Sketchbooks, Part 5

 Sometimes I needed a break from BFA. Or rotoscoping. So I would think about fun things I didn't have time for.

 And during liberal arts classes, I would simultaneously pay attention to discussions and brainstorm impossible projects, like the Official Whimsy Scout Handbook.

 Or singing trees. But hey, that idea was so funny to me, that on a Monday, because I felt like it, I made it. And now, in a box in my closet is another box that, when opened, reveals a little forest and a fallen tree.

And then Whimsy Scouts became a reality, in a way. That is, the Official Handbook did. For my handmade book class. 

Which meant that Whimsy Scouts were homework. And singing trees were art. And I really liked that.

Sketchbooks, Part 4

I call Winter Break hibernation because that's exactly what it is. The thing with art is, you don't stop thinking about it. Ever. Everything is an idea. And ideas are always growing and changing. And they lead to making. And losing sleep. And even when you do sleep, it ends up relating to art, more than not. At least for me. So as soon as my final critique is done, I clean my room to an extent, throw some legwarmers and dresses in a suitcase, grab a fresh sketchbook, and head to Detroit. This year, I spent 2 weeks of having a fridge full of food and coffee from a coffee pot (and not a vending machine). It was bliss. And like I said, that first day I can sleep, I hibernate. It's not unusual for me to sleep for 15+ hours then. I'll sleep through everything. And wake up at 3:45pm. Best. Feeling. Ever. My mom never understood it, you know, because she has 5 kids and is more tired than anyone ever could be, but for those of us who go to art school, we know it's completely necessary. Because once those two weeks are up, it's back to school, the day the studios open, before classes begin, to make and think.

These pages addressed my ideas and my material preferences. And eventually, after working through technical logistics, I came up with an idea. At the time, I wanted to back project (to limit the interruption of the image) onto "tapestries" of sorts--pieces of fabric that I would silkscreen and embroider a collage of images to tell the story of the character shown in a rotoscope, based on a photograph. The tapestries changed a bit, for the better, but it was a series of scribbles that made sense of the mess in my head. 

And then I did my first rotoscope, about Joanna, with the tapestries in mind, thinking about how the projection would end up looking. 

Classes started. And I started drinking vending machine coffee again. And my dad started making fun of me for drinking vending machine coffee again.

In case you were curious what I wore while making messes this winter, it typically consisted of a floral print dress (or skirt) that may or may not have hurt Debbie's eyes, a cardigan (always), tights or leggings, legwarmers, and superstrengthwinter boots. And a piece of lace or fabric or something to hold my bangs back. And a braid. 

When I took notes in classes, I also took notes on the discussion, in the form of awards. Sometimes I have little patience. But hey, if I'm gonna think mean things, thinking about it as an award makes it a little nicer, right? 

These pages were filled while I was in some stage of production of Joanna's rotoscope. So I would occasionally re-summarize my ideas and often doodle and write myself fun notes. I need balance.

Sketchbooks, Part 3

I'm a big fan of Moleskine sketchbooks. Mostly because I love love love the paper (if anyone knows if/where you can buy bigger sheets of it, let me know!). But also because I like the way they're bound. The cahiers are flexible, which makes them handy for taking notes during critiques, folding them in half and making the surface sturdier. I promise I'm not being bribed by them to write this (however, if they wanted to give me a lifetime supply of sketchbooks, I definitely wouldn't complain). I just know that for a long time, I would see them at art stores or book stores and wonder why they were more expensive than other sketchbooks. Until I got to art school, and my friend ordered me to take a pencil and just try the paper. Just scribble. Totally worth the price. In case you were wondering.

Remember how I used to think sketchbooks were precious? I still see that first page as being so. It's usually hard for me to just start, right there, on page one. So I fill it with other notes. Like this one, written while brainstorming at the bar with Debbie, 2 nights before my Midyear. Also the night I figured things out.

Since I finally decided to go back to my old photographs of Eleanor Rigbies, purchased at thrift stores and flea markets, I had a lot of thoughts and ideas for what my body of work would become, starting from scratch at that point. But nothing was set in stone. And I had half the amount of time to figure it out. So I was a lot less nervous for my Midyear. I was excited. I knew I didn't have all the answers. I had very few. And I was just hungry for feedback. Which I got. These are some of the notes I took during my critique.

And after it was over, I had to get right back to thinking about my final critiques for 4 studio classes. You know, on top of BFA. I made a lot of lists. To remember everything. Because during BFA year, ideas and projects end up blurred together a lot. And you still have to turn things in.

Somehow, there's always a decent amount of math in my sketchbooks. Measurements, budgets, proportions... They don't tell you that when you apply to art school. Oh, and this is how the posters for SIE started. As a scribble like this. With a ram and a speech bubble. 

Without much direction, and only the need to reference found photographs, I began creating characters and narratives, thinking about possible projects.

We have to make proposal books, which address just about every aspect of your BFA project. And I had mine almost done. And then I changed my idea. So I had to make a second one. That was...fun. 

