Sketch Calendar Cover (larger)

This holiday I just didn’t feel like shopping so decided to make gifts: one something that would work for everyone. I toyed with numerous ideas but settled on a calendar.

I started late and didn’t have time to produce the whole calendar myself so decided to have them printed online. There are many services that will make custom calendars for you (Shutterfly, Snapfish, etc.) but those calendars are full-sized: 8.5 x 11 inches, closed. I envisioned something smaller. Ultimately I found Zazzle who offer a 7 x 5.5 inch (closed) calendar for under $20 each.

Sketch Calendar (larger)

I choose twelve sketches from my travel sketchbooks and set to work on the website. Unfortunately, the Zazzle facility for customizing calendars is sorely lacking: inadequate to the task and very buggy. My dogged determination did not serve me well: I should have given up and tried something else but instead slogged through, learning the bugs and carefully working around them. Photoshop helped too: the Zazzle tools for adding borders and lettering don’t work so I added those elements directly into my image.

Sketch Calendar (larger)

Despite the ordeal the results are quite nice. There are a couple of small problems (the spine is too small for the depth of the hole punches and sloppy cutting left crop marks on most pages), but the paper quality and printing are both excellent.

The calendars were well received, and I am glad I decided to make my gifts. Sadly, I can not recommend Zazzle right now but hopefully by next year their tools will improve.

I do recommend using your sketches as calendar content though. Sketches don’t have to be fancy to make a charming calendar and it’s fun to plan out the project and see the results.

For those of you who are curious, I have scanned all of the calendar spreads and you can take a look:

2008 Sketch Calendar Pages

Update: I have had several requests to purchase this calendar. In fact you can, directly from Zazzle:

   http://www.zazzle.com/trumpetvine

Right now it seems to be $17.95 plus shipping. I am not seeking to make any money on this, nor will I, but you’re welcome to order one if you like.

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And a happy one it is for me, as I have been honored with Katherine Tyrrell’s, “Travels with a Sketchbook Shield” award for 2007!

Holidays at Bar César,
Berkeley (larger)

It is indeed an honor to be recognized by Katherine, and especially in the company of the other finalists, all of whom have been great inspirations to me:

Katherine’s award is extra meaningful to me because it was her "Blogging Art in 2006" posts, Part 1 and Part 2 which really inspired me to get serious about sketchblogging. Her blog is chock full of useful art information and links, her sketching and artwork is wonderful, and I have learned so much from her about blogging as well. She is a pro indeed!

Thank you Katherine for your very kind regard, and thank you to all the sketchbloggers out there who inspire me every day.

Happy New Year Everyone!

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Arlington Fountain,
Crop for Card (larger)

Arlington Fountain,
Original Sketch (larger)

This year for our holiday cards I made a sketch of my favorite fountain all decked out for the holidays. Arlington Fountain sits in the center of the Marin traffic circle, here in Berkeley, and is a reproduction of the fountain that stood there from 1911 through the 1950’s.

The sketch seemed a bit stark to me though (maybe needs a bit of background?), so decided to try an extremely cropped version of it for some of the cards. I like the result! I had the cards made at Shutterfly, who did a fine job just like they did on my cards last year and on my foodie note cards.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Related:
  Other Projects
  Arlington Fountain SketchCrawl

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Well it’s happened: I have been at this for a full year!

The experience has been so different and so much more amazing than I ever expected: I am just stunned. Most especially wonderful are all of the great people I have met, both online and in person, as a result of this endeavor.

Because I played around with the blog before publicly announcing it the actual anniversary date is murky. I have decided on today because it was one year ago when I received my very first comment, and from the wonderfully inspiring Jana Bouc no less. Jana’s blog was influential in getting me started on this adventure in the first place, and I have since had the pleasure of sketching with her as well.

It’s been a crazy whirlwind of a year. When I started the blog I hoped that it would get me sketching more, and it certainly has done that. I had no idea though how much work it would be or how hectic it would sometimes make my life. But I also didn’t expect the community, encouragement, new directions and immense satisfaction it has brought to me.

The Crazy Life of the Sketchblogger (larger)

I would like to extend a heartfelt
    * T H A N K   Y O U *
to the sketchblog community: fellow bloggers who inspire me every day, the many wonderful people who leave encouraging comments and emails, and all the folks out there who come by for a visit now and then or read via the RSS feed or the EDM Superblog. It is the human connection of this experience that has been the best reward of all.

And now, I’m off to drink a glass of champagne 🙂

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Mari's Costa Rica Sketchbook

After recently reading the new book The Art of Travel With a Sketchbook I wanted to know more about the author, Mari Le Glatin-Keis. I was fortunate to be able to correspond with her by both email and phone, and discovered that she is very enthusiastic about the joys of travel sketching.

Mari
Sketching

Martha: What kind of sketching do you for your own enjoyment?

Mari: Sketching is amazing, isn’t it? I find myself sketching whenever I travel; everything I see stimulates me to record. My sketchbook pages are all I have to carry memories, as I don’t take photographs. At home, I don’t sketch every day but I always carry a small sketchbook and pencil on my walks and bicycle rides. Even if I do not use them I like to have them on hand. When I don’t have my sketchbook, I sketch with my eyes; I literally use my eyes as if they were pens or brushes.

Martha: You travel quite a bit then?

Mari’s Bretagne
Sketchbook (full page)

Mari: Yes, I grew up in France and each year I spend time there, here in the US, and also in Mexico. My travel workshops give me the opportunity to keep a balance between continents but I feel at home wherever I happen to be. I am living primarily in Oregon right now and every time I come back to Corvallis I jump on my bike and ride towards the coastal range with a smile on my face. I am here right now and it is beautiful, even as we move into winter.

