I find that the doodle, also known as sketchnoting, helps me to focus and comprehend large quantities of information. I have sketchnoted all my life. There are a lot of myths out there about sketchnoting aka doodling. Here are some links and videos about sketchnoting:
Links:
Sketchnote Army
SketchNote Power Point
RohDesign
I have a lot to say about this but I think that the experts and research is more substantial than what I have to say.
Please be aware as you read this post that I'm not "claiming copyright" to the IDEA behind cult of stuff, the idea that we've got too much stuff and that we fall victim to marketing. What I'm claiming is that someone was inspired by my post, wrote their own after reading mine and seeing that it was quite popular (over 600 hits in 24 hours), and then posted their post. What is the usual course of events with blogs is that the blog post that inspired the post gets a linkback, it's blogging courtesy. What I'm complaining about is a severe lack of blogging manners.
You’ll notice this blog is covered under the creative commons license. There’s a button somewhere on here that states which license it’s covered under. I do this so that people can repost parts of my blog (with attribution) and my images (also with attribution) so long as their blog or group is not for profit. I do this because I see copyright as divisive (more on this in another post). As it’s currently set up copyright is designed to protect big companies (will further be referred to as “the man”) and not the little guy, aka me, as a blogger or an artist. Legally sure it does but it costs money to copyright something and if I were to copyright (register) everything I produced I’d soon be broke.
That being said, I don’t think people should copy other people’s art work, teach classes that other people came up with, buy journals from bookbinders only to steal the design, nor do I think that someone should take someone else’s ranting tirade and rewrite it so that it’s more palatable for their audience and then post it on their blog. You see all of that is wrong, and when people do such things they are morally corrupt people who care more about their bottom line than they do about their fellow human beings.
Just as a for instance. I had an email conversation that sparked one of my cult of stuff posts. I wrote to the person with whom I had the conversation with to be sure that she was okay that I riffed on our conversation. After I got the okay I posted the rant. If I write a response to a post, or a post inspired by another blogger I write “hey this post was inspired by so-and-so over here, read it!” That’s blogger courtesy. I’ve been blogging for a LONG time, since 2000. So this is something you learn when you’ve been blogging for a long time and perhaps it’s something you don’t get if you come out of the old school publishing industry. One might think that it’s something you’d pick up after a year or more of blogging.
My point being if you like one of my blog posts, feel free to repost it with a link back. If you can’t link back don’t repost. It’s simple. IF you like a blog post but don’t think it’s quite right for your audience, contact me I’m willing to do a rewrite. IF you think you can write a better post, feel free, but the courteous thing to do is provide a link back to the author who inspired you. If you can’t or won’t do that, well you are probably of questionable morale judgment and I don’t want my blog and writing associated with you.
On another note don’t talk about respect, copyright and copywrong if you aren’t going to follow by your very own rules, it’s hypocritical.
Some assorted pictures supporting my theory of blog-lifting:
Not much more to say other than happy pride with a sweet little flickr find by Stephen B. Reddy Click through to see it in better detail.
Instead of writing a review last night I chose to paint.
So, uh yeah. Paint. Pochade. Addicted.
I'll get agood pick of the piece tonight, probably, if I'm not too busy painting.
Oh mother nature! Sometimes she’s the bane of my existence. I have this meeting at the regional office in Cambridge, MA. I had planned to go in extra early, as I usually do before meetings, to beat traffic. This time I had planned to wander about with either my pochade box or with my camera. I’d get a little art time into what would otherwise be wasted time sitting in my car.
Sadly it sounds like mother nature has other plans in store for me, like sitting in my car, because we’re supposed to get showers. I’m packing my stuff just in case but I’m bummed about the prospect of rain.
BUT on a good note the weather for this weekend is supposed to be great, so I plan to make another visit to a scenic location and paint with my pochade, this time on the tripod!
Painting at the beach among the rocks. Jane took this pic of me while she waited for layers on her watercolor to dry. I really love our art adventures!
I got a camera to help me take shots of the places I take my pochade box, so that I can better finish the piece when I get home. It’s rare that any one piece is 100% finished outside. I find a lot of the advice given for photography is similar to that I’ve received for painting en plein air.
A brief round up fo advice that applies to both:
#1 Don’t be lazy. (This applies to all art.)
#2 Chase the light.
#3 Look at lots of art/photos, good and bad, you can learn a lot just by looking.
#4 Make lots of art/ Take lots of photos. Throw away the bad. (Paint over)
#5 Be authentic. (don't hit me for using the buzz word)
#6 It’s all been done before except for your vision.
(Also Scott Bourne, a bignamephotodude is into the cult of stuff read this post.)
As an aside I added a tripod mount to my pochade making it even more bad ass than before. Now I don't need to rely on rocks to prop my pochade, now I simply need to lug in a tripod…
Every other week Jane and I have an art date and at least for the summer I’m trying to think of it as an art adventure. This week we headed to a local spot, Salem Willows for some walking and painting. The Willows is a place past its prime, like so many places in the North Shore of Massachusetts, the Willows had several prime times in its existence, the first around the turn of the century and again around the 50’s and 60’s when it was a destination with loads of restaurants and games for kids. Now it’s the kind of place you go to chill, unwind and hope you don’t see a dirty old man with a hooker hidden in the far reaches of the parking lot. (You also don’t leave anything of value in your car.)
All that being said the Willows is worth the trip if only for the views alone. The park juts out in to the bay affording a grand view of Beverly, the Beverly-Salem Bridge, the waterfront, Boats, and beaches. The rocky outcroppings are just dramatic enough to offer some scenery for paintings but not so dramatic that you can’t scale them in sneakers.
We headed to Dead Horse Beach. It’s a mystery how it got its name, a Google search brought me back nothing except the quip, “A dead horse washed ashore there.” Which was something I had assumed anyway, but I was hoping to find some sort of tall tale about settlers and 1649 and witch trials.
We wandered the beach, avoiding a large group of children who were in some sort of science class and set up a base of operations. I decided to afford myself a little more time in my image this time than I had originally planned, I still worked quickly but I wanted to get some layers going in the image. I started working with one of those cheap bristle brushes applying color in large swaths. Though it was a dull day we’d get these moments of bright sun, I wanted to capture that fleeting moment, so I used bright colors and toned them down later.
The sky in my first painting was successful I’m not sure about the rest.
The second image I made I decided to focus on a grouping of rocks, 3 of them at the water’s edge, with me looking sort of down on them. In the image are the 3 rocks water and a small bit of ground.
As I waited for bits and pieces of my images to dry I wandered about and snapped some pictures of things, like the remnants of various playground things and rusty bits of metal and tiny little crabs. All in all it was a great art adventure.
I’ve been thinking of the concept of adventure or a life filled with curiosity and exploration. Perhaps the recent death of my Great Grandmother brings this concept home for me. I think of the way I’d like to live my life and how I conduct myself.
Fpr some reason the word adventure comes to mind. I think because it embodies a never ending curiosity with life and the things around me.
Adventure is wrapped around art and art wrapped around adventure.
Sometimes I try and make a trip to Starbucks and adventure by walking the long way and snapping pictures, or I’ll get my coffee and sit outside and sketch. Of course it helps that it sits on waterfront and there is a nice view of boats and pretty trees.
This weekend I’m headed to a tougher place than my usual haunts for a little en plein air painting and possibly photography. I’m looking at it as an adventure in a pretty but run down place. Jane and I will be slinging paint from 10 to 2.
I have more to write on this subject but the words are failing me.
