Sketchbook Challenge Finale

Moments from the Sketchbook Finale

November 5, 2014

Today, we had 91 sketchbooks presented for display. Hundreds of people came through the rotunda to comment on the sketchbooks and to be inspired by the work of students and faculty.

In the coming weeks, we will gather again to celebrate the return of the sketchbooks.

In the meantime, please let everyone know what you thought about the experience of having your sketchbook open for display. And what you thought seeing everyone else's sketchbooks.

I promised some more pictures from the last challenges, and I will be sharing those when I announce the party. It would also be great to get copies of sketches you have done post the challenge, so we can see what you are continuing to do in your sketchbook.

Please send those along to me at thassele@bryant.edu

Challenge #30: October 31 Challenge

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Oooh!  Aaaah!

You have dedicated yourself (in actuality or in spirit or both) to 30 days of sketching and sometimes journaling. That is an amazing dedication and you should be really proud of yourself, regardless of how consistent you have been.

And maybe you have mapped out your next round of sketches that will take you to worlds and places beyond where we have been. Please make sure to let the rest of us know where you are traveling in your sketchbook--send postcards from the edges of those imaginary and real worlds. I will always happily receive your images and post them for the rest of the group. I will keep this blog active, so we can turn to it and periodically post future events, thoughts and images, including information on our Finale (November 5) and our party (before Thanksgiving).

Watch this Space!

Over the weekend, I will be posting images 

that sketchers have sent in the last few days. 

Please send more!

More immediately, we have a final sketch and a Finale to plan.

Last things first: The Finale is scheduled for Wednesday, November 5, from 12:00-3:00 in the rotunda. I will be collecting sketchbooks from LCS 220 students in class on Tuesday. Other participants can bring books to my office on Tuesday morning, between 9:30-10:30 and Tuesday afternoon between 3:30-5:30.

Make sure to come to the Finale to see the work done by everyone.

Dots from International Dot Day.
Nicely cut out for us by Danah!

And now, to our final sketch of the Creativity Sketchbook Challenge.

I would like to encourage you to end this phase of your sketchbook adventure with a GESTURE (a simple line beautifully crossing the page ) or a MARK of some sort.

"Make your Mark"

We started with a simple dot inspired by the work of Peter Reynolds and his encouragement of creativity in children and in all people.

To give back to the spirit that started us off on this journey, please make your new mark--a mark or gesture that has been forged and shaped and scrunched and squished and stretched and nurtured and hopefully loved over the last 30 days.

I will see you soon, whether in class after the weekend or when you drop off your books.

Carmela's Harry Potter pumpkin.
Happy Halloween!

Challenge #29: October 30 Challenge

Self-Portrait (once more)

Before we get to the self-portrait for today, some updates on our Sketchbook Finale.

The following announcement will be sent out to the campus:

Sketchbook Challenge Finale

Wednesday, November 5

Rotunda

12:00-3:00

From October 2 until this Friday, October 31, well over 100 Bryant University students and faculty have participated in a sketchbook challenge—each day responding to a sketchbook or journaling prompt. On November 5 from 12:00-3:00, these sketchbooks will be on display. Sketchers invite you to view their work and share your thoughts. 

****Please make sure to invite your friends to come see your final work. Those who are students in LCS 220 will be submitting their sketchbooks to me in class on Tuesday, November 4. Others who have participated in the challenge, can bring their sketchbooks to me (in whatever state they are in!) on Tuesday, November 4 from 9:30-10:30 or 3:30-5:30. If those times do not work, please let me know and I can arrange another time for you to drop off your work.

For those who have been a part of the challenge without being in the LCS 220 class, please keep in mind that even one sketch is a success, and you should put that sketch on display to encourage others, so please make sure to bring your sketchbooks by my office.

In a few weeks, we will have a party for all sketchers, including food, door prizes and other items to be distributed. Information on that will follow.

Back to Today's Sketch:

This will be another self-portrait. As we come to the end of the formal part of our challenge, let's spend another day looking at our self.

