After 10 ball point pen journals done over 9 years, my daily drawing routine ended. It may be that the journals changed when I started to get Illustration work based on the sketchbooks. The original stream of consciousness was giving way to other approaches. But there was one other major change that pulled the ballpoint pen from my hand…
…the iPadPro and ProCreate. This is my first experiment with digital charcoal using ProCreate. I was also rethinking my drawing class and new exercises using tone and value were inspiring me to use the iPad more.
I continued my exploration of tone and atmosphere. All of the faces were exercises in understanding the digital charcoal and none of these pieces were directed at an Illustration client until…
Just before COVID in February of 2020 I did a portrait of Sandra Oh in her role as Eve Polastri in Killing Eve. I then drew Idris Elba as DCI John Luther in the Luther series. I was hooked, I had found a reason to watch TV and make images. The CrimeSeen series on my website resulted from these first portraits.
The week before everything changed, the first week of March in 2020 I had a portrait session with the great model Laz. I don’t demonstrate, so I had just a quick sketch that I had done to help a student having difficulty with her features. I reimagined her portrait from the sketch in ProCreate. (The iPad was infiltrating my drawing class!)
COVID changed everything and for me it brought me back to drawing. The more time I spent on screen and away from my students the more that I understood how critical our engagement with materials was. This was the early days of the pandemic—-teaching from lockdown.
My ballpoint pen returned as the screen dominated my work day and I found respite from the pixels and yes drawing from TV again.
As I returned to teaching in the Fall of 2020, I had to demonstrate drawing to my students remote in their rooms strung across the planet. In an earlier post from April of this year I described that entire process, and how the return to conté brought me back into a connection with materials. Muscle memory is an incredible thing.
The iPad is still a critical part of my process for Illustration, but I reach for my sketchbook when I want to think and engage with experiences.
I thought about this loop I just closed, this orbit that has brought me back to paper and pen. I emphasized in drawing class today the need for the students to build their figures into the composition and not on the composition. Sliding across the icy surface of the iPad or getting stuck in the mud of paper and ink….I think getting some dirt under your nails is a good thing.
For those of you South of me, enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday!