Things to Do at Home: Urban Sketching, Picture Book Style!

Baby werewolf in a coffee mug. Every home should have one!

Greetings from Albuquerque! And greetings from another day of, well, stuck in the same old place with no relief in sight. But stuck doesn't have to mean running out of ideas or things to do. Sure, there may be days (weeks) when it feels impossible to wring another ounce of inspiration out of lock-down, but, hey, we're creative people--we can do it! 

Like so many others in the world right now, here in New Mexico we've had to place our lives on hold while we wait for our health statistics to improve. The two things I personally miss the most are 1) the library, and 2) meeting with my various creative groups. I especially miss my art groups, but fortunately Albuquerque Urban Sketchers has done a fine job of staying in touch, encouraging members to keep drawing, even if it's just sketches of our home life. 

With the instruction of "drawing in place" however, comes the caveat of "drawing the truth." Didn't wash the dishes? Show us those dirty plates! Laundry piling up? We want to see! Be real, be honest, be exact. No fancy-pantsy Architectural Digest staging for us sketchers! 

I have to admit that when I read these "be honest" guidelines I wasn't particularly thrilled with the idea of using my sketchbook as a visual to-do list ("Mop that floor!" "Scrub those sneakers!"). Instead, I needed to shake things up a bit, color outside of the lines, as it were. That's when I thought of sketching at home from the viewpoint of a child: What if I crawled under the bed? Or, What if I lived upside-down on the ceiling? In other words, I could sketch out a picture book.

Some of the tips I considered to help me get into picture book mode included:

• Thinking in terms of height and size: e.g., what do the items on my kitchen counter look like if they're above my head? Or, if I were only four years old, would a flight of stairs seem as deep as the Grand Canyon? 

• Ask what a child would find interesting about a house. While the neighbors might admire a well-kept lawn, a child might notice that there's a gopher hole right in the middle, or that birds are building a nest in a rain gutter. Adults might disdain an old piece of furniture, but to a child it's a time machine or the entrance to Narnia.

• The same goes for any ornaments or household objects. For instance, you could bring a cat figurine to life, invent new uses for a potato masher, or create an entire story around the items in your closet.
  

• Explore small objects: egg cups, button collections, jewelry; even the junk drawer can be a source of interesting things to draw. 

• Toys and their varied surfaces and textures can provide an infinite amount of sketching ideas. Try posing and arranging them in unexpected places. (For some of the best examples you'll ever see using this technique, I suggest viewing the work of Dare Wright--my absolute favorite children's book creator.)

• Don't overlook your own backyard (if you have one, of course. For me it's a balcony, but I do see trees!).  Is there a mysterious, neglected part of your yard? Use it to the full. Make a "fairy garden" and sketch the results.

• Study and copy patterns found on wallpaper, draperies, bed linens, or tile work. Patterns can be useful additions to creating a lively border or background to a picture book page.

• Think back to your childhood home and/or the place where you grew up. Can you reproduce from memory anything you loved or that was unusual or visually interesting? Don't worry about quality, just get the general ideas down and worry about perfection later.

• Even though we're temporarily cooped up for much of the day, it's important to get out and into the fresh air whenever possible. Can you visit the exterior of a museum or playground to sketch for a little while? How many details can you observe? Taking your own photographs can be a quick and easy option if you choose not to linger anywhere.

• Go wild: if you're sketching your toaster, why not color it pink and covered with gold stars? Or replace the cars in your garage with a herd of antelope? 

• Sketching for children is a good opportunity to consider your color palette. Rather than just aiming for primary colors or anything "bright and shiny," give some thought to mood. Are you feeling happy, sad, wistful, or nostalgic for your own childhood? Play with watercolor washes and draw over them later.

•  Set up some reference files from magazine cut-outs or sites such as Pinterest.com, e.g., Toys, Children's Clothing, Play Rooms, Bedrooms, Animals.

Can we go play??

I must say it's been an eye-opener these last few weeks lying on the floor sketching chair legs--and not just because I discovered my base boards needed a good dusting, but because it's made me think seriously about illustrating a children's book from the perspective of an urban sketcher. Sketching is, after all, a way to explore ideas, collect data, and experiment with mediums, palettes, and composition. And where better to start than at home? 

Tip of the Day: If you find yourself getting bored with your own supply of pots and pans and coffee mugs, experiment with designing an entirely new set on paper. Draw a household from your imagination, one set on Mars or ancient Greece. Place your characters on a pirate ship or living in a log cabin. You don't have to be accurate, just playful. Have fun and let me know how it goes. See you next time!

Doodling in Three Acts

This past weekend I had a huge clean out of old artwork: old workshop assignments,  urban sketching experiments, lots of "let's just try this" paint-on-paper sheets that had served their purpose but weren't worth saving.  Among the items I found--and had forgotten about--was this crazy little set of sketches I've posted above. At first I couldn't even remember what they were and then I had one of those "oh, that's right!" moments when I recalled they were from a class I took several years ago on illustrating dogs and cats.

The point of the exercise was to think of drawing and telling a story as a series of three: 1) set-up, 2) action/conflict, and 3) conclusion. In other words, beginning, middle, and end. In the class we were given fifteen minutes to dream up three related scenes following these three steps and then quickly sketch them out. The instructions were to first draw a character (dog or cat) and then have something happen to that character. Finally, there had to be a reaction to the event--and with a twist, something unexpected. In fifteen minutes! Stick figures allowed, but . . . fifteen minutes!

For my first "scene" the best I could do at short notice was place a dog in a park next to a tree with a bird. Okay. That was my situation, or, Act 1. Second scene: the bird leaves the tree and flies onto the dog's head, giving us conflict and Act 2. My last and third scene illustrated the reaction: another dog comes along and admires the first dog's new head-wear: "Tres chic!" How stylish! I guess the dogs were in Paris.  

