Traveling and Sketching - Part Two: The Bag

Last week, I shared with you some thoughts and photos of recent sketches that I did while traveling in Spain and France. While the drawings and what I drew them in are likely the most important aspects of this endeavor, if not for the bag that I carried it all, I would have nothing to show.

To start things off, the bag shown here is NOT the one I left with on the trip. Leading up to the trip, I researched, got personal testimony, and went with a bag from a company that I heard good things about. I bought a bag many weeks before our trip, stocked it, tested it around the house, and took it on our trip. That bag may have lasted 3-4 hours the first day of our journey before shredding into an unusable mess. After a few hours of use, this highly rated bag from a company that I had heard nothing but good things about was nothing but a lump of useless fabric. 

In a pinch, we ducked into a store with everything from luggage to wallets and found something better and more useful. This cross-body bag does everything that the other bag could do - and couldn't do. This new bag is what I've been looking for and served me very well on the trip, and appears to be ready for more. At a cafe, shortly after buying this new bag, I switched my belongings to it and never looked back. It is funny how I had to have the bad bag to find the good bag I was looking for. Let's have a closer look at the bag.

This cross-body bag features a long strap that can be adjusted to the preferred length and three zippered pouches on the front. Everything I was actively using went into one of these pouches.

The back of the bag features a fourth zippered pouch. This was for items I needed to carry but didn't need quick access to, for things like a cool rock I might find.

 

The smallest front porch was used for coins and a small external phone battery. The middle pouch was used for my drawing supplies. These supplies included my glasses, markers, pens, pencils, eraser, and a pencil sharpener. I usually work in greys and blacks in my sketchbook with the occasional inclusion of some white pencil. I prefer to work directly in ink as it dries quickly, is permanent, and forces me to make drawing decisions and then to stick to them. Once you make that mark in ink, it is there forever.

The large porch on the front has enough room for my sketchbook, but I could also carry my wallet, a large external battery with cables, and sunglasses. It could get a little tight in there, but this bag has enough room for everything I need to draw anywhere I might find myself. You might notice I keep a pen with the sketchbook so that I can just remove one item from the bag and be ready to start working. 

Lastly, there is a fifth secret pouch in the back of the large front pouch.

I have looked for the right sketchbook, styluses, and bag for a long time. Nothing I have had so far really hit the nail on the head until now. Will this combo work for others? Maybe, but I had to solve three problems separately while concidering the other two. Perhaps I have been too picky, or maybe I need some very specific needs met. No matter, I think I am finally there and can't wait to do more sketching in the wild.

That's all for another exciting Monday on the blog. I will be away the rest of the week, so I will see you back here next Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Traveling and Sketching - Part One: The Sketchbook

In April, I shared some thoughts on sketching and the lack thereof in my life. I do not do enough scribbling on paper for the sake of scribbling, and I have been working to address this. I have been working to address it for a long time, but I may have finally cracked that nut. Maybe.

One of the times I wish I could and would sketch more is when traveling. When I am away from home, I leave behind everything that keeps me from drawing, but until recently, I haven't had a good way to facilitate sketching once I am traveling. I have tried many types of sketching media, various bags and satchels, and worked hard to build a routine while traveling to ensure I draw. And I think I may have finally figured it all out. I am sharing this not as a guide or a how-to for others, but more to show that this is a process and one that is likely extremely specific to each artist. Going into our trip to Spain and France earlier this month, I did all I could to ensure that I would draw on the trip. And it finally all came together. While I would say that likely half of the success was the bag I finally acquired, today I am focusing on the half of the solution, which is the sketchbook and my relationship with it.

I am currently using a Soho toned paper sketchbook that has an exposed binding so that it can lie flat. I have had it for a while, and it meets many of my needs. It has traveled with me to conventions and to Europe twice, and it is finally seeing some action. While I have had it for years, it has seen more use this year alone. I first took it with me to SXSW a few months ago and used it for notes and doodling. I didn't expect it to be so valuable for note taking and ended up with many, many pages of notes after the event. As mentioned in April, I took it to Record Store Day to take advantage of my time in line. And most recently, I took it on our trip, where it finally evolved into what it always needed to be for me to use it regularly. And while I will discuss how the bag I carry it in has helped later, it is how my relationship with my sketchbook has fundamentally changed, and in doing, has allowed me to use it more. So let's get to some pictures, and I will explain more.

My sketchbook has some wear and tear, which is perfect because clean and new don't scream use me. The splatter and masked area on the front is where I have attached Magic the Gathering artist proofs so that I could add art to them. This creates the phantom rectangle you see here. The green dot is a sticker I placed on my shirt when we toured Gaudí's Casa Batlló in Barcelona. The green dot and phantom regular are physical memories of things I have done, which I need to do with my sketchbook to make them more usable. I have to make them unmistakably mine. I have to fill them with not only art, but also artifacts of the journey they have been on. And doing this has been one of the single most important decisions that I have made regarding sketching. I need to collect, document, and sketch.

While I am not sharing everything I drew on our most recent trip, I am sharing the important pieces.

This was likely sketch number three from the trip and was the first I was happy with. Even though it might seem a typical sketch for me, I was consciously working against my go-to marks and shapes. This set the stage for me to start pushing what I do with the sketchbook.

Now we are in it!

Finally, after so long of wishing and planning, I finally sat down and drew what was around me on our travels. I dated the drawing and included the location so that I would remember. I have long dreamed of doing this, and it finally came about. This is not a one-to-one of what I observed, but an edited and condensed version that would fit and work better in the book. And that is entirely okay.

