60 MPH Drawings

This weekend, I had a chance to practice speed drawing again, since I was not the driver of the car. This is a fun exercise that I started doing while taking road trips, to try to develop my visual memory. I suppose they could also be called 55 MPH drawings, or 75 MPH drawings, depending on where you are!

They are not going to be careful, detailed drawings, which is the point. When I pick up a pencil, I sometimes find myself in engineer-mode, drawing entirely too much detail. For this exercise, I hold the pencil further back. I look at the landscape, and get the drawing down as fast as I can. I have a notebook full of barns that I saw on I-40 years ago. It is very difficult for me to draw architecture this way, but I think it really helped my visual recall to practice. This, in turn, helps when I am trying to draw something like a bird, that can fly away suddenly.

I am now starting another notebook for another interstate. This view is of a railroad track through a marsh.

The tiny notebook is my travel notebook. I have a drawing-in-progress next to it, to show how I use these travel sketches. This additional drawing can then be developed into a painting. I think by reworking it while my visual memory is fresh, I can identify what it was about that landscape that caught my eye. In this case, I was surprised to find that the telephone or electrical wires (not sure which it was) caught my eye... not at all what I expected.

I don't judge these drawings the way I would something that I worked on site, or from a photo. If it has captured the excitement I felt at the moment, I consider it a success. It may or may not not look exactly like the actual landscape. Give it a try the next time you are a passenger!

Mini Books, and Robert Louis Stevenson

Last week, I found a great quote by Robert Louis Stevenson.

"I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in."

I think many of us writers are the same way. I love to read. And I am constantly coming up with ideas for my own writing at the worst possible moments- waiting in line at the grocery store, running or working out, driving in a car, doing yardwork. I have learned to keep a tiny book in my pocket to write things down. I can't tell you how many times I've lost a poem or an essay because I forgot to write it down when I was inspired, or I was too busy to pay attention.

If I am driving, I do wait until I get to a red light, or until I've parked, though!!!

I have a few mini books that I use for these "seeds." They are Japanese stab bound books, made from museum board covered with Japanese papers. I use a nice paper inside to write on. They are almost too beautiful to write in, but what good is a blank book that is not used?

They are very small, 2"x2". This is not the smallest size book I've ever made (that may be another post!), but it is the perfect size for a pocket. I need something that tiny, because I don't always have a purse. The blue one standing in the front is my current volume. It is well loved, and has held up for a long time.