Exercise: Fill it up!

Brief

The first part of this exercise considers how techniques to fill the page can help to overcome being too precious about the observational drawings you make, therefore getting you to draw freely.

For this task you are going to fill up one whole small sketchbook, to its maximum, in a single trip out- creating a visual diary. You should choose a sketchbook with a small number of leaves and be prepared to draw speedily, focussing mainly on making a ‘collage’ of multiple simple drawings or vignetted scenes and fragments that draw your attention. If you’d prefer to do the exercise in a bigger sketchbook you can do this too, just restrict yourself to a few specific pages, otherwise follow the guide: How to make: A ‘Foldy’ or ‘Mini Zine’ Sketchbook & Small booklet sketchbook (which you can refer back to in Part one).

For this task you will need to find a space you can stay and draw for a few hours. This could be one of the following :

• A gallery or museum

• A theatre, musical event or performance where it would be ok to sit down and draw

• A public talk, lecture or meeting (somewhere you can record the events without issues of confidentiality)

• A place with familiar people or friends where you can be present but in the background

• An indoor market with multiple benches or cafes

The rules:

• You should draw for a set time (perhaps around 2.5 hours, observing different parts of the space or event).

• You should try your best to fill up every page through drawing multiple images on most pages. Draw as many different things as you can to capture the experience of where you are at the time. This might include pattern, and texture and you should not ponder too long on any of your images.

• Look to document quick scenes, objects, figures and forms or elements of what’s in front of you, which you are drawn towards.

• When filling up your book, try to undertake at least two pages where you leave no white gaps at all between drawings on the page. You might want to use notes of any wording, sounds, smells or snippets of conversation and description to fill up some of the area. You could try overlapping drawings with different coloured drawing tools, using varying thicknesses of line, or marks.

• When you hit the centrepage, spend a little more time doing a larger drawing of a scene across the entire spread. Take time to enjoy the scene first, soak it up and enjoy it then respond to this enjoyment when you draw the image. After you have completed this scene carry on filling up the rest of the book.

All sketchbook work in your visual diary should be completed ‘live’ within the space and not added to after the experience. Once you have completed this task, write up your experience of it in your log.

As you undertake your own critique consider the following questions:

• Did you use any new media approaches?

• What did you discover about working fast on the same theme?

• Did you get as much done as you expected?

• Would trying this in a different environment or at a different time make any difference?

List as many points as you can about what you will take forward from this task as part of how you might draw when you’re out and about in the future.

Warm-up days out

Before I fully started this exercise, spending 2.5 hours somewhere and drawing; I wanted to capture some moments of my days as the visual diary that could help influence my thoughts as I drew.

Exercise Result!

Evaluation

This exercise was to get me to get rid of any restrictive feeling I had to my sketchbook and enjoy sketching and creating in the moment and from life. I wanted to personally see what the difference was if I stayed in the same place for 2 hours compared to brief sessions of drawing.

The first lot of drawings were in shorter sessions over 2 days, you can I tried to keep it pretty but fun, my shapes and lines are very stiff; the sessions were good to keep me on my toes, and enabled me to rest- although I was so intent on making it perfect.

The second lot of pages were as the exercise intended, spend several hours where it was somewhat busy and had a lot of movement and create in the moment (rather than taking pictures). These were 100 times better than expected, and I got to let go out of my anxieties of other people staring and judging and just enjoy making art. I've never felt more relaxed and inspired! It was my first experience drawing at a coffee shop and I was a little worried about the sketches not turning out right, therefore I did an awful first drawing of my table to loosen me up and that did the trick!

The sketches are a lot more fluid and fun, they hold great character and I found myself finding a little style of my quick sketches! I didn't expect to be sketching so quickly and in a style that I ended up worry that it wasn't my style, but I put that aside and kept up with drawing different people walking around.

I noticed I was very drawn to people faces, so maybe next time I should focus on the whole figure, as well as the furniture and group settings. However, for my first time since comic con drawing and creating art in public, I think this isn't too bad of a start.

Another thing I should have done for this exercise was to explore bigger pieces, sketches, to enjoy taking in the scene before drawing. However, there was so many places to look and people to see that I overwhelmed myself and forgot this rule, it is something to take with me to the future.

I didn't use any new media, I used the smaller watercolour palette since it's easier to use, and I used a graphite pencil with two ink pens (brush and grey 0.5).

I found myself using soft lines in most cases and kept an eye on the faces of people who walk in, the odd few pieces of furniture with quick observations but still very soft. So soft that my scanner found it difficult to pick up...

I used watercolour to capture the warmth of the environment, the colour of the smells I imagined and the dots of excitement as I drew in this environment. The odd lines in the last page was cubes because I was starting to get a little headache from the excitement and inspiration I was getting from drawing.

I got more done than expected however, I didn't do as many people as I look back, there are a lot of faces but not enough bodies and surroundings captured which looking back, I'm disappointed.

I liked the odd writing I did as I drew, capturing what people said, what my commentary was; it was fun!

I feel like this was a good environment to start off with since I was calm, I had my music playing and drinking iced tea. I would like to try different settings to see if it influences the outcome.