The Hand that Draws the Future - Part 9 or 10

How do we build or rebuild the discipline of drawing by hand? One way to develop R-mode drawing skills is travel sketching. It is enjoyable, interesting, rewarding and best of all, relatively inexpensive.

For a book I self-published featuring sketches I made on multiple visits to Istanbul - Travel Sketching: Drawing Insights from Istanbul - Juhani Pallasmaa, the author of The Thinking Hand, was kind enough to offer up this blurb: “…sketches are not mere visual replicas of what has been observed. They fuse and convey the entire lived sensory experience… Ivan Chow′s sketches mediate a sense of life, especially through the slight intentional displacement of line and color. We sense the temperature, hear the sounds, and smell the odours of Istanbul in these sketches.”

What is travel sketching? Travel sketching is the graphic recording of observations, activities and sentiments as an integral and intentional part of the travel experience.

Travel sketching forces one to pay closer attention. Sketching slows down the experience of a place or object and forces the observer to pay closer attention to that which he or she might have traveled thousands of miles to see or experience. Some sketches are made with time on our hands; others with no time at all.

Over the years there are four modes of travel sketching I tend to adopt, depending on circumstances, time, conditions and companions. Each has unique qualities of experience and outcomes.

1. Plein air or “in the open” sketching is work done onsite from inception to completion, generally quick and loose, subject to a myriad of environmental factors such as wind, rain, temperature, animals and tourists. In my experience, there are three recommended steps needed in order to fully enjoy the experience of plein air sketching.

• Relax mind, heart, and breathing
• Soak up the ambiance of the immediate surroundings
• Focus, draw and savor

2.? Plein air Plus mode is when there isn’t enough time to complete a sketch but you wish to retain the same ‘spirit’ or ‘feel’ with which it was started.

• Time limitations
• Begin the sketch onsite in real time
• Take a photo from same POV and complete sketch later …but not too much later. To take advantage of the muscle memory that is likely still embedded just below the surface of your mind and in your hand and fingers, completing the sketch sooner than later allows you to continue the style and pace of the sketch with some measure of consistency.

3. Travel Studio mode is a luxury I fight for on almost every extended trip I’m on. It requires some advance planning in knowing what you want to sketch, taking enough reference photos to make up for not being onsite, and of course a desk or tabletop on which to draw.

• No time, impatient companions, in-passing
• Benefits of a controlled environment
• “Studio” is wherever you end up in the evenings
• Sketch from reference photos taken from different POVs

4. Travel Art Journal – a sketching travel log - is probably my most enjoyable mode of travel sketching as it incorporates journaling the experience, placing it in context and the use of written descriptions to supplement the visual imagery. For this, I use a separate sketchbook, often in parallel with others I use for sketching in the other modes.?

• Visual journaling
• Include notes and commentary
• Sketchbook page composition
• Combination of sketches, doodles, collages

Through the experience of travel sketching in various modes, I have experienced first hand the “thinking hand” Pallasmaa writes about. My drawing hand has developed its own method and style of drawing trees, people, pavement, various building components and even furniture - sort of “pattern language” of its own. Often I find myself “zoning out” while sketching…as my hand “thinks” on its own to finish the sketch. It’s as though my drawing hand knows what to do without me even thinking about it - that thinking hand! Travel sketching is an effective (and super fun!) way to activate R-mode creativity and inspiration