Tuesday 16 February 2016

Boring Meeting? Not When You're Sketching!


As part of being Artist-in-Residence, I have more than once asked of I want to attend a meeting, some of them lasting an entire day. 



I don't know about you, but in my world, that's not normally something you would volunteer for, not when you don't need to. It's a very different story though, when you're there to create a visual record.


I have really enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture every speaker, with a little of what they were trying to get across:



If it's a full-day event, I set myself the additional target of filling an entire book before the end. This was a day-long meeting about Research Bids. I was very pleased with myself indeed, for getting it to fit perfectly on one concertina: 



Actually, I am finding the meetings themselves quite interesting. They are surprisingly varied. My difficulty is that, because I am deep in academia, a lot of the phrasing and terminology people use is hard to retain for long enough to get it written down. I think to myself 'That's a good sound-bite' and start to weave words around the images but then, 4 words in, the end of the sentence is already dissolving away! 



I've more and more been using paint to 'draw' with, or to splosh in as a coloured foundation, before I use a pencil or ink to refine things. It's so fast and so much easier if my subject is moving.



One of the other things that I enjoy about these meetings is that, although the Morgan Centre team are quite familiar now with what I'm up to, the wider community of the School of Sociology has a much vaguer idea, since many of them haven't seem me in action before. So, it's really good fun to scribble away in a corner all day then, at the end of a meeting, just before everyone leaves, to open my sketchbook out along a table, then watch people's faces. 



It's a sort of a ta-da! moment. To be honest, I love all the attention :-D


By the way: remember the sketchbook that I mounted on the wall in the studio a while ago out, as a test? Well, it was still up there, so I carefully slid it out of its little hooks and popped this new one in, just for fun:


It was surprisingly easy to do, which is very handy. I am so pleased with how they look when you mount them.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was that an A4 size of concertina (each sheet)? Looks big on the table. Lovely scenario with them all round the table!

Lynne the Pencil said...

It's not an A size as it's handmade, but it is nearer A5 than A4 when folded up.

Ettoliram said...

Hi lynne!

Just finished your book (pre-ordered the UK edition) and I absolutely love it!
(Left you a review on Amazon too, first time I've done that in ages)
In fact, I started re-reading it straight away, it's so lovely and so rich.

Funnily enough, I'd 'discovered' the paint-first-then-draw method just before getting your book!
It's great, takes the pressure off both stages somehow.
The only trouble is sometimes that I have to wait for the paint to get dry before I can start drawing. Depending on the circumstances, that can take a while.
What are your strategies for that?

Lynne the Pencil said...

I am SO pleased that you like my book! And a huge thank you for the Amazon review.

Realised wet paint - use watercolour pencils for the line, as they work on wet paper :-)

Ettoliram said...

Ha, yes, good point; guess I'll have to become better friends with my watercolour pencils!

Ettoliram said...

(the 'unknown' was me also btw; I'm never quite sure when I'm logged in and when not...)

HD Wallpapers said...

Thank you for your very good site….

Lynne the Pencil said...

You're welcome - glad you are enjoying the posts :-)