An Illustrated Life Podcast 006: Rama Hughes

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This week’s podcast is an interview with LA illustrator and teacher Rama Hughes.
Rama’s work is clear and confident and his ability to capture likeness is unnerving. A long time sketchbooks keeper, he has a lot of interesting things to say about incorporating art into your every day life — he and his wife Christine seem to be endlessly creative and just sit around with their friends making things while the rest of us are at McDonald’s or watching the American Idol semifinals. I urge you to listen to this interview carefully and be inspired.
I also urge you to join Rama’s Portrait Party. My family has been drawing each other for the party (I’ll post some pictures soon).
I am very happy that Rama will be represented in my upcoming book, An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers due out in October from HOW books ( though you can pre-order it today).
The whole episode is 47 minutes long; it’s perfect to listen to as you draw in your own journal.
Please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to this weekly feature until the book comes out this Fall.
See all previous episodes on my podcast home page.

Having a problem playing the podcasts? Make sure you have installed Quicktime! You can get if free by clicking this link.

Oh, and here are some pictures from the Gregory family Portrait party: (I drew Patti who drew Jack who drew me….etc.) and Roz just joined the party too. Check it out!

http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf

An Illustrated Life Podcast 005: Kurt D. Hollomon (Part II)

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This week’s podcast is a continuation of my conversation with Kurt Hollomon. See the notes for last week’s episode for more details.
Please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to this weekly feature until the book comes out this Fall.
See all previous episodes on my podcast home page.

Having a problem playing the podcasts? Make sure you have installed Quicktime! You can get if free by clicking this link.

An Illustrated Life Podcast 004: Kurt D. Hollomon (Part I)

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Time for another in my series of podcast interviews with cool sketchbook keepers. Are you enjoying them?
I first encountered Kurt Hollomon‘s work when Dan Price sent me an outdoor gear catalog from Royal Robbins which Kurt had illustrated. It was the first time I had seen a commercial project that combined the sort of drawing and journaling and collaging stuff that Dan and I were into and it was very exciting.
We started to correspond with Kurt and soon received many letters filled with drawings and pastels and collages which were enormously inspiring and encouraging.
Now Kurt teaches at Pacific Northwest College of Art and is spawning all sorts of new sketchbookers while still pushing the envelope with his own work. He has a unique practice: he does a drawing, then goes back and layers on paintings, pastels, more drawings, text, typography, calligraphy, and collaged ephemera to build up the page into a beautiful pastiche. He is very devoted to journaling and documents his days more thoroughly than anyone else I know.
When I called up Kurt for a chat, we ended up talking for so long that I have had to split the conversation into two parts; the second will go up next weekend. I learned so much from him and I hope you will too.
I am very psyched to have Kurt’s work in my upcoming book, An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers due out in October from HOW books ( though you can pre-order it today).
The whole episode is 31 minutes long; it’s perfect to listen to as you draw in your own journal.
As usual, I invite your comments (haven’t had many so far) on whether this project is worthwhile and enjoyable. It take a lot of work to do and I would love to know whether and how you are listening to them.
Please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to this weekly feature until the book comes out this Fall.
See all previous episodes on my podcast home page.
Next week’s episode: More with Kurt D. Hollomon

Having a problem playing the podcasts? Make sure you have installed Quicktime! You can get if free by clicking this link.

Meeting art

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http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swfI have just arrived at the last page of my office sketchbook, the one I carry to meetings and use to write down my ‘ideas’. Flipping through this most recent volume, I came across lots of little drawings. They are generally utilitarian things, designed to record a thought or to communicate it to someone else. It’s funny, looking back through the scrawled pages, how mysterious these drawings seem now, out of context and stripped of their original purpose. Roll over the “notes” to see my annotaions of each important piece of artwork. Or should it be “Work Art”?

An Illustrated Life podcast 003: Hal Mayforth

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On this week’s podcast, I interview illustrator Hal Mayforth about crow quills, snowboarding and the Blues.
Hal and his work are smart and funny. I am particularly inspired by the travel journals he keeps, documenting the hijinks of his family on vacation.


