Learning to Sketch Again

My 6 year old's first drawing on the iPad.  My drawings on there aren't a great deal better at the moment!

One of the reasons I was keen to get an iPad was to use it for drawing and sketching. I've read that quite a few artists are using them to create artwork on, perhaps most famously David Hockney, and the idea of using it to create artwork on the go was something I wanted to be able to do.  I thought it would be great to be able to paint and draw without having to cart about large quantities of art materials when you travel.

So, having downloaded a free drawing and painting app, I have been experimenting with what I can do.  However I've found that using my finger to draw with is actually quite restrictive.  While in theory I know that you can select any brush size you want, and scale up or down so that you can get more control, I find that I really want a tool with a point on it, so that I can see what I'm doing, without having to constantly scale up and down.  It seems that I am not alone in this, as I discovered when I went looking for what was available in terms of a stylus.  Apparently the way that the capacitive screen of the iPad is constructed, means that it is designed to react to something fairly broad, like a finger, so all the stylus' that are available have a fairly broad tip.  So far so bad, the technology needs to improve on that score, but I did find a Styluswith good reviews that has a broad, see-through nib with a dot on it to show you where you are drawing, and this seemed to offer a way round the problem, at least in the short term. Once it arrived it seemed to do the job reasonably well, but I didn't find it that easy to use - you had to keep it at a certain angle which was a little restrictive, so at the moment I've gone back to using my finger.

Drawing and sketching on the iPad, is a very different experience even to using a drawing tablet with a computer.  I like the fact it is so direct (and so do my kids). I find it difficult to create drawings which are at all precise on there, though in some ways this might actually be a good thing, encouraging me to sketch with more spontaneity and giving my drawing more life.

Aside from drawing, I love the way web browsing is so much easier on the iPad, but though I like to take it to bed with me, I'm going to have to stop doing so, as browsing through creative blogs and inspirational sites, I have found is a sure route to insomnia - it just stimulates the creative part of my brain which is really the last thing you need when you want to get to sleep, so I'm going to have to stop doing it!

Finished Drawing

Well this is it - the first full-scale drawing I've finished in a long, long time.  It's difficult to get a sense of what it looks like here - as the original size is 91x61cms, but I will be producing prints from it of about half that size, partly because I feel it benefits from being a little 'tighter' and partly for purely commercial reasons, in that smaller prints tend to sell better.  Once the original was framed it would be very large, and it's more difficult for most people to find space in their home for something that size. You can see the original view which I produced the first sketches from here.  I have to say that this photograph is not entirely accurate, especially as it seems to have lost a little of its colour, but even so you can see that my version is much darker and more moody, bearing little resemblance to the original really. There's artistic licence for you - I always seem to produce drawings that way. Strangely it reminds me of something else in terms of it's 'feel' - possibly early 19th century german romantic art, maybe Samuel Palmer, or even an early Renaissance landscape. I'm not sure which.  However not of that was intentional - though I did specialise in studying landscape art of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, so maybe there's some subconscious influence there.

I worked the drawing up in charcoal, pastel, conte and wax crayons first, before photographing, uploading and digitally colouring it (not that you can really see the colour in these images).  I love the flexibility that this gives me to experiment to my heart's content, without fear of destroying what I've done so far. You could say it's my digital 'safety net', but in fact it's more than just that, and I'm keen to explore the interaction between digital and traditional art forms further, rather than simply using it as a tool to produce the 'perfect' image.

I needed to get this one finished, because I'm supposed to be taking part in an exhibition for our local Arts Festival at the end of September, and time is running out. I will be producing it as a limited edition print, so now I've got to try and make sure I print it out accurately.  Sometimes I find  this is the hardest part of the whole process!

Doodle Travel Journal

So, what have I been up to this week?  Well I have a sense of achievement because I finally completed my Travel Journal from our holiday last month.  This was very much an organic process - I started it without any real preconceived idea of what the finished thing would be like, and as I've worked on it, I've had new ideas which have been added and incorporated.  It's been a real labour of love, and I think it's probably unlikely that I'll do it for every holiday, but I've gained a great deal of satisfaction from it.  It'll be great to look back on in the future.  I love spontaneous doodles, and the one rule I set myself when creating this was that I was not allowed to plan the composition in any way, or to use pencil and rubber first.  I had to use ink straight onto paper - this was a little scary.  Of course the finished drawings are as a result much more rough and ready than they would otherwise be, you can see the errors, and there are things I would have done differently if I could have started again, but it has a lot more life and character than something which was completely planned would have done, and that was important to me - it was meant to be less a work of art, and more a personal document.  I found I particularly enjoyed using the white pen on black paper, and I generally restricted myself to black and white - for some reason I'm always happier working in monotone - not sure entirely why that is, but I always put it down to when I was doing my Art A-level, and I was required to do a finished drawing (still-life) every week for 2 years.

Having completed this project, I'm now wondering whether to do the same thing for our wedding album.  We don't actually have an album, just a pile of photos in a box somewhere, because I was always intending to make my own, and never actually got round to it.  But I rather like the idea of taking such a personal approach to creating a wedding album.  That really would be a labour of love (sorry, corny I know!)

