Well I warned you that I couldn't draw....no, no. I think I should use sketch, not draw. Sketch sounds much more artisty. But regardless, I did warn you here that I was going to take a workshop on making artist journals. Well the workshop was this week. I had so much fun, even though my sketching isn't any better. I should have been embarrassed. There were some real artists in the workshop but what the hell. I wanted to do it and if I don't do it now, when might I do it? There will always be real artists in art workshops. So what if they think I could use some art classes. They are right but I refuse to let that take away my joy in the doing.
Susan Dorf was a great workshop leader. She made everyone feel safe about reading and showing what they were doing. She showed a bunch of her own sketchbooks and also some books about artist journals. She gave a bit of technical information but mostly it was about seeing and connecting and being able to put that in a sketch as well as words.
Doing photography and doing a sketch and journaling are similar but, to me, it seems to provide a different emotional experience. I'll just have to do some more in My Artist's Journal and see what happens. It could morph into some combination of Photoshop, digital paint program and words. Yesterday, I told an artist friend about the workshop and how I thought I might end up using it. She said, "Let 'er rip. Go for it."
This sketch was the first one we did in the workshop. We were told to spread out and find something. I loved the clump of purses sitting at the bottom of the steps and chose to sketch them. I didn't have the technical skills to really execute it but to me it is a lovely momento of the workshop.