I am delighted to have Hal’s work in my upcoming book, An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers due out in October.
The whole episode is 29 minutes long; it’s perfect to listen to as you draw in your own journal.

http://odeo.com/flash/audio_player_tiny_gray.swf
I hope this player works in your browser.
Please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to this weekly feature until the book comes out this Fall.
See all previous episodes on my podcast home page.
Next week’s episode: Kurt D. Hollomon

An Illustrated Life podcast 002: Cathy Johnson

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Cathy (Kate) Johnson has been an inspiration to me for years with her extraordinary nature journals, her beautiful watercolors and her generous willingness to teach many of us in the EDM community via her informative posts and her many books and articles.
I am honored to have Kate’s work in my upcoming book, An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers.
On this week’s podcast, I share a chat we had recently about her career, her inspiration, her techniques and the crucial role her various sketchbooks play in her life and her art.
The whole episode is 25 minutes long.
Please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to what I hope will be a weekly or thereabouts feature until the book comes out this Fall.
See all previous episodes on my podcast home page.
Next episode: Hal Mayforth

Paint it blue

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A recent email:
Hi Danny,
Do you think being creative and artistic makes a person more depressed or prone to depression? I read a book about this a long time ago. They actually used Jonathan Winters as an example of the creative mind and artist and his bipolar disorder. Something about how being creative taps into the same part of the brain as the emotional area.
 I think that being creative makes one more sensitive which could enhance one’s tendency for depression but that could also translate into increased optimism. I’ve found that focusing on art has shown me the beauty of the world in the face of calamity. I guess everyone’s chemistry is different.
Next question: Do you believe that sketching everyday makes you more conscious and in the moment? (I'm talking more like what the Buddha states about it.) I do seem to remember Dan Price talking about this also.
 As I’ve written in my last two books, I know that drawing is a powerful form of meditation and very definitely enhances one’s awareness of the Now.
I guess I'm just curious if doing art everyday creates a more conscious, but also a more likely to be depressed person?
 I understand the theorem you are testing here: a) Drawing makes you more sensitive so therefore b) more sensitivity leads to more depression. I know the first part is true, but is the second? And the sort of sensibility one develops through drawing is as much about knowing the outside world as it is one’s inner state, in fact more so. I find that when I draw my brain sort of goes on hold, that the things agitating me recede as I dwell in the moment.
I believe that making art and, importantly, sharing art with other people, enhances my view of the everyday and my positive outlook. I know that I can feel down some days and not even want to draw but that if I kick my butt into doing it it usually makes me feel better. Do I think that making art can drive one deeper into depression? From my limited experience, no. There are certainly many depressed, even deeply depressed people in the history of art but I don’t know that they constitute a disproportionate part of the overall community of art-makers vs. the general community.

Being neither a psychologist nor a depressive, I invite ask any readers with a POV to comment on this topic.

An Illustrated Life: the Podcast

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One of the most exciting aspects of working on my upcoming book, “An Illustrated Life: drawing inspiration form the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers” has been the chance to get in touch with the many artists whose work I have admired and learned from since I began to draw. Each of the fifty contributors to the book have granted me a lengthy interview to include with the pages from their journals and sketchbooks.
Starting this week, I shall be producing a podcast that will share the experiences and musings of each of these artists to whet your appetite for the book to come.
We begin with a lengthy chat with Peter Arkle, a transplanted Scotsman who now lives and works in New York. His sketchbook drawings regularly appear in all sorts of publications and are simple, direct, and often hilarious observations about the world around him. For the last fifteen years or so, he has also intermittently published Peter Arkle News, a personal tabloid full of drawings and adventures.
I urge you to
listen to our conversation ( It’s about 37 minutes long — I think future episodes will be shorter)
and browse his website.
If you find this first podcast promising, please stay tuned and consider subscribing via RSS or iTunes* to what I hope will be a weekly or thereabouts feature until the book comes out this Fall.
Next episode: Cathy Johnson
* If you subscribe via iTunes, in the short term it may take you to a page for my old podcast, Everyday Matters. The feed is the same so just subscribe away and you’ll get the new show.

Update

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http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser.swf

I have not been posting. But I have been drawing. I began a new larger (8.5″ x 11.5″) book and committed to only drawing in black and white. Because of the size of the book, I keep it at home and work on drawings from pictures I have found or taken.

Beyond the finish line

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Jack just made this beautiful piece by making a squiggle and then drawing portraits in each section.

