Monday, February 11, 2013

Let Them Eat Cake...


No PIE!!!!
I'd forgotten how liberating working on tracing paper can be.
Also, how liberating loose leaf can be.  Something magical happens when you feel free to turn the paper around...or wad it up and pitch it out.
I become less married to the sketch and and less afraid to start over when something isn't working.

Why do we feel the need to memorialize our sketches?  Does the author feel compelled to save every first draft?

13 comments:

  1. Love this guy!!! Been awhile since I worked on tracing paper, but I agree! Very liberating!!! Have fun!!!!

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    1. Thanks, Mit. I am doing whatever it takes to loosen up and have fun with my work.

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  2. Gosh, I've never felt close to my rough sketches. I have a shredder conveniently located next to my drawing table to purge myself of them. But I don't work on tracing paper much, I rough out ideas on Xerox paper from work, and then trace over them using this cool 12"X15" lightbox that's thin and lightweight called a 'LightPad'. I just set it aside on my drawing table until needed because it's small. So much more convenient than my large, old lightbox of old, which is usually stacked with supplies anyway.

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    1. LOL. My dad currently has my light box. Before him, my daughter. I find I obsess too much when I trace. I did actually wad up and through away a few flop sketches this weekend. It felt awesome. I have also gottenback in the habit of doodling on copy paper.

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    2. I've done some rough sketching on velum before, when I had a cheap pad of it, but very difficult stuff to wad up. ha.

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    3. Yeah, and erase from. I had a electric eraser just for vellum. That is all we drew on in design school. That and big rolls of yellow bumwad. But that stuff would tear if an eraser just looked at it.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks so much, Jennifer. I am having lots of fun with this one. Tonight I am drawing pies.

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  4. Fantastic sketch Jen. Made the move to tracing paper a while back....love just pitching out the bad drawings. I switched to colored pencils too...got tired of being covered with graphite. Can't wait to see the pies!

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    1. Hey there. So funny, I sketch with #2 pencils and fund with some paper they are very smudgy. It really is liberating getting that sloppy copy down first. I've gone through three variations of things and am amazed at how much easier the next one is to get out.

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  5. I totally agree! I need to force myself to be less 'precious' about my sketches and just get the ideas on paper. Once they're drawn, they can be modified. But if you're too intimidated to even start you'll never create anything!

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    1. Totally agree. I've spent years being intimidated and now I am learning to let go and have fun. I am really loving the results. I don't think we ever lose those ideas we pitch out, we simply build on them and make them better with the subsequent sketches.

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