Promise and Potential - A New Sketchbook

I've just been extravagant and bought myself this new sketchbook. Entitled 'One Sketch a Day - a Visual Journal', the blurb on the back reads as follows:

The pages of this keepsake sketchbook feature a space to draw any and anything that catches your eye each day trhoughout the year.  As you fill the pages with sketches, you'll see the evolution and ryhthm of your thoughts and drawings.  Whether you're an art student, a long-time sketcher, or the next great master, this journal will accompany you in your artistic journey, keeping a lasting record of your work and imagination that you can revisit any time.

Well reading this inspired me - admittedly the space for each drawing isn't large, but I suppose the book would have to be a great deal thicker if it was.  But I tend to have a problem with beautiful sketchbooks - I've been given one or two over the years, and from time to time I pull them out and fondle them, admiring the purity and potential of their blank pages, and then put them away again.  But this defeats the whole object - sketchbooks are meant to be filled, and I don't like to 'spoil' them - how ridiculous is that? I thought the 'discipline' of a sketch each day might spur me on - (of course because of that I have delayed starting it - but I WILL start it this week).

It's funny, in the deep and distant past, I always used to take my sketchbook with me a lot, but over the years I got out of the habit, and my sketching skills are now very rusty, which in turn makes me much more inhibited about drawing.  I'm fine as long as I know I can re-do it easily and work on a drawing, but anything more spontaneous I struggle with.  I'm trying to find the time therefore to doodle and sketch a little more spontaneously, and be less self-conscious about it all.  I even optimistically took my sketchbook on holiday a few weeks ago.  I say optimistically, because it didn't really work out.  The kids weren't willing to let me get on with it, and I kept on seeing things I'd have loved to sketch and couldn't which was just frustrating.  Taking a photo just isn't the same thing.  Still I did start a visual doodled travel journal there for the first time - I'm still working on it, so all will be revealed when it's finished.

Creative/destructive Time

I promised myself that this week, during my 3 precious child-free mornings, I would start some work on a drawing I've been meaning to do.  Back in early May I made the supreme effort to find the time to go out and do some sketching at Alderley Edge, a local beauty spot.  Those drawings and photographs have been sitting unused ever since, but having had my work accepted to take part in the local Arts Festival in late September, I really needed to start producing something.  Apart from having a single drawing for sale in a gallery north of Manchester, I have not exhibited my personal work since my degree show.

However, all was not plain sailing.  Day 1, I set about finding the equipment I needed, and hit my first problem - I couldn't find my drawing materials.  Not that I had many, it occured to me that somewhat shockingly I haven't bought any since I graduated (a very long time ago), so in fact had very few left.  I decided I just about had time to go and buy some, so that was what I did.

The next day, I set everything up on my drawing board - but I'd been using it as a cutting board too, and discovered it now has ridges in it as a result, so I covered it with lining paper first, and set it up on my light sketching easel (the only one I have) in the office/studio/gym to draw.  It was not ideal - the paper (and lining paper) wouldn't lie flat because it had been cut from a roll, and the easel was too light to work on, given that my drawing was so large.  My reference material, sketches and photographs were incoveniently placed on a table by me, where I couldn't easily see them.  Still, I ploughed on, until 10 or 15 minutes later, I realised with dawning horror that there was rather a lot of charcoal dust being created, and I had failed to protect the carpet.  I looked down with apprehension to see a nice black line on the recently cleaned carpet beneath the easel.  Not to worry I thought optimistically, it will hoover up if I don't walk on it, and duly went and fetched the vacuum cleaner.  It didn't.  Or rather the dust disappeared, leaving a big black stain behind it.  I spent the rest of my 'creative' time, unsuccessfully trying to clean the carpet.  The next time we have a house viewing (we're currently trying to sell up) the office chair will have to be strategically placed - at least until the carpet can be professionally cleaned - again.

With just one child free morning left for me to work on my drawing, I decided the next day to work in the kitchen (no carpet to damage) and attach the drawing to the wall, again on top of a sheet of lining paper to protect the paintwork, with my reference material placed conveniently alongside. This turned out to be equally unsuccessful.  The paper kept on detaching itself from the wall and slipping, it still wouldn't lie flat, and my attempts to keep it on the wall left horrible dirty fingerprints on the recently re-decorated surface.  Not to worry I thought, they'll wipe off.  It's quite astonishing how difficult it is, I discovered, to wipe away charcoal and dirty blu-tack marks from a paintwork -  it did come off if I scrubbed, but so did the paint.

So now I'm left with a carpet that needs cleaning, and a wall that needs re-touching.  My drawing is still only two-thirds finished, but I have decided to invest in a large piece of MDF as a new drawing board, which means I won't need to line it, and a proper easel - something which I've never had, and which will create yet more clutter in the office/studio/gym, but I think is desperately needed.  Just need to work out how I can afford it!

I shall try and finish the drawing next week on my new drawing board, but hopefully I will have learned enough this time not to trash the house in the process, and at least I have actually made a start.