Last weekend, Jack had his ‘audition’ at the art high school, doing three drawings under supervision and showing the portfolio of work he’s done over the past few months. He reports that he was quite happy with his work: a still life drawn from memory (oranges slices, a box and bowl of cereal), a portrait of a student who posed for them, and a pastel of a rock show, showing at least three people. However, he said the experience was pretty unpleasant. The art supplies were crummy, the sheets of paper was small, about 5×7, and the teacher who looked at his portfolio was rushed and uncommunicative. It was as I had feared, that the school is so big, had so many applicants, that it would be a very different experience from the schools he’s attended so far.

Art teaching can be terrific. But more often, it is either useless or off-putting. It’s not like teaching math or Spanish, and the emphasis on a right way and a wrong way can be chilling. Jack is also pretty averse to art instruction, though I have fantasies about finding a great extra-curricular program for him, a course designed for kids that are talented and motivated, a teacher that will help expand him, guide him, and keep him fired up. If you have any suggestion on how to find such a person, let me know.

Speaking of your input, Patti and I were so pleased to read all of the solid advice readers sent in regarding my last entry. It helped us to solidify our view — that Jack should go to a strong, progressive, general sort of school and we are lucky to have several great options. Jack has had to write application essays for several of them. One asked him to describe a commitment he had made and how it effected him. He decided to write about his love of art and I thought you might enjoy reading it:

Addicted to Art
I push my pencil to the paper once again and I hear a faint buzzing of the model’s timer and papers begin rustling. I look up and see that “Victoria” is up and stretching her legs. I sigh and put down my pencil to look at what I’ve done so far. Yellow teeth, chin hairs, and two green eyes fill the page. While it seems like I’m almost done with her face, I’m really just getting started. I look up and see about 20 people, each at least 15 years older than me. A sign missing a few letters reads, Li_e Dra_ing Classes! Two hours earlier, my friends had asked me if I wanted to head up to Central Park for a game of soccer. I had turned them down without even thinking. Why? Because art is my obsession.

Art has inspired me to do many things. I draw all kinds of stuff, create t-shirts, and even paint skateboards. There’s nothing quite like the rush you get from hopping on a board fresh with the smell of acrylics and oil. I scratch the art off the bottom then repeat the entire process. My t-shirts designs are drawings I am very proud of and want the rest of the world to see. I draw live models, animals, photographs, monsters, cartoons, and superheroes, just about everything. You name it; I’ve drawn it.

My whole family has been a huge influence on me. I write different designs of my name because my grandmother writes poems and designs art with calligraphy. I work with Photoshop and tried different designs on it, inspired by my aunt, a printer. My father and I talk about art at least fifteen times a day because of our shared interests. My mother studied fashion and
textiles, which has led me to want to learn how to create shirts and work with collages.

Part of the reason I love art so much is because I’m surrounded by it. Living in New York and having galleries, museums, and movies to study and go to has really made it grow on me. I also make art so much because of how it makes me feel. The moment my pen or pencil hits the paper and my iPod starts to play, I forget all about any homework or stress I may have and I am sucked into the page. There’s nothing like going out on a brisk morning and studying the streets around me. Capturing the scene on paper is the icing on the cake.

While I love art, I’m only thirteen, so I have no idea whether or not I’ll commit to it as a career. I know a lot of people who do this as well, businessmen and women who are artists at heart and all share a very strong love for art with no need to make it their jobs. We share ideas, visit museums, and go out together on ‘Ssketchcrawls,’ trips to museums and parks for drawing. Sometimes we even make art to raise money for different organizations and people in need of food or shelter.

I love art (as I’m sure you know and I’m sorry for being a bit repetitive) and I hope that as I grow older, I continue to work at it. Over the years art has expanded my view of the world and taught me discipline. It has taught me to become a better student at art and the world as well. I think that if I keep it a major part of my life, I will do it more and more and hopefully, one day, I will have mastered all different aspects and it will stay with me for my entire life, ‘til death do us part.

If you’d like to buy one of Jack’s t-shirt designs. he’s made a little online store here:

http://www.zazzle.com/assets/swf/zp/zp.swf?cn=238860589517453985&st=date_created&tl=My+Zazzle+Panel&skn=default&ch=jacktea

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