That last stretch, of finals week, following Midyears,  and just wanting to be done made it hard to concentrate. I began drawing more and more Whimsy Scout scenes. What's Whimsy Scouts? It started with a sleep-deprived Michaela wanting to be camping and making friendship bracelets and merit badges. And all the other scouts would be woodland creatures. Then Debbie joined. I had all sorts of doodles like these hung up in Megastudio. So instead of reading Roland Barthes, I would procrastinate by wishing I was elsewhere.

I made this during one of the all-nighters that week of finals in December. Except I really didn't earn 46 merit badges. I sewed together a book and worked on my proposal. 

But I much would have preferred to be in a field of wildflowers giving a bunny a friendship bracelet. Hibernation came soon after this sketch. Thank goodness.

Sketchbooks, Part 2

You may remember that my BFA was not the BFA I started making, the one I spent a semester working on. 

I had an idea, something I'm still interested in, but the process was all wrong. My department wanted us to come up with our thesis--to decide what we wanted to prove through our work--and then make the art. I don't do that. I like to have an idea, make things, and then figure out what I'm really saying, and make changes, and make more work.

My department's process, which makes sense for doing long term projects like animations based on a linear narrative. But when you dabble in other materials and processes, your ideas are a little chaotic. I lost a lot of sleep trying to make sense of what I wanted to do.

I tried to work on a thesis. I spent weeks thinking and writing and re-writing. But it was all wrong. I just needed to make things.

And I needed to listen to people that made sense. I needed to listen to artists I respected. And stop wasting time listening to advice that was irrelevant.

After 8 weeks, at my midterm, I strongly considered changing my idea (to what it ended up being). But I figured I should tough it out. I spent 8 weeks already researching, and maybe I just was in a funk. I figured it would work out eventually.

But I was working too hard. And running out of time. I had little work to show related to my BFA, besides research and writing, and the writing was stale. It wasn't what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. And I was in denial.

And luckily, 6 days before my Midyear presentation (a big critique of BFA work done so far in the fall semester), right before the student holiday sale, and right in the middle of final critiques, I had a studio visit with someone who had great advice. And he called me out on it. He told me that he wasn't sold, and he didn't think this is what I wanted to do. And I didn't argue.

The process, which wasn't working for me at all, got me too far away from my original idea. It didn't feel right anymore. It wasn't what I wanted to do. So I had to step back. Way back.

I had a lot of ideas of bodies of work, but the time wasn't right for all of them. And Monday night at 9pm, just 15 hours before I was required to turn in a copy of my Midyear presentation files, I figured it out. But more about that later.

Sketchbooks, Part 1

While getting settled here in South Carolina, looking for a job, and covering things in glitter, or whatever, I figured I'd start sharing some pages from my sketchbooks.

Before art school, sketchbooks, to me, were precious, in a way. Besides the big 8.5x11 hardcover bargain journals from Borders that I filled with fashion designs from 4th through 9th grade religiously (which began as a way for me to draw the clothes I couldn't afford but wanted from catalogs that starting coming with my name on them), I saved sketchbooks for "nice" drawings. Something more thoughtful. Or assigned sketches for art classes. Actual sketches were saved for scraps of paper. I have no idea what was so intimidating about plain paper, but I felt it should be saved for something nice. 

When applying to art school, it seemed I was told by everyone to show my sketchbooks in my portfolio, because they should show my process. Except that wasn't true for my barely used pages. So in my foundation drawing class, we were encouraged to use sketchbooks a bit more. I think first semester, we were assigned 5 sketches a week, sometimes specifically 5 sketches of hands, or feet, or figure drawing, or showing perspective. And second semester, we had 5 sketches + 5 collages a week. And that was something I was more comfortable with. Something about finding and choosing elements and discovering the narrative they form was less intimidating. So I began to turn sketches into collages. And each week, I started doing about 20 collages. My Moleskine grew 2 inches in less than 4 weeks. It barely closed.

My second year, I had a few sketchbooks, one for each studio class. And I used them to write down ideas and sketch out storyboards. And I had a separate sketchbook for collages. But that was about it. I used them, but not the way I do now. And I think I had some grand revelation (or profound "duh" moment) at the beginning of my third year, when I realized my ideas from one class to another were more related than before. So I used one sketchbook for everything. And separate notebooks for liberal arts. And sometimes, I'd write other anecdotes and fill pages with doodles, or words that would otherwise be written on my arms. It was a start.

BFA year, my sketchbook became a permanent appendage. I would fill up Moleskine cahiers in as little as 2 weeks. I started making my own sketchbooks and filling those up quickly, too. All of my ideas, every little thought, every rant, every idea was documented. Sometimes pages were filled with sketches of possible projects, and sometimes words were everywhere, in an effort to figure out where my ideas were headed. Sometimes there were diagrams and flowcharts, and sometimes there were lists of definitions. And sometimes, there were the outlines of coffee that had been spilled on that page, or glitter that had been spilled, or bold advice I should keep in mind, or song lyrics that were stuck in my head. And now, I can't seem to go anywhere without some sort of sketchbook. If nothing else, I use them to hold papers I collect, business cards, pictures, whatever. Or clover and wildflowers until I can put them between the pages of an encyclopedia. So I'll be sharing some images from sketchbooks I've filled. And I'll start with doodles from the beginning of BFA year, and end with documentation of my thesis project.