Working Small on the Road

The first picture — a composition built on the spot with airplanes coming and going outside the window in the Alaska Airlines Lounge at SeaTac.  A bit subdued, but OK, seems I can balance pan pastels, erasers and a sketchbook on my lap.  But not comfortably.

The airplane composition was hardly “elegance within limits.”  Was it the subject matter?  No, airplanes can be interesting.  I think it’s the mark-making.  Drawing in the sketchbook felt cramped.  With my elbow tucked in close, the pan pastels didn’t do their usual lovely dabbing, twisting and swooshing.

So for my next pages, I spread out the sketchbook, pan pastels, erasers and colored pencils this time on solid ground — a kitchen counter.    I chose a simple subject matter — our local resident raccoon (I’d snapped a few pictures of him the week before).

One thing at a time.  Pay attention to mark making with these materials in this little sketchbook.

First in blue pan pastels — with blue pencil for eyes, nose and feet to finish.  Next in black pastel — messing about with vine charcoal, eraser swipes for line.  Inching closer to freedom in a small space.

Something’s still missing.  If I’m going to take pan pastels out in the world — to catch life that doesn’t stand still — I’ll need some scaffolding.

At its simplest, scaffolding is a support for something as it grows.  In this case, it’s a support that would allow me to observe closely, quickly and also capture that something of the subject — raccoon or airplane.

I need more controlled chaos to build from.  Enter the blue color pencil for the first feel of the subject, followed by intuitive mark making with the pan pastel for the shape.   The next passes are with tone (they seem to sink in naturally) and an eraser and red color pencil (sparingly) to finish up.   

Now we’re getting somewhere.  I felt that one. 

Let’s do another — a crow this time.  Moving the blue pencil on the page just feeling the feathers, head and body.   Glance at the paper to see the page's edges.  Then with twisting and turning the pan pastel, the wings emerge.  Finally, reinforcing the darks with color pencil.

That was grand.

A closer look:

In “Books, Boxes or Drawers” (post from May 29) — I resolved to use only the materials I use in the studio and to focus on complete compositions in my sketchbook, to tell a story with animals and lab coats as the protagonists.  Although this week’s sketchbook drawings are of animals, they’re one-offs out of context.

I’m still looking for story though.  While traveling, I listened to Sam Anderson’s “Animal” podcast.  Episode 3 on Manatees opens with, “In a broken world, what can we gain by looking another animal in the eye?”  I noticed animals in Santa Barbara — crows and dogs, along with graduating high schoolers.  I thought about them making their way in the world, alone together.  I thought again about crows and raccoons and looking them in the eye.

What else can I do with these drawings?  What else can they be? 

One answer — spot illustrations.  These are stand-alone subjects used in designing a page to reinforce a story.  The fact that there aren’t background scenes along with the subject (the animal) is a virtue here.  Spot illustrations — how this blog page came about.