Becky's September Sketch

My son loves Ed Emberley drawing books as much as I did as a kid. We've been doodling from the Faces book lately, and it's inspired people to pair with pieces of advice (good, bad, and strange) I've received over my lifetime:

Matthew's 'what's brewing' (Becky Green's Book)

This work is stemming from a printmaking course that I am teaching that relates to linoleum project of the expressive portrait while using the principle of design 'emphasis'.

I thought to use converging lines to focus direction towards the figure. This image sort of describes what is brewing with me currently in my life. The rings are cut-up images of maps from places that I have visited over time (experiences that I have attained). They are floating around my head and some of them are deposited into my thinking and transferred into my speech.

Although I don't necessarily feel that what I am saying is translating my thoughts so well, so I am spreading a rambling noise from my mouth. So I suppose what's brewing is a bunch of gibberish!

Becky's Drawing in Martha's Book

I do love the value of a sketchbook exchange. We get to dabble, we get to fail, we get to try, and we get to learn to be okay with that. Right? Maybe? Sort of? For this round, I modeled a willingness to embrace doodles that veer off course.

Originally, I had fantasies a black line drawing would turn into a coloring book page as an entry for Doodlers Anonymous, but in the end...oh, in the end I just let myself step away from the book.

Sherbet Animal Party...ack!

The theme was "Contrasts in Nature." (great theme, Martha!) My vision was unusual animals decorated in patterns from the natural world that contrast with their unique selves. The result was not what I'd envisioned, and so after first drawing in pencil and then partially inking...I ran out of steam and found myself watching Jimmy Fallon Youtube videos and taking lots of snack breaks. So, to bring it to a close, I quickly scanned the drawing and "painted" with Adobe Illustrator in hopes of a miraculous (unsuccessful) make-over. It seems to me that a walrus and his wild friends have invaded a pint of rainbow sherbet. Sighhhh....

Black Ink Drawing

What's Brewing in Becky's Book

I initially intended to design some homebrew labels for my sketchbook. As a family, we're embarking on a lot of "brewing", and I had visions of clever faux-beer names that reflect the idea-percolating (and good microbrew sipping) that takes place in our quiet evenings.

As I doodled, and as we mused as a family, I realized that a lot of our mental "brewing" comes from two things in our lives: An old, about-to-fall-down barn and our ties to a third generation pear orchard. As people that have lived away from the homestead for over a decade, it's hard for us to sort out what we'll someday do or where we'll someday land or how we'll raise our completely unrooted son. So, we dream and we scheme. The dreams get large and unwieldy--tentacles all over the place of what might happen.

Returning to the sketchbook,  I took two beer mats and turned them into doors. If you flip them over, there's some embarrassing scribbles in there of what might become of the Green ranch or the 100-year-old barn. Looming over it all is our octopus of too-many-thoughts...it's a beast that is as stressful as it is liberating...and maybe someday we'll figure out what it's pointing to.

Amelie

What inspires me? My favorite films, and of course my family.

But I want to leave a bit of mystery, just like the fabulous Amelie Poulain (possibly my favorite character of all time) would.

So treat yourself and watch it. Or come over to my house and watch it with me. 

Then my sketch will make sense.

Then we might cry a little like you do when you watch French films.

Taking photo booth-type photos around Singapore was fun, too. All you need is your phone. No apps, either. Just a white wall and some happy participants.

I also recommend stalking your favorite movie poster fonts online. Seriously addictive.

What inspires me:

What Inspires Patrick?

My sketch this round is an attempt to depict just how powerfully inspiring my wife is.

I tried to show this through having a plain old letter "P" morph into something more beautiful.  You can see that the B part of the letter is helping to make the "P" part more creative. The idea was that the art and creativity of B "decorates" my life and infects me and changes me and ultimately inspires me.

I tried my hand at the process my wife uses to make her cards.  I hand drew the B, then traced it in Adobe illustrator, then used "live paint" to apply the colors.

Becky sketches in Linda's book: Thinking on my two backyards

I'm of two minds these days. Linda Blaize's theme of "Art and Inspiration in my own backyard" gave me even more reason to ponder and wrestle and drive everyone in my house crazy.  November break needs to come QUICK.

Becky recycles in the mystery sketcher's book

I learned that I like a few boundaries, and when a book doesn't have a theme, I have to work a little harder. It's not bad, but it makes me think. The mystery sketcher had a vibrant geometric tic-tac-toe of patterns that Leigh built upon with likewise embroidery. Betsy collaged  a Degas-like woman covered in keys over a whirling dervish. Where's the common thread???? And so I ended up with a collage of my own that echoed some of their choices. But the real message in it was that  sometimes the best ideas are the ones we've used before. I don't think ANYTHING in the sketchbooks is cheating, but after some discussions with sketchers this weekend, I realized that we all have our internal "rules" we're following. I believe good work can be already-used work, and I made myself do it. Almost every image is one I've drawn for something else at some other time.

What Inspires Me

I had Becky's book this week, and I used a paper shopping bag I received from the Tabitha sale as the inspiration for the tree layout.  Then, I used my family-Josh, Ethan, and Laney-as the main sources of my inspiration, while the multi-colored circles at the top of the "tree" are additional sources of  inspirations: friends~movies~cheesy TV~naps~bike riding~traveling~massages~reading~eating out~shopping for good deals~organizing.  The phrases are hard to read, but I liked how they blended together, and I also intentionally included empty space.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers I know.

Becky feels angst about Leigh's book

I had a karmic bite in the keister this weekend. Many kind and creative and inspiring folks have come to me with their sketchbook worries. Should I finish this piece? Is this good enough? Is it okay that I did this hastily? And while I DO care and AM sympathetic, I also have been flippantly saying, "What does it matter? Post anything! Make anything! No one cares! Live it up! This is not worth worrying about!" Sixty-seven miserable hours later, I post my fourth creation for Leigh's book. Leigh's theme of, "Choose your attitude: positivity" caused me to create things that looked like Barbie had a party and puked all over the place. Bubblegum pink and smiley shiny sunshine:

A reject

That's not me. So I'd sketch again, and soon I found myself muttering the phrase that lets me know I've crossed into a bad place. I'll keep the blog PG, but it's a phrase my dad often used while working in his wood shop (usually post hammer-to-thumb). It's part of my DNA, and man...I said it a lot while working on this page on positivity. (I think my dad would find that absolutely fantastic) I come from a line of cave dwellers. We are retreaters. We are people that hide and hermit and fester. We have to force ourselves to people and to the Light. And as I worked with Leigh's theme, I realized that in order to cope with my nature towards the glum and isolated (and the swearing), I have attempted an attitude and loosely followed a code of conduct. I tried my best to document that (often violated) code...albeit with a *&%#@$*^% pen and ^%@&&#** results. And now that I read it, I'm crafting addendums...there's nothing about service, or selflessness, or kindness, or...etc. etc. etc. Sigh. It's hard to be a *&%$#%**@# work-in-progress.

One of these kids is not like the other ones

Betsy's "Outliers" themed book arrived in my hands as I was thinking about writing. I was wrestling with the balance of humor and tragedy and working on personal narratives that I worried would make my readers wince (but made me chuckle). I was also listening to a lot of David Sedaris and Anne LaMott. After all these weeks absorbing wit and self-deprecation and also pondering how to write memoir and not be disgusted with oneself, I decided--enough already--and let a little dirty laundry air. Some of us were slow to gain wisdom. I spent most of my 20's on a runaway train of folly and now-hilarious choices. The result is a silly clothesline of nine former dates: Flip the card, read the narrative, and find the outlier!  (Becky)

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