

This Spin bike should be bright orange, but all I had was red.

Even more significant, I became more conscious of how much color can be a part of an object’s identity. The best example I encountered during my challenge was Seattle’s multiple shared bike companies. In bright citrus colors, LimeBike (green), Spin (orange) and Ofo (yellow) bikes are littered all over the city, sometimes adding the only spots of color to an otherwise dreary landscape. I would stop to sketch one, delighted to see color – but there I was with nothing but blue and red!

It’s not that the specific color is a big deal – we all use artistic license in choosing colors now and then. But in the case of these shared bikes, their specific colors distinguish them from ordinary bikes owned by individuals. If I couldn’t color them accurately, I was missing a large part of the visual story I was telling. This was an important lesson to learn – one that hadn’t occurred to me in all the years I always had a full palette at my disposal.

Tone: The other part of my colorless strategy was using a tan sketchbook for the duration of my challenge. Although I had used toned paper before, it was only sporadically. This was the first time I tried it for a continual length of time. A toned page automatically makes it easier to focus on values – the page is already the mid-tone, so all I have to do is put in the shadows and highlights. Working for a concentrated time on toned paper was helpful in making me more aware of highlights (which I especially enjoyed when sketching people). I think it will help me stay more focused on values even when I switch back to white paper and a wider color palette.

Tools: Did I stick with the same nine implements for the full two months? In terms of function, yes – though I made a few changes to the specific tools:

 

A few tools that I swapped in.

• A few weeks ago I was given a Hester & Cook Midtown pencil, which is a white grease pencil that can be sharpened in an ordinary pencil sharpener (instead of peeling a cord to expose more core, as is typical of most grease pencils). It’s more opaque than white colored pencils, and I like that I can get a relatively sharp point on it, so I swapped out the white colored pencil for it.
  
  

  

  2/15/18 We all need more rainbow-colored excavators
  in our lives, right?

• The blue/red bicolor pencil was annoying – I missed yellow too much. (I probably could have cheated and added one yellow pencil, but I knew adding even one thing would be a step on the slippery slope, so I resisted.) Fairly late in the game, I swapped out the bicolor for a rainbow pencil containing a mixed core of red, yellow, green and blue. It’s not ideal as a lone coloring implement – if I want only one color, it’s difficult to hold the pencil at just the right angle – but what I lost in accuracy I made up for in fun.
• The ArtGraf 6B water-soluble graphite pencil was still giving me reliable results, but I also had an ArtGraf water-soluble carbon pencil that I wanted to try, so at some point, I swapped out the graphite for the carbon. Although the carbon smears a bit more than the graphite, I am delighted by how dark it gets when a little water is applied (see below). It became the only pencil I used most of the time, and I probably could have eliminated the Blackwing I was also carrying. (When you carry only nine implements, every item gets scrutinized constantly about whether it is earning its keep. The Blackwing was nearly jettisoned several times.)

ArtGraf water-soluble pencil delivers strong darks.

The experiment is over; what’s next? I enjoyed the toned book so much that for a brief time I pondered continuing with my gray Nova. But people in other neighborhoods keep telling me they are seeing buds, crocuses and other early signs of spring (never mind that the temps have been in the 30s lately), so I’m going to be optimistic and save the gray book for another time (maybe I’ll switch to a toned book each winter as an annual exercise . . .?). I’m going back to my usual self-bound white paper signatures.

The more important change, though, will be my tools and colors. I’m not going to mindlessly put all the usual things back in. Now that I’ve learned how little I can get by with, I’ll be evaluating each item with scrutiny before it makes the cut. Stay tuned for the results.

A February Treat

2/10/18 Wedgwood neighborhood

Yesterday was an unusual February treat – blue sky and sunshine all day! Unfortunately for me, it was also chilly – too cold for me to stay outdoors for a sketch as I’d hoped when I’d first heard the sun forecast. But with sharp shadows and brilliant light in the ‘hood, even sketching from my car was a treat.

Most of the forecast for the rest of the week is the usual overcast and chance of rain, but if I can have a day like yesterday once in a while, it’ll help me get through the rest of winter.

A Big Bite at the Panama Hotel

2/19/18 Panama Hotel and teahouse

The historic Panama Hotel and teahouse is a wintertime favorite for the Friday sketchers. With two floors of cozy chairs and tables, vintage photos, unusual décor, and tasty teas and pastries, it’s a fun place.

During past outings, I’ve always chosen comfy subjects like my food or other sketchers. I’m not sure what compelled me on this visit, but I decided to sit in one corner of the main café area and take on the whole long counter and room. It was like shoving an entire watermelon into my mouth – the proverbial bite of more than I can chew. Still, it helped to remember the principles I learned in Gabi Campanario’s “Pocket Urban Sketching” workshop that I took almost exactly a year ago. Even though I used a spread twice as large as a pocket sketchbook spread, it was a formidable challenge to get it all in. I usually manage two or three sketches at USk outings, but I worked up such a sweat chewing this watermelon that it was the only one I did! 

We had another great turnout, including a couple of new faces, and even a few hardy souls who sketched outdoors!

Vivian is holding my sketch for me!

Catching Highlights

2/6/18 Top Pot Doughnuts

The toned Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook that I’ve been using since I began my minimalism challenge is nearly full, and I’m enjoying it very much. In general, it has helped to make me more aware of values and tones instead of being distracted by color.

1/23/18 Zoka Coffee

This has been especially true when sketching people (or perhaps it’s just that I’ve been sketching indoors so much since I started using it). When I use white paper, I typically use dark ink to focus on subtle shadows to indicate folds in clothing or facial contours. When I use toned paper, I can use a white pencil to capture subtle highlights on skin as well as dark ink for shading. I don’t know of any way to make those highlights as easily on white paper. 

I haven’t decided what I’ll do next when the Nova is full. . . go back to my usual white? Or start another toned book? The answer will probably depend on how much I’m jonesin’ for color. Of course, I’ll always have my little red notebook, which is essentially the same as toned paper.

1/23/18

2/6/18 

Festive

2/4/18 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Look closely at the traffic circle tree: Do you see it? Hanging on a low limb is a single shiny Christmas ornament. It’s not exactly festive anymore, but I had plenty to celebrate: I caught the only 30 minutes of sunshine we’ve had in weeks.