Thursday 23 August 2007

In the zone...

Garden door, Crail, Mixed media in Sketchbook, 14x21 cm

Earlier today, a colleague mentioned how he'd been sketching while on holidays and how relaxing he found it just to focus on one thing at a time.

This feeling of 'being single-minded' resonates with my own thoughts on sketching. In fact, it was the recent class on reflective surfaces that reminded me of it: loosing myself in the observation of one object, its details, and how in turn these details make up the object and the scene.

There are many blogs and sites on the web that discuss sketching, keeping sketching journals and many of them discuss this simple beauty of making 'Travels with a sketchbook' (as Katherine Tyrrell's blog is called).

'Travelling' both literally and metaphorically is a good point here: while sitting still or standing to take in the scene and to get down a sketch, our eyes are all the same busy with watching, looking and our mind is busy making sense(s) - and so are our hands with pencils, graphite or other tools.

Here are a few recent discoveries of sketching/drawing blogs:


'Flow' is the term used in psychology on this sense of absorption and interest created by a challenging and interesting task. See here for some elaboration in a Wikipedia entry. And below are some examples of my own flow when sketching (all mixed media in sketchbook, 14x21 cm) in Crail - a very cutesy fishing village in Eastneuk:



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Gesa,
I like sketches, too.
Especially the German like Fruehstyxradio, Dieter Nuhr and Ruediger Hoffmann are very funny.
Do you know the "Flasche Pommes" Sketch by Didi Hallervorden?

cya
A.J.

Gesa said...

48 states to go, joe, me thinks :)

Making A Mark said...

Thanks for the link Gesa

Is this the Crail which is just outside St Andrews?

Gesa said...

Hi Katherine - yes it is indeed in Fife and near St Andrews. It's a lovely place, have you been there?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for linking my blog! Nice artwork, I really enjoy your abstract pastels!

Making A Mark said...

No - I've visited St Andres but have never been to East Neuk although have heard it is very beautiful and that Crail is one of the best looking villages around.

Casey Klahn said...

Very pleasing sketches, Gesa. Wonderful @ gate - will you make a finished work of this?
Absorbing post on sketches, which is a subject/pursuit I am trying to re-discover in my own art.

Gesa said...

Casey, yes - I've been hoping to get back round to them and some more architectural scenes, but am still stuck with the Israel landscapes. But I see how the collage may work really well with an image like the gate.