Improving as illustrators and loving (to hate) it

recap of my recent(ish) illustration retreat with Vivien - Part Two

Previously on Part One of this recap—Vivien and I felt we needed a creative reset; booked a cabin a few hours away; packed our art supplies; realized I stink at process (but she doesn’t); she stinks at ideas (but I don’t!); and simultaneously had a grand idea for what to do next.

You’re caught up, but read it anyway if you haven’t. I made diagrams (with a duck!)

Note! If you can’t see the whole recap in your email, click on “view entire message” or read it on the Substack site or app.

Day Two

….*yawn, streeeeetch*—We wake up refreshed and ready to #improveourselves. Settle in, we’ve got a lot to cover…this is a meaty one. 😎

After a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal, yogurt, and granola we grabbed our coffees and set up our “workspace”—a picnic table just outside the cabin door surrounded by crunchy leaves and nearly naked trees. Vivien brought A LOT of materials, of which I am grateful!

A Blick in the woods.

The “Ideas and Process” prompts switcharoo

Sitting there, side by side, with the other’s notebook in front of us, we looked at our assigned prompts with trepidation and that feeling you have when you are about to ask your teacher if you “really haaaave to the assignment and what grade will I get if I don’t?”

In these tasks we were both the coach and rookie—pushing (guiding?) one another when things felt difficult and asking for support when we were unsure.

Vivien’s “Ideas” prompt (set by me):
fill one sketchbook spread with a mind map stemming from one topic;
pick a direction from your mind map;
set a 20 min timer and sketch as many compositional thumbnails as you can.

Vivien did a great job on this! (Not without some complaining, but growing is hard.) I don’t have a photo, but she started by filling two pages (a full spread) in her sketchbook with a mind map stemming from one word—“fool”. There were some initial inquiries on how large she could write…(tricksy).

Next, I had her study the mind-map, make visual connections, and choose a direction for thumbnailing.

Some of Vivien’s timed thumbnail compositions. Looks like she circled her favorites.

For 20 minutes she wasn’t allowed to stop thumbnailing potential compositions—even if the ideas weren’t coming straight away, or it seemed like every arrangement had been tried. It’s important to keep these VERY simple. It isn’t the time to get caught up in details.

In my experience, these timed, nonstop thumbnailing sessions help push past the ‘low hanging fruit’ ideas and find the more interesting compositions. Or at the very least, you have a lot to pick from and the ‘peace of mind’ knowing you tried many a variation to arrive at a good solution. SCIENCE! (kinda…)

My “Process” prompt (set by Vivien):
draw the same character multiple times with different materials each time (using a 10 minute timer);
list 3 things you liked and didn’t like about each one.

(Just reading those instructions made me clench my butt and look for a distraction.)

With no where to run, I pulled up this sketch (below) of Leon, a lion character I sketched late one night in May, 2020, and sat it next to me for reference.

Leon, the best sketch I’ve yet to sketch, imo.

Each time I drew him, Vivien gave me a new, limited, set of materials to use. She noticed early on that I leaned on pencils for comfort and familiarity…so she took them away. And between each round I complained a little while Vivien gently, but firmly, told me to keep going.

In the photo below you can see (and read) a little on how it went, and what I thought about these three versions of Leon. Checkmarks indicate things I liked, while the X’s indicate things I didn’t. The materials used here range from watercolor, neocolor crayon, acrylic paint, to a leaf I found and cut into shapes. (and I snuck my pencil back in, at the end. 🤫)

See those cut up leaf bits? I later found out it was a bug’s house :(

“What’s the point of this exercise?” I frequently asked myself, sometimes out loud.

I’m still considering this question, as the answers won’t be the same for everyone. For me, I think it’s a way to remember that even though the possibilities and choices are endless—that can be fun! It’s a moment of exploration and discovery before you have to sit and just do the damn thing. It informs and encourages future projects.

I saw the benefit of playing and experimenting with different art supplies for the sake of it, instead of always setting out with a plan to make a finished piece. And I admit, it’s tough for me to put out creative effort when I don’t know where it’s going or how it would/could be used. This exercise is something I will come back too, especially when I’m lost on where to begin in the process phase, or when in between projects and needing a brain reset¹.

Illustrating from life (caring about a tree)

After a few rounds of the previous exercises, we decided to move on to some observational drawing. We know it’s important, we never make time for it, but here and now, it was time. We set timers, of various increments, leaning on that tool to keep us focused and moving forward. Here, in the middle of the woods, Tennessee, there wasn’t much to observe, apart from medium sized trees loosing their leaves. BORING. (they aren’t that boring, we were just looking to get out of observational drawing practice)

I admit we approached this exercise with an “if we must” attitude—which most likely led to the early “failed”² attempts at enjoying ourselves. We began not caring about what we did. We weren't interested in the subject matter and "couldn't see the forest for the trees", (yeah, I said it). After some grumbling and discussion we came to a radical decision...what if we decided to care? To care about this tree, to see it as important as character sketches or samples for a client, to really look at it and study it from our own perspectives. What about it felt special to us and how could we show that in our studies?

Top Left: One of the trees we drew; Top Middle: My last attempt; Top Right: My last attempt zoomed in; Bottom Left: Vivien's first attempt; Bottom Middle: Vivien's second attempt; Bottom Right: Vivien's last attempt "she cared"

Left: My first attempt (the timer was too fast); Middle: My second attempt (all of the colors ran together into a dingy brown) Right: My final attempt (I hit a goldilocks time limit and I tried to care about the subject)

To sum up this exercise, we drew the trees > we hated it > then we thought it was ok > then we became generally neutral > we finally decided we had to approach it with our voice.