So there you go, three scenes; a simple little exercise that I then put away and never really thought about again. Which was very silly because it's absolutely what I need to use as I prepare the text and illustrations for my picture book WIP, The White Pony.

This is why: One of the main difficulties I'm encountering is stretching out my initial idea for the story into a traditional 32-page picture book. Now, however, weaving my words and pictures into groups of three is changing all that, helping me to think in terms of story motion and story conflict.

For anyone who's ever wanted to write a children's picture book but didn't know where to start, using this three-scene method might be just what you're looking for. To get started, first:

• Choose a theme. It can be an original idea, or one based on an old, well-established public domain tale: Sleeping Beauty, Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood.

• Next decide on a single medium to sketch out your ideas: pen and ink, graphite, watercolor pencil.

• If you do want to add color, use a limited palette of three to six colors. Keep it simple.

• For your three scenes, you can use either single sheets, three pages in your sketchbook, or one large piece of paper showing all three scenes.

• Begin your first page or scene with a character and situation. In the class I took our focus was on dogs and cats, but don't let that restrict you. "Character" could be a chicken, a ferret, a Martian, or an actual child! After choosing your characters and their situation (playing a game, waiting for a bus, going to bed) on your second page draw a "conflict" event. On your third page, end with a resolution to that conflict.

• If you like, add words or dialogue to any of the pages to tell the story more fully.

• When you're finished, rinse and repeat! For instance, you could continue to sketch out several more stand-alone 3-scene stories, or you could keep working on your first idea, using your next groups of three to create a full 32-page picture book like I'm doing.

Keep in mind that using a quick three-scene sketch technique doesn't have to be about just writing children's books. For instance, how about trying it as way to work out a tricky part of your novel or screenplay? It can also be a method to liven up your journal or next Urban Sketching event, or simply be a fun creative exercise. The main thing is to have fun and not stress about so-called artistic style or ability.

Tip of the Day: If the thought of sketching anything at all is too terrifying, don't give up--photographs and magazine cut-outs can work just as well to tell your story. In some cases, they might also serve as excellent prompts to get the ideas rolling for your next set of sketches. See you next time.

Picture Book Check-in: Sketching The White Pony

Practice page from my White Pony sketchbook

This year I'm once again helping to organize the Enchantment Show here in Albuquerque, a local art and writing event presented by the New Mexico chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Basically, the show turns the usual way of producing a children's picture- or story book on its head: instead of a writer submitting a story to a publishing house and then the house assigning an illustrator to produce the pictures, we invite illustrators to paint or draw to a theme (this year it's Serenity) and then assign writers to write the accompanying stories. It's an awful lot of fun for everyone involved, and my main job is to match the artists with their writing buddies and to make sure everything is ready for our show deadline of June 1.

What this has to do with today's post is that I've been inspired to take this same approach to my own work-in-progress picture book, The White Pony, a project that's been dear to my heart for, gosh, a couple of years now. My title and inspiration comes from a book of Chinese poetry I bought decades ago for the grand sum of 25 cents at a Friends of the Library sale in Carrollton, Georgia. Most of the poems are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and some of the best poetry I've ever read. When I took my first splash ink class with artist Ming Franz, the friend I traveled to Taiwan with, I immediately thought the work I created with her was perfect for illustrating fairy tales. And that lead me to think of The White Pony and how I could turn it into a children's picture book.

Ever since then I've been working hard to "play" with splash ink or splash color techniques and learning to draw horses. Some days I feel I will be learning to draw horses for the rest of my life, but that's also how I feel about all my artistic endeavors anyway. Which is how all this relates to the Enchantment Show.

For a long time I thought I had to write my story first, and it wasn't easy. I didn't know whether I wanted to just illustrate some of the poems, or write some complicated story about a princess who wanted a pony, or a boy who wanted to find a pony for a princess, or a pony that wanted to find a pony friend . . . and on and on and on until I was totally blocked. The one thing I did know is that I wanted to paint the pony and his environment, but I just didn't know what to do with him as far as a story went.

Several months ago I decided this wasn't getting me anywhere fast and that what I really needed to do was follow the example of the Enchantment Show: paint first, write later. I've never been happier with a creative decision. 

To experiment with ideas for my illustrations, I worked in a small Stillman and Birn sketchbook, plus used some larger sheets of multi-media paper to create thumbnails and to lay out color palettes for how I would like the finished book to look:
 

There will be goldfish!

 And even a pony eventually!

I do know the changing seasons are going to be part of the story too. Here we have Spring.

  And Winter . . .

Summer turning into Autumn!

My main method of starting the sketches was to simply lay down random watercolor washes throughout the sketchbook and then try to "see the pictures" in the washes. The technique is very loosely based on the Chinese splash ink tradition, and one that matches my way of writing based on random prompts, whether it's for my art journal or a full-blown novel.

My primary drawing supplies have included Akashiya Sai watercolor pens, Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencils, Kuretake watercolors including their "Starry Nights" set of gold-range watercolors (love, love, love), and sumi or Black Magic ink and dip pen.

Now that my sketchbook is filled though, I'm gearing up for Phase II: good paper! Final drafts! Let's paint those ponies for real! After that, well, hopefully I'll come up with an actual story. But for now, I'm letting the illustrations guide my imagination. As the saying goes, somewhere in all that manure there has to be a pony, right? Draw it and the stories will appear. Yes.

Tip of the Day: How can the concept of "pictures first, write later" help your own writing project: screenplay, poetry, memoir, or novel? Keep in mind that you certainly don't have to draw your own--just a handful of magazine cut-outs arranged into an evocative sequence are often more than enough to jump start a multitude of WIPs!