Sketches from Tulip Time 2017

Back in May, I attended the Tulip Time Muziek Parade with a newly homemade accordion sketchbook.

My goal was to fill the whole thing with ink drawings in real time, as the parade passed me by.  I could add watercolor later, if I wanted to.

I drew very fast for over an hour!  WHAT FUN!!!  I was exhausted from such intense attention-paying, and from the exercise of my visual memory as the parade moved by very fast, but it was great.  I can't wait to do it again next year!

Here are the results, two pages at a time.

Sketching on Random Backgrounds

Last spring I did a terrific class in how to pre-prepare acrylic ink  backgrounds, just to add a different dimension to my sketchbook.  Now and then I take them out to sketch on them.  I don't plan ahead--just use whatever background appears on the page to draw whatever I was planning on drawing.

Sometimes it works out in a funny, appropriate, match, like this portrait of my wonderful teacher, Roz Stendahl, which I drew during a live webinar.  I had started it before she told us she had a cold, and said she might look a little "splotchy."  Perfect pages to go with this quote!

This next one is just the next page in my sketchbook, as I sketched during the webinar.

What I discovered was that the blank background page and design (it had the blank insets there just waiting to be filled) impacted how I listened.  I was listening for something that would fit on the page as I had designed it.  So the notion of a plan, of 1-2-3 steps, just seemed to fit.

This next page is something I did later.  One of the cool things I find when working with pre-prepared backgrounds is that I'm less likely to fil up a page with words or sketches.  Instead, I find a few words or a small sketch that seems to fit the background design.  I leave more space.  I think this has the effect of adding more impact to what I do put there.  And it allows some space for my eye and mind to wander a bit.

I enjoy the same sort of space and wandering in this next spread.  When I did it, I wasn't thinking about traveling at all.  But when I turned to it in my sketchbook, it seemed like a page about traveling to me!  And so, I just made a list of all the travels I will be lucky enough to take in the next year (it's a big year for me travel-wise!  I never travel this much!)

And sometimes, the page doesn't really inspire me to do anything in particular, so I just proceed with my sketching as I would do if the page were completely blank.  I did that here, with a funny left-handed exercises I had wanted to try.

I am still exploring how I want to work in a sketchbook with prepared backgrounds.  Do I like it better than blank pages?  Are there certain circumstances in which I do like it better than blanks? Other circumstances in which I do not?  Lots to learn and discover --and more backgrounds to make!

Mirrored Aviator Sunglasses

People laugh when I tell them I keep a sketchpad and pen with me at all times.

I do.

So when I am in a car waiting for a train, or to meeting someone, I can spend the minutes drawing something.

My purple aviators were sitting on the dashboard of my car while I waited to meet a friend.  Not only were they upside down, but they were reflected the buildings behind the car--curved!

Now that would be really hard to draw, I thought.

Yep.  And fun too!

Done on a 4 x 6 Strathmore sketching pad with a Uniball Vision black pen.

Don't leave home without 'em.

More work with Background and Collage

Here is another example of a prepared background I made in a journal as part of a wonderful course I took with Roz Stendahl, and some collaging and journaling work I did over the background.

This background came as the result first of a light ochre-colored wash, then later layers of blue and brown.  You can see texture lines in those colors--the "dots" would be created by spritzing the ink while it was still wet.  The lines (on the left in the blue) were created by dragging a silicone texturizer through the wet ink.

Once it thoroughly dried, I added the journaling and the selfie.  I posted this selfie a few weeks ago as one I sketched on a day I took my mother to the hospital for some out-patient surgery.  I simply printed it and collaged this copy in.

The journaling was inspired by a book I'm reading about cultural context:  what are some basic facts about the "character" of the place where you live, and how does it feel to live there much of the time?  How do these things go together?   It's something I'm interested to explore across many pages of this journal!

I don't ever do much with collage, but I really like this notion of working with my own art from other sources to create new pages.  I want to explore more of that.  And the texturing tips I have learned from Roz!  So much fun.  (Messy, but fun!)

Sketching and Collaging onto a Background

I mentioned a while ago that last spring I took a fantastic course in creating backgrounds for art journals taught by Roz Stendahl.

Here's one example of the kind of work I did with her class.

I had done this sketch from an old mugshot I found online (old mugshots are terrific to sketch from!).

We had begun creating backgrounds in the class and had hit the point where we were adding some stuff to them, collaging, drawing, journaling, and really experimenting to get a feel for what could be done.

Anyhow, here is what I came up with.  This isn't a miracle of design of anything:  it was my first shot at working this way!  And I'd never used some of these tools before (I can't even remember what-all I used, other than it involved paint pens).  But it was terrific fun to play with and to discover the depth that you can get in a page starting with interesting layered backgrounds like this.

See that little piece of washi tape on the right?  Not real washi, it turns out, but plastic stuff.  Cool looking, but doesn't take ink or paint very well.

Anyhow, this is sort of a "kitchen sink" spread--what will this do? was my mantra as I played.

I learned a lot!

Practicing Faces

I practice.  A lot.

Scribbling almost every single day.

Sometimes that includes exercises, either from a book or a video, or something that I make up myself, to learn something that I know I need to improve on.

Like human faces.

How am I going to get better at drawing comics if I don't get better at drawing human faces?

I thought I'd show you a few pages of my practicing.  No attempt to create anything pretty here!  Just lots of scribbling, with spirit, to practice, practice, practice.

Conquering Advising: A Mini-Comic for My Advisees

Last spring, as the time approached for my advisees to come for their meetings with me prior to their registering for classes. I created this comic to help them prepare for our chats.

I did it because for years I have sent them emails with detailed instructions--and every year a good 25-50% of them show up unprepared.

And if they come unprepared, I send them away to get prepared and they have to make another appointment.  This can result in them not being able to register at the first possible moment, which can result in them not getting the best pick of courses.

It also results in weeping and gnashing of teeth on both our parts.

So I wondered if sending them the same instructions in a comic would yield better results?

Answer:  YES!!  100% of my advisees came prepared!  And some even pronounced, "This comic is cool, Dr. Trembley."

:-)

I look forward to using it again this coming school year--will it continue to work?

I completed the comic entirely on my iPad Pro in Procreate.  I printed it on one 8.5 x 11 sheet, folded twice, cut and stapled, to create one mini comic from each piece of paper.






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