Abstract Dr. Sketchy’s 8, ink on paper, 2010 by Sarah Atlee. Click image to view source.

Check out the new additions to my Flickr site – abstract drawings from this year’s previous Dr. Sketchy’s sessions.

Tonight’s session will feature Daphne Chardonnay and the Red Hot Mannequins.

4 models, 2 stages, live body painting, drawing contests, prizes, cash bar & great music, ‘nough said!

Join us at IAO’s beautiful new space, 706 W Sheridan in downtown OKC.

The Brainstormer (Read a history of The Brainsormer here.)

The Psychic Sidekick

Directors Bureau Idea Generator

Michael Nobbs‘ 75 ways to Draw More and Draw Your Life

Doug Chayka’s sketchbooks

A methodology for creating new ideas (written by professional illustrator Nate Williams)

An extensive list of ideation tools

Keith Haring knew that anything worth drawing once was worth drawing a hundred times.

I like to go to movies and draw in the dark. And I love love love blind gesture drawing.

Join the BookMooch Journal Project (or just browse their blog or their Flickr pool) or 1001 Journals

Participate in the quarterly Worldwide Sketch Crawl Day.

Illustration Friday suggests a new topic once a week!

Following are some idea-generation links oriented toward writers, but they could just as easily apply to image-makers.

No one cares what you had for lunch.

Idea Generator Blog Writing Prompts

Googobs of Creative Writing Prompts

Now rock out with your socks out.

Related Posts
How (and Why) to Title Your Work (Includes some prompts to help you create interesting titles.)
Project Idea: Object Sketchbook

Click here to see some more drawings from Dr. Sketchy’s OKC, or to learn more about this whole bidness.

Get your sketchbooks out, tomorrow is Worldwide Sketch Crawl Day # 24.

Sketch Crawl is an excuse to draw whatever’s in front of you or inside your head for a whole day. (It’s like a pub crawl, but a lot more productive.) Challenge yourself, and don’t forget to stretch first. Click here to read more about participating.

I am at the end of my summer sketchbook, an upcycled beauty made by Lindsey Zodrow at Collected Thread here in OKC. I’m transitioning over to another upcycled sketchbook by Sparrowtracks, and I may dip into some Moleskine kraft-cover books.

Looking for some ideas? Have a look at the sketchbooks of Doug Chayka and Debby Kaspari. Or, download one of two pocket guides created by artist Michael Nobbs, 75 Ways to Draw More and Start to Draw Your Life. Go!

Dr. Whatskies? Click here to learn more.
You do this in Oklahoma City? Yes, yes we do.

This post is part of NaBloPoMo for July 2009.

Via the SILA blog.

Today is the 23rd International Sketch Crawl Day! Go ye and make drawings in ye Books of Sketch. Browse the SketchCrawl Flickr pool here.

Hey, Okies: who wants to converge for the next Sketch Crawl, in more or less October? (The official date has not yet been released.) All we have to do is draw. Let’s talk about it.

This post is part of NaBloPoMo for July 2009.

Oh, pens, how I love each and every one of you. Below are some of my favorites.

The Old Standby: Sharpie Ultra-Fine Point.
Pros: Long-lasting as long as they stay capped between uses. Writes on a variety of porous and non-porous surfaces. Inexpensive and easy to find in bulk. Very durable tip, will stand up to quite a bit of abuse. Decent color selection.
Cons: Smelly. Bleeds on paper. They will write on top of acrylic paint, but as the ink is solvent-based, the acrylic will dissolve and clog the pen tip. This solvent will also make paper turn yellow after a few weeks, sooner if the drawing is exposed to air and sun.

My water-based friends: Pilot Razor Point and the Papermate Flair black felt tip pens.

Pros: Very durable. Both deliver black lines with reliably uniform thickness. Easy to find at office supply stores. Good for ink wash drawings (this one was made with the aid of a Niji Waterbrush). I also use them to write down loud thoughts.
Cons: They only write on porous surfaces, not good for mixed-media work. Limited range of colors available.

Not So Much: the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen and Staedtler Pigment Liner.
I tried these while in search of alternatives to the Pigma Micron (why, I can’t remember).
Pros: Archival ink. Durable tips. Waterproof, writes on a variety of surfaces. The Faber-Castell pens come in Sepia, which is not bad, but the ink is almost indistinguishable from black.
Cons: Both pens are fairly expensive for felt tips. I find the tips, for all their durability, are not flexible enough to produce satisfying lines, especially with the larger sizes.

The Champs: Pigma Micron 01 and Bic Round Stic Grip Fine.

Micron pros: Microns have a flexible tip that will produce strong lines and fine detail if treated gently. They come in many sizes, though I stick to the 005, 01, and sometimes the 02. Multiple colors available. Will write on porous and non-porous surfaces. Waterproof when dry. The ink does not bleed on most papers. Microns have a strong fan base: check out this Flickr group, for instance.
Micron cons: Expensive if you buy them one at a time. I buy them in boxes of twelve from Dick Blick. The tips wear out fairly quickly, and can be ruined easily by dropping the pen or leaving the cap off. The ink takes a few minutes to dry, and when wet, will smear on surfaces like acrylic.

Bic Stic pros: Oh my goodness, I love drawing with this pen. Incredible tonal range. Stands up to plenty of abuse, including leaving the cap off indefinitely, storing them in my hot or cold car, dropping them, shoving them through my ponytail for safe-keeping, etc. Long-lasting. The ink is gel-based but not entirely waterproof.
Bic Stic cons: Very non-archival. I get around this problem by turning my drawings into acrylic gel transfers. The Medium-point Bic Stic is prone to clumping and smearing (arg!), and unfortunately, the Fine-point is not easy to find in office-supply stores. I order them by the dozen.

For more pen reviews, browse the links below. Happy drawing.

The Pen Addict
The Tools Artists Use
Doodlers Anonymous Flickr group
Doodlers Anonymous website
Karo: The Quest for the Perfect Pen

This post is part of NaBloPoMo for July 2009.

Namaste, photo by Kim Pierro. Click image to see this photo’s Flickr page.

I recently contributed to the BookMooch Journal Thin Places. My entry was the word Namaste.

Namaste has a lot of different translations. My favorite is “The light within me salutes the light within you.” This particular translation was used by the Reverend Tom Honey in this talk for the 2005 TED Conference. His speech, titled “How could God have allowed the Tsunami?”, calls into question our Western idea of theodicy, the notion that God is in charge and everything happens according to a divine plan. He counters this view with the suggestion that every creature contains divine light as part and parcel of their existence. (Do yourself a favor, take twenty minutes, and listen to his talk. His warm, soothing voice alone is worth the time.)



Live Oak Friends Meeting House, designed by James Turrell.

Artist James Turrell has also drawn influence from this idea of internal light. Turrell’s upbringing included education in Quaker spirituality. The Quaker belief system cherishes inner light as the receptacle and source for divine understanding. (How interesting that the disparate Quaker and Hindu faiths should include this same idea at their core.) On his early experience with the Quaker society, Turrell says,

My grandmother used to tell me that as you sat in Quaker silence you were to go inside to greet the light. That expression stuck with me. …Telling a child to go inside “to greet the light” is about as much as was ever told to me. But there is an idea, first of all, of vision fully formed with the eyes closed. Of course the vision we have in a lucid dream often has greater lucidity and clarity than vision with the eyes open. The fact that we have this vision with the eyes closed is very interesting. And the idea that it’s possible to actually work in a way, on the outside, to remind one of how we see on the inside, is something that became more interesting to me as an artist.

You can go here and view clips about Turrell and his work from the PBS’ excellent Art:21 series.