21 Nov Sketchbook memories from Scotland
Since the first day I attended Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, I have carried a sketchbook. My favorite medium for sketching is pure line – over the years I have developed a technique where I first draw in the line, and then come back afterward and beef up certain lines to give the subject matter more of a focus. It’s fun and it keeps me in the moment recording what I see and want to remember. My sketchbooks have also taken on more of a collage element in recent years, as I have mainly used them when I travel, and it’s a great way to integrate mementos of a trip including my favorite: MAPS!!! I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about maps that you find along the way (not the ones you download off the internet that all look the same). Generic and local maps hold a lot of interest for me! I tape them into my travel journals now as a way of cementing the geography of the areas I’ve traveled through on my journey. Hey, you never know when you might need that map when you’re referring to something relevant at some point in the future!!
With that in mind, I would like to share a few of the sketches I did on this trip, as well as a few of the maps – cheerio!
This was the last night of our time in London and we were maxed out but we really wanted to see the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) and our son had told us about this cool show called Power of Making. We staggered over, our feet crying for help after walking all over London that day. We got there late afternoon and saw the show. As we were coming out of the show, we noticed a big bar set up in the foyer and some great jazz music wafting through the air! What’s going on here? Oh, it’s Friday night and it’s “date night” in London!! All the museums do the coolest thing – come have cocktails, listen to great music, look at amazing artwork and mingle with other cool folks who want to do the same thing! So we did!!! We had a couple of cosmos and sat in a huge room facing out to a number of challenging marble statues – the one above was closest to us. I had no idea of the name of the statue, but it looked like the easiest to draw out of the ones I could see, so I set about to draw it!!! I had the basic line elements sketched in and Richard was ready to leave. I asked him if he could please tell me the name of the sculpture to put on the sketch and when he told me I was rather surprised! I had not intended to draw a rape scene!!! But I must admit, her sad expression did account for something. Actually, if you consider that this piece of marble looked fairly close to what I have drawn, it’s down right amazing to think it balances on its own – that’s quite a heavy load he’s carrying!!!
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