Finishing and Big Scale

Sketch a day - Day 173/365

Today I have been doing some drawings from photos I took during the Otherhood R&D last week.

Suzanne and Rosie (who are our marketing person and our producer) asked for a video of the sketches I made during the R&D week. To use as material for the promotional video we will need for the show.

When I sketch in the rehearsal room, I do it as a record for myself and also as a way of becoming present. And I guess sometimes, it's for those moments where I need to sit and be still and quiet, while other folks are working or talking. I think, it's also a way of thinking about the material as a whole. I don't do these drawings to be looked at. Thou I do sometimes share them if they turn out ok.

Later, drawing from photos taken during the time in the room, I think the process changes a bit. Drawing becomes a way of contemplating/reflecting on the time spent in the room. It's a bit more nebulous and I am not entirely as sure how this works or even why it is important to me. But it seems to be.

Have you ever found you have your best ideas when you're in the shower or while you're washing up or perhaps while taking a walk?

Those are all things I do, that seem to help me tune into ideas/come up with solutions. And now, drawing ‘after the event’ seems to work in a similar way.

So, I had always intended on doing some of these ‘sketching after the event’ drawings, but the process became bit more of a task this time, I suppose because I was feeling a bit ‘are my live sketches good enough for a video?’ I mean, I feel quite vulnerable about my live drawings because it's really such a different skill. To try and capture people as they are moving and talking. It mostly feels impossible. But I keep trying because I want to get better. But the idea of these drawings being in a video suddenly made me feel like ‘yikes’. I felt like there needed to be some ‘better’ drawings in the mix.

Which on reflection is all about ego and not about the drawing at all.

Anyway, in the end I enjoyed doing these ‘after the event’ drawings.

It's just good to spend time thinking about what it is that makes a person look like them. Invariably it's to do with how people hold their hands, a posture or the crinkles around their eyes. Even when I can't capture those things on the page, it's lovely to spend time looking with that kind of focus.

I also really enjoyed doing the large scale ones. I usually draw relatively small scale (in A4 or A5 ish scales (&/or the equivalent B shaped sizes). So drawing on decorating paper feels very big and bold to me. It was fun. But also, it was all probably a bit more than I should have been doing..I am suddenly very tired.

So, I better stop.

That's the news.