Timed figure drawing and a frustration walk

After the rollercoaster emotion of rounds in observational drawing, we said “what’s next on our list of artistic self improvements?” Wanting to the make the most of our time and daylight, we pulled up this drawing reference site and set a timer for figure drawing practice. (something we both love, a treat!)

10 second gesture drawings

10 minute figure drawing (not long enough, but also too long)

…I’m sharing only a small number of the drawings from this exercise. I don’t know if it was the time of day (late afternoon); the specific time limits we set; or a combination of both, but we both grew increasingly grumpy and unhappy with what we were putting on paper. We needed a break. It would be dark soon; we took advantage of the remaining light and went for a frustration walk.

It’s worth remembering that sometimes when you want to press on and make the most of your time, it’s best to take a break and reflect on what you’ve done. (and that you’re probably hungry)

Those are fake smiles…we were fuming.

A soothing collection of leaves from our frustration walk. These are still tucked in my sketchbook; I often forget, and they fall out when I take it places.

A game of unexpected connections

Back from our walk around the property seeing cute dogs and scenic views, we felt a little better. We weren’t ready to start the fire and make dinner just yet; I suggested we try this unnamed random connection game as a palette cleanser. You don’t need much to get going—small bits of paper and a pen/pencil.

I first saw a glimpse of this game on Milkwood Farm’s instagram. It wasn’t explained, only brief snippets shared in story form. My friend, Susanna, and I met up and put the clues together into what we have here. (we now have confirmation that this is, indeed, how the game works, good job us!)

“Get connected for free, with ‘unexpected connection’”. I’ll high five you if you get that joke.

How it works, each person:

• Writes something random on 5³ slips of paper (set a timer if you are taking too long)

• Draws something random on 5 slips of paper (set a timer if you are taking too long)

Next:

• Gather and shuffle everyone’s writings together, lay them face down.

• Gather and shuffle everyone’s drawings together, lay them face down.

Finally:

• Simultaneously flip over one piece from the writings stack and one piece from the drawings stack; place them side by side.

• Laugh/cry/marvel, at the unexpected connection you just made.

• Repeat until they all have a match.

A Tip: If you find it difficult thinking of something to write/draw, it’s helpful to assign a prompt. For example, the writing could be “things I overheard recently” or “things my family says”. And for drawing, maybe animals doing people things, or anthropomorphized objects near you. Try not to overthink it.

a few unexpected connections we made; looking back I can't remember drawing some of these. ha

I love playing this game. It opens my mind to new ideas, and it can inform many things—characters, dialogue, and story are only few examples. And it’s a guaranteed laugh!

Vivien got a lot out of playing this, she told me later it was one of, if not the most helpful exercises of the whole trip. She would have to personally elaborate on why, but I suspect it worked for her in a way that mind maps work for me. She was able to see connections for future projects and patterns in her ideas/interests in a new way.

Dinnertime/Intermission: We had a nice time chatting by the fire about our goals, ambitions, etc. (and laughing at dumb jokes) while eating hotdogs, beans, and s’mores. :) + we ate lots of snacks throughout the day (Cheez-its, peanut M&Ms, Doritos)

Timed figure drawing, redeemed

Our bellies full, officially nighttime, we went inside to wind down and plan for the next morning. Before we could start, there was a nagging feeling in the air. We didn’t want that round of crappy, grumpy figure drawing to be our last “drawing” exercise of the day, we wanted…redemption.

*montage music* sketchbooks fly out, paints and pencils materialize, the timer sets to the perfect amount of time—15 min (I think? I honestly don’t remember 🤔).

Barnaby. I like parts of this.

Vivien’s drawing of the same model. So different and so soft!

This was a relatively straightforward exercise. Look at the figure, draw it—one small caveat, we each had something specific in mind we wanted to practice. Me, I wanted to practice unrealistic proportions. I can’t 100% remember Vivien’s, but I think it was softness.

Practicing my “unrealistic proportions”, I streeetched this person to the sky.

Vivien’s drawing—this is my favorite piece from the whole trip!

Bosh! Done! Smashed it!
We were happy with that and feeling our oats again. It’s always nice to end the day on a high note.

Here’s a bonus one from me! I like her!

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That’s quite a lot for one day. Looking back I can see we started out with the tougher stuff and eased into exercises requiring less and less creative energy throughout the day (and night). Our goal from the beginning was to improve our weaknesses and to generally do a career/artistic check-in.

Are we heading down paths that feel good? Do they feel bad? And how can we take better control? (both in our work and in how we navigate this industry)

Consider these questions yourselves and join us in bringing it all together in part three! (here’s part one again if you need a refresher)

Thank you and good night!

Say a nightly prayer to “Saint Vivien of the Shroud” as deemed by Avalon Nuovo

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Up Next

In the finale, part three of this recap, we make notes of our takeaways, and set ongoing challenges/check-ins—taking stock of what’s needed and what’s extra. Then we repack our metaphorical adventure packs with only the essentials (we brought too many beans anyway)

1. I’m just finishing a personal challenge intended to reset my brain after finishing a picture book.

2. Nothing is wasted time. We learned lessons from these attempts too.

3. Or whatever number you want. Just make sure the number of drawings match.