I am interested in how many people have commented on how much they do not like drawing people, especially drawing a picture of the self. It isn't easy to do that, for a fundamental reason; drawing realistic renditions of someone is really hard, and very hard to do it for yourself.

To take some of the stress out of that, I am going to offer two options that require less attention to a realistic rendition. You can choose one of these.

Transfer Image Option:

With a transfer image, we can take some of the stress out of the process because what you are doing is taking an actual image of yourself and transferring it to a new place/page. There are tons of directions on how to do this on different youtube sites and blogs. 

Here is one appended below:

Ashley Hackshaw Packing Tape Transfer

This is an example using magazine images:

Packing Tape Transfer Magazine Image

The following is a summary of my experience with transfer images from a course on Sketchbooks taught by Lisa Perez.

• Find an image of yourself. It must be a photocopy, not an inkjet copy. Laser copies seem to work fine. (This means you can work with color copies, but NOT ink jet color copies.)
• Smaller images will fit the size of the packaging tape better, but you can work with larger images. You will just have to paste it together.
• Take the clear packing tape and place it over the image you wish to transfer.
• Rub the image and the tape with the end of a scissors making sure that the image adheres to the tape in all places. A good thorough rubbing will transfer the image fully.
• Put the taped image into lukewarm water.
• Then gently rub off the moistened paper. You may have to rewet the paper a few times. Again, gently work the paper off the tape.
• What will remain is the image now adhered to the sticky tape.
• If you rub the paper off too roughly, you can possibly take off some of the image, so work at it gently. 
• To play with your final image, consider laying different water color washes on the page and then placing the tape over the top. The colors will shine through the tape.

Collage Option:

If you do not have the materials to try the packing tape option or would rather go forward with another version of the self-portrait, try to do a self-portrait that captures--less a physical likeness--and more a spiritual, emotional likeness. This can be accomplished through collage. Do try to render a human shape (your own) but it does not have to be a perfect likeness. Imagine your face made out of a cut out collage of different items and colors. These can be found items, construction paper, photographs, etc. What would that look like?

My son and I collect our unrecyclable wrappers from candy bars, fruit chew packages, etc. and we spend a lot of time collaging with them. Last spring, students in my LCS 491 course used unrecyclable wrappers to create a book cover that we then attached to a book block and turned into a journal. Recyclable/unrecyclable items can be very revealing about identity.

Challenge #28: October 29 Challenge

Self-Portrait (Sketching in Charcoal/Pastels)

Martha's narrative, adding tendrils onto an
image transfer map of her community.

Let's end with a series of self-portraits. The first, using the new mediums that have arrived. Some of you have vine charcoal and some have nu pastels. Get a feel for the medium(s). Both are messy and lush in the color and line they leave on the page. 

Make yourself happy and structure this self-portrait the way you want. 

But remember it is a sketch.

If you want some direction, consider these options. 

• Work with a beautiful, lush line. Only a line. That's it. Aim for simplicity and let the medium create the style and mood.
• Work again with the contour of your face/head, but use the medium for shading.
• Work with your profile.

(For the next day we will add an image transfer self-portrait as one of the possible sketches. I will give you a couple of options. But if you want to try an image transfer, self-portrait, make sure to get a few items lined up: (1) a photocopy of a photograph of you (it has to be a photocopy or laser printer copy; an inkjet copy will not work) and some packaging tape. Most likely you have some laying around, but regular old packaging tape will work.)

Challenge #27: October 28 Challenge

Taking a Cue from our Fellow Sketchers

Abby's narrative summarized

Miti experiments with perspective drawing

Lauren's dialogue

Christine's narrative

Sandra's narrative in images

Megi's mandala

Andrew's directions!

Starting to plan for our next steps . . . .

Let's go back to Challenge #25 for a moment. In that challenge, you had an Open Sketch, a chance to sketch anything you wished, and then in the blog commentary, you described what you chose to sketch.

There are two parts to today's sketch:

Part #1: Look at the comments under Challenge #25. Choose a sketch that someone else did as his/her open sketch, and complete THAT as your challenge for today. Adapt as you see fit--using a different medium, etc. But try to maintain the spirit of the sketch completed by your colleague. See if you can connect to his/her thoughts and goals as you craft yours in the process of "stealing" the idea and making it your own.

