daily-ish notes…

  • on vegetation.

    I have this kind of unearned confidence when it comes to sketching vegetation. Y’know: the trees, shrubs, small plants that populate my urban sketches. I know this because I tend to follow the less-is-more rule when it comes to sketches where the focal point is the architecture—leaving the vegetation as a kind of quasi-cartoonish detail filling in the whitespace—versus when I actually try and draw, say, a copse of trees as I attempted this weekend. When I do the latter, my trees look generic and silly, even though they are the same kinds of trees I draw around buildings. I’m not sure if this means (a) I need to stop trying to draw pictures where the focal point is large vegetation or (b) I just need to practice my trees more. I’m leaning the second option.

  • of social performance.

    I have taken a long break from posting my art on social media. The problem isn’t engagement. People “like” my stuff. The problem was always about performance. Art so quickly becomes this show that I’m doing, rather than a craft that I am honing. It is a weird thing, trying to find the right balance. Trying to figure out where it becomes showing people what you made and being proud of it on one side… and posting for other reasons besides on the other. If you’ve found a balance, that’s awesome. I struggle.

  • of expeditioning locally.

    I wrote my blog yesterday, packed a small bag of art supplies, and went for a very long walk. My plan was to do at least three sketches. And I did. I sat at a table and sketched a scene at the local university. I sat on the lawn of our capital building and sketched the dome. Then I sat in a downtown cafe and sketched the scene across the street. I didn’t set out to anywhere in particular, but just prepared myself and went out.

  • acknowledging that daily is tough.

    Well, I was surprised to log back into this little neglected blog to discover that this site is receiving literally thousands of hits per week. Why didn’t any of you tell me! I made a conscious choice to step away for a bit while I figured out why I was making art in the first place, and to limit it as the performance it was becoming. Maybe I’m back, or maybe I’m just feeling like I want to write and draw more. Glad you’ve all been enjoying the content and perhaps I’ll try and visit here as often as you all seem to do.

  • of travel tiny sketches.

    We have a little mini vacation coming up this summer and I’ve been thinking a lot about travel sketching. I mean, isn’t the that whole substance behind urban sketching—to bring a sketchbook along and scribble shapes and colours that remind one of the adventure? The place we are off to next is simultaneously not really amenable to travel sketching and one of the best places in the world to people watch: Disneyland. One would think there would be a thousand moments to draw and a thousand opportunities, but the fact is that there is so much hustle, bustle and shuffle that the idea of sitting still to capture a shape or a scene has not been a success for me the last time we went. I am thinking of procuring a tiny sketchbook to attempt a reprise of that effort as simply and streamlined as possible—and so maybe next month I’ll have an update on how that is panning out.