Comics as Performance Art: The Long Weekend in Alice Springs

This summer I'm working to share resources on the internet about comics, comics theory, and comics creation.  There is so much out there from which I can learn!

Today I'm sharing perhaps one of my favorite creations, the video version of The Long Weekend in Alice Springs, by Joshua Santospirito and Craig San Roque, based on the graphic novel of the same name, which was itself based on an academic paper.

This has inspired me to think, off and on, for years about doing a project like this about Holland, Michigan. 

Sketchkon Sketches #5--Lawlor and Reim Workshop #3

Continuing with sketches from the Urban Sketching Boot Camp workshop I did at Sketchkon last November...

We sat in a garden and produced multiple sketches, focusing entirely on mark-making and texture.

This was fascinating and hard work for me.  I am not someone who enjoys making tons of tiny marks.  I know loads of people find it meditative and relaxing, but I always catch myself wanting to get on with the next thing.  There just seems always to be so much more to capture.

One of the last things we did in this workshop was go to the entry of the hotel and draw people.  We were assigned to do five people, full body, in motion, in fifteen minutes.  Thanks to all the practice I've had in Roz Stendahl's classes and in drawing at soccer games, I was able to sketch many more.  Plus, they move so fast.... I don't know how anyone could spend three minutes drawing someone in motion!

What a great day!  We were all exhausted and exhilarated at the end. 

If I ever had a chance to do a workshop with either of these teachers again, I would!

Sketchkon Sketches #4 -- Lawlor and Reim Workshop Part 2

Continuing with sketches from my full day Urban Sketching Boot Camp workshop with Veronica Lawlor and Melanie Reim...

After drawing 20 thumbnails in 20 minutes, we chose three of those thumbnails to explore further.  In each thumbnail we had to identify three specific objects.  Then we had to do a variation on each thumbnail moving each object through foreground, middleground, and background.  

I sort of screwed it up in the first example, but in the last one you can see I finally got the hang of it, with the person, the tree and the wall occupying different picture planes. 

This was, for me, a mind-bending exercise.  I LOVED IT.

A bit later we walked to a church and our assignment was to draw it in several ways, thinking about depicting emotional content.  How does this building--and all it signifies for you in your life--make you feel?

That was fun and really tapped into my storytelling impulses.

Sketchkon Sketches #3-- Lawlor and Reim Workshop Part 1

As part of Sketchkon, I signed up for a full day workshop with two of my sketching heroes, Veronica Lawlor and Melanie Reim.  We drew for hours in this Urban Sketching Boot Camp.

We started by learning about and practicing quick thumbnails.  We had to sketch twenty in twenty minutes.

What a great exercise for exploring ideas and space.  Twenty in twenty minutes meant you had to keep looking always for the next idea.  I'd be in the middle of drawing one and thinking about what would be next!  And you couldn't stop to criticize.  And you couldn't even attempt to draw more than just basic basic shapes because you didn't have time.  

Bonus:  what a great exercise to help you BE IN A MOMENT and in a space.  You pay such close attention to where you are when doing this.  It imprints the whole scene deeply into memory.

More on Walking in the Woods When Frightened

My graphic memoir in progress focuses on something very scary that happened to me while I was walking my dogs in the woods one morning.

So I've been experimenting a lot of the last year or so with how the woods look to me normally, versus how they looked when I was terrified.

The classic example of this, in my mind, is the scene from Disney's Snow White when she flees the murderer through the forest.

I didn't experience the trees, the woods, as my enemy in this way.  I experienced them more as the container of evil.

Anyhow, I don't know how I'm ultimately going to depict this, but I thought I'd share a sketch or two in the next few weeks of me working these ideas out.

Inspired by Lemire's Roughneck

Lately I've been looking at how other comics artists draw people moving through the woods, especially from the perspective of the sky.  My brain can't generate that on its own, and it's an image I want to be able to convey in my memoir.

Inspired by how Jeff Lemire does it in his recent (and wonderful) graphic novel Roughneck, I drew this quick sketch.  Obviously I imported myself and my dogs into the tree perspectives.

This is helping me understand how the perspective guide in Procreate can help me too.

Perspective is a mystery to me, still....

Scotland Sketchbook Part 14

Some architecture sketches from St. Andrews, Scotland. 

I really need a lot of practice with things as precise and "hard edged" as architecture.... or I need to embrace the wonkiness...

Scotland Sketchbook Part 12

Driving around the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Scotland Sketchbook Part 10

Sketched these while hiking across Iona.  Sun, then sudden rain, then sun.

My favorite part is always sketching animals, but I really loved the cows free-ranging across the famous golf course.

We need more of that in the US of A.

Scotland Sketchbook Part 9

Travel from Oban to Iona, and impressions of some Iona architecture.  Some of this I drew while in a moving car!

Scotland Sketchbook Part 5

One of our favorite places in Crail was the Crail Harbour Tea Room and Gallery.  We returned several times and I sketched while enjoying terrific treats!

Scotland Sketchbook Part 4

Here are a few sketches made on the fly as we hiked the Fife Coastal Path. 

We had a week of perfect weather for walking and sketching:  cool, sunny, a little wind to help my paints dry...

Some Fall Trees

I have the tremendous good fortune of living in the woods.

And I really like to draw trees.

Here a few pages from the beginning of last fall, as we entered winter.  As I look around now at these same trees, they are just getting ready to bud.

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: The Final Post

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

I hope you've enjoyed the past 112 days of watercolor meditations on words or phrases from this text.

Next week, I'll be resuming my "usual" blog activity, of exploring the variety of art I'm practicing.

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: Number 111 of 111

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

art journals, attention, authenticity, color, composition, creativity, landscape, lectio, nature, painting, spirituality, trees, watercolor, BCP Project,

#BCP
#Episcopal
#DailyOfficeInPictures

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: Number 110 of 111

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

art journals, attention, authenticity, color, composition, creativity, landscape, lectio, nature, painting, spirituality, trees, watercolor, BCP Project,

#BCP
#Episcopal
#DailyOfficeInPictures

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: Number 109 of 111

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

art journals, attention, authenticity, color, composition, creativity, landscape, lectio, nature, painting, spirituality, trees, watercolor, BCP Project,

#BCP
#Episcopal
#DailyOfficeInPictures

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: Number 108 of 111

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

art journals, attention, authenticity, color, composition, creativity, landscape, lectio, nature, painting, spirituality, trees, watercolor, BCP Project,

#BCP
#Episcopal
#DailyOfficeInPictures

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: Number 107 of 111

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

art journals, attention, authenticity, color, composition, creativity, landscape, lectio, nature, painting, spirituality, trees, watercolor, BCP Project,

#BCP
#Episcopal
#DailyOfficeInPictures

"The Daily Office" in Pictures: Number 106 of 111

This post is part of a project in which I painted one watercolor for each page of "The Daily Office" section in the Book of Common Prayer.  You can find the complete explanation of the project here.

art journals, attention, authenticity, color, composition, creativity, landscape, lectio, nature, painting, spirituality, trees, watercolor, BCP Project,

#BCP
#Episcopal
#DailyOfficeInPictures