Part #2: Now, start to think about how you would map out 5-10 sketches that you would do after this sketchbook challenge is over. What sketches would you want to do, for challenges 31-40? In the blog commentary section, write out what you intend to establish as your goal for the next 5-10 sketches.

• Do you plan to work in a style more consistent with Judith Moffat; for instance, journaling and sketching about an event, moment or travel?
• Would you chose to focus on a specific thing (pointy people or crystal cities) like Rob Dunlavey and play with that style or thing until you have exhausted it?
• Would you focus on observed things?
• Would you steal someone else's idea from the challenges that have been posted and try taking it in a different direction?
• Would you play with a medium, like the vine charcoal you are receiving? water color? collage?
• Would you reward yourself with a new medium and allow yourself to play with it?
• Would you experiment with styles only touched on--I will introduce you to image transfers in a concluding sketch, might you play with that idea?
• Would you further a narrative or start a new one?
• Would you expand your artistic vocabulary and try another style--working with perspective drawing, for instance, as Miti begins to do above? 
• Would you work to imitate a school of artistic style you admire to see what you can gain from practicing the movement of line and the play of color? 
• Would you toss it all into the air and start from scratch?

Whatever it is you decide to do, formulate 5-10 sketches that you would continue (ideally, daily). Consider this a tribute to this habit you have formed.

Challenge #26: October 27 Challenge

Compose our Stories

Joe's narrative perspective collage

We are down to the last few days of our collective challenge.  Very soon, you will be mapping out sketches for you to work on beyond this structured challenge, but before then, let's turn to one more time at our narrative.

Sandra's galaxy

Megi's collage

Kayla's collage

Compose your story--that is likely impossible since many of you are working with novel-length narratives. So your goal in this piece is to capture the essence of your story -- bring all the pieces we have been circling through into a whole

• Event
• Characters
• Self-as-Protagonist
• Proximity (Narrative Perspective)

Using any medium you wish and any style you wish (collage, water color, drawing, writing a short story, a poem, whatever), craft something that captures the essence of your entire story.

Here is the thing, I'd like to encourage you to work in a medium that is not your standby. So if writing is not your first choice, then maybe you should give that a try. That is what experimentation is all about. If drawing is not your first choice, give that a try. 

Discomfort can often be understood as "bad." Sometimes it is framed as "scarey" or "embarrassing." In some more tough cases, it is framed as "stupid" or "not worth the time." Hmm. It is interesting to think about that. In what ways are these responses defensive in nature. No judgment of ourselves, here. Just curiosity and interest. I wonder why that is the case? When did we learn that the unfamiliar is something to avoid? How did we learn that things should be one way, not another? How can we be creative if we get seduced by the familiar, if we stick with what we like, or know?

Let's reframe discomfort as "challenge." Be curious about which activities cause us discomfort, be curious about why that is the case, and consider using this sketch as a chance to explore that discomfort. 

Given that these stories have become increasingly more known to you, choosing to work in a style that makes you most uncomfortable will give you a chance to explore these reactions.

Challenge #25: October 26 Challenge

Open Challenge

Taking some time away from the narrative to let the story settle in

New materials have arrived. You can pick those up in my office on Monday (October 27) between 10:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. If that is not convenient, you can stop by on Tuesday between 9:30 and 10:30 or 3:30 and 5:30. Students in LCS 220 can also pick them up at class time on Tuesday. I will bring them to our class. These materials are going to help us with the last few challenges, so please do not delay picking them up.

For today's challenge, you get to assign one to yourself. What have you discovered so far about how you like to sketch or what sketch is one that has not been assigned that you have been thinking about. Assign it to yourself, right now. Make it a concise challenge with few expectations, other than that you move some medium around on the page.  

The important thing to remember (here) is that you will want to post on the blog comments about what your self-challenge ended up being. This will be very important to TWO upcoming challenges. So do not forget to do that.

Take a breather from the narrative, if you want, try something new, or go back to something old. Your choice.  Make sure to post what you did on the blog comments.