Simply scribbling in the sketchbook is good, but not necessarily the goal. I want to be informed by what is around me on the adventures. This creature is based on the unique lighting that you can see around Avignon, France. The light housing has a very strange shape and gives the impression that it has legs. This is definitely something that might eventually come to the Grand Bazaar.

Another drawing of the world around me. While this was begun on location, I had to complete it from memory a day or two later while on the train. I had started this at dinner, but our meal arrived much quicker than expected. I had nearly everything blocked out, and most of what I later brought to the drawing was detail and finish, which was informed by what I had observed here as well as throughout the trip. You will notice the red card to the left. That is a discarded Asterix postcard I found discarded on a pile of free books outside a bookstore. A little artifact from the adventure that is now in my book and is both a memory and a souvenir.

The final drawing I have for you today is one I did at a small bar we discovered in Paris, as the skies opened up while we were without umbrellas. The bar carried local craft beers and gave me some time to draw. But doing this sketch at a place we have good memories of, those memories are reinforced and enhanced by the memories of making this drawing and returning to look at it later. And to the left, a receipt from the bar and an artifact of the day.

Lastly, here is a photo of some random bits in my sketchbook. This spread near the end of the sketchbook has a number of things in it, and they will eventually get spread throughout the books as more pages are filled. But from left to right, you have: a flyer of music performances at SXSW, a beer sticker from a SXSW music show, a pull number for a cafe in Barcelona, the WiFi details of a hotel, a Polaroid photo from IX a few years back, and a receipt from traveling across France. Are these things important? Only to me. But they mark the journey this sketchbook has gone on with me. And through the addition of these little bits and bobs, the sketchbook takes on more of a role than simply a vessel for ink and pencil, it is a journal, a diary, a travel log for my adventure in the world. And I intend to keep this going.

I will share with you the story of my bag next week, as well as the styluses and tools I keep in the bag. 

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Thoughts Regarding Sketching and Generating Ideas

I do not do enough (or any really) sketching. At one time, I would doodle and scribble away for hours, filling paper with monsters, but now, nearly all of my time making art is spent completing work planned out for my books or assignments for clients. Sadly, having time to draw for only the sake of drawing no longer fits into my schedule. Most of the time, if I have time to draw, I need to be working on the next piece for the next book. But when the planets align and I find myself with an opportunity to draw far from my studio, I try to make the most of it.

This past weekend, I found myself in line at my favorite local record store, Retrofit, for Record Store Day. I knew that I would be in line for some time, so I packed up my sketching tools and my sketching chair before walking down to get in line. Because I rarely have time to sketch, and suddenly had several hours to do nothing but sketch, I spent a bit of the time thinking about sketching, what I sketch, the thought processes behind my mark making, and I thought I would share some of it all with you. For all of these, I used a very faint grey marker to work up general forms. This is followed by using two black ink pens to complete the drawings. At the end, I often use the faint grey marker to blend and add form.

This was my first sketch of the morning.

 

My only motivation was to make marks on the paper. I let my hand go where it wanted to, and this usually means I will circle around familiar shapes and forms that I like to make and see. This meant that I ended up with a pretty standard monster that leans more towards a bird. I am ALWAYS attempting to push myself and to explore, but sometimes I do not try too hard, and I just want to have fun making marks on the paper. My only thought on this one is if the bird is wearing a hat, or if that's the bird's head. We may never know. It was a fun sketch, and I'm glad I did it.

This was my second sketch of the morning.

 

While there is nothing wrong with the first drawing, I wanted to push myself and really start to see what I could come up with. I wanted some external stimulus to base this drawing on. I was facing a street and a construction site, and neither offered up much in the way of interesting visuals. Looking at the palm trees that line the street, I had my imagination sparked by shapes on the trunks. These are shapes I have seen countless times before, but I never used them to directly influence a drawing. I was mindful not to focus on too many shapes and forms that I am drawn to. While some of the forms of the spikes may be seen in my work, I used them here in a way I do not normally. I made it a point to keep the entire figure on the paper as well. This established limitations on my design - WHICH IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING. I wanted to make this one approachable (it having eyes and therefore maybe a face) as well as alien (the rest). This one came together, and it is the one I am the most pleased with. This is the sort of design that I have put aside to include in the Grand Bazaar at a later date. 

Let me take a moment to add that sketching and exploring are CRUCIAL to an artist. The fact that I do not do it more is an issue for me and my art. But I have been doing this for a long time and have a massive backlog of ideas and concepts. But that backlog came from spending all those hours sketching and drawing earlier in my life. Having the time to sketch now allows my years of experience to flow out of me into new ideas - stronger, more fleshed-out ideas. So, having time to do this really makes my art better. So I need to remind myself constantly and make the time to do MORE of it.

This was my final sketch of the morning.

I allowed the marker to move on the paper and go where it wanted to go. I purposefully didn't want to go into this one with an idea or plan. My goal was to respond to each mark I made or simply let the marks exist as they are. I scribbled a lot and then went back in with the black pens to pull the forms out of the scribble. I also wanted to push things in this one beyond what I usually would do. That is why there is a balloon head and a long, bent neck. I wouldn't normally do these things and that is exactly why I did them. If a sketch 'fails', there is no cost except the short time you worked on it - BUT even then, you haven't failed. You have learned. You have tried. And you have a drawing. Take the time, make the time, and DRAW!

That's all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com