I have always been a sketcher and a traveler. I met my husband Dick in Ecuador 30 years ago when I was making my way through South America sketching plants and flowers. Back then sketching was already my life and expression, my “raison d’être” as I moved deep through the Andes and the Amazon, amongst the local people. Sadly, I later lost those four years of recordings in a shipwreck in 1978 (another long story!) and that was that. It was my first big lesson in “letting go” and about the ephemeral side of life.

Martha: What prompted you to write The Art of Travel With a Sketchbook?

Mari’s Estuary
Sketchbook
(full page)

Mari: In years of leading sketching workshops I have seen people of all ages, with no art training, becoming bold, confident and expressive. I hoped to share what I have witnessed and encourage more people to sketch.

I wanted to tell people how sketching can save your life as it saved mine! Sketchbooks are more valuable than any finished piece to be hung on a wall as they contain your first emotions and your own interpretation of a moment or a situation. When sketching we are open to the world outside us, we forget about pains and worries, and are totally in the moment.

I also wanted to encourage people to have a deeper travel experience by observing cultural details and local people more closely. In many countries traveling with a sketchbook will set you apart from a regular tourist. Often I remind my participants that if traveling with a sketchbook is about recording life as it is, wherever we are, then we should allow our pages to reflect what we see. For example, when I look at my many sketchbooks from Oaxaca in the eight years I went there, I can see what was coming. The tension, the increasing contrast between the rich and the poor, it is all there in my pages.

Martha: How did you go about publishing the book?

Mari’s Summer
Lake Sketchbook
(full page)

Mari: I met my publisher Suzanne McNeil in one of my workshops in Oaxaca. She was enthusiastic about the book and upon coming back from my travels I had a contract waiting for me.

Although I have created other books, this was the first time I had to write the full text as well as illustrate. This was a new challenge, especially since English is not my first language. Making the entire book took a year and a half of intense work. I even created pages in my sleep!

But the real hardship came when the designer asked me put my mockup on the computer. Until then, when laying out pages for a book I manually cut and pasted the pages and I loved that process. Layout on the computer was very different. A friend and workshop participant, Dianne Roth, saved me when she volunteered to help me transfer my hard copy onto the computer.

Martha: You’ve included quite a bit of student work in the book?

Mari’s Bretagne
Sketchbook
(full page)

Mari: Yes, I always knew that if I was going to make a book on sketching I had to give my participants a voice. Only they could illustrate the approach. Over 20 participants volunteered to share their sketchbook pages and write about their experiences.

In workshops I see people re-discovering the “child” in themselves and playing, and I always feel privileged to witness their transformation. I am totally amazed by their spontaneity as, without any hesitation, they lay down the most innocent lines in their sketchbooks. I often envy my participants for their pure and spontaneous renderings: I am still trying to let go of the heavy training I received in art school!

Martha: What other books have you done?

Mari's Oregon Sketchbook
(full page)

Mari: In art school I studied printmaking and I have always wanted to be a book illustrator. I love to illustrate people’s lives and words. In 1997, a couple of weeks after returning from a two year stay in Provence with my family, Margaret Anderson asked me to illustrate her story Children of Summer, based on the insect world of Jean Henri Fabre. I loved the whole process, working with Margaret and drawing the fascinating world of insects.

Meanwhile, I was sending my sketchbooks to French publishers. In 1999, Equinoxe offered me a contract to publish my travel sketchbooks: a dream come true! Four sketchbooks that I had already created, with no publication in mind at the time, were published as books. A fifth sketchbook, Balades a travers l’Armor et l’Argoat, was a new assignment.

I also created a daybook, Mon Jardin Jour après Jour, in 2001. Day after day I went out in my small garden here in Oregon, a sketchbook in one hand and a pencil in the other, and I recorded all the changes I saw throughout the year. I loved the process of creating that book!

Martha: Reproductions of travel sketchbooks are especially popular in Europe then?

Mari’s Mexico
Sketchbook
(full page)

Mari: In Europe the market is flourishing, and publishers are eager to meet traveler-artists to publish their sketchbooks. The sketchbooks describe not only the beauty of the places they travel through but also the social and political climate, and are most often about far away places. These books are used quite a bit in teaching as well. The focus though is on artists who are of professional standing and their work is fairly polished. It’s not something that non-artists are encouraged to try.

It was seeing more and more of these “beautiful” art travel books on the shelves, and remembering the real miracle of the expression taking place over and over right in front of my eyes during workshops that motivated me to write my new book. I knew I had to tell people that if they wanted to sketch too, they could!

Martha: How do you teach Travel Sketching?

Mari’s Toulouse
Sketchbook (full page)

Mari: I don’t teach; I encourage people to take visual notes. I give them tips to help them launch into this great adventure of recording whatever they see wherever they are, either at home or traveling.

You do not learn “how to” sketch, you sketch. In travel sketching there is no right or wrong, no rules or recipes. Words, lines, colors, collage: use anything you have on hand to express yourself. In sketching it seems like the less technique you know the better you are. Many of us have to gain confidence in ourselves before learning skills. It is all about trusting. If we put our expectations and our critical mind aside, beauty will come through.

Martha: What workshops are you planning for 2008?

Mari’s Provence
Sketchbook (full page)

Mari: Next year I will be leading workshops in the US, France and Mexico. All of my workshops take place in visually and culturally stimulating environments. For 5, 8 or 10 days, my participants can totally relax, play and dedicate their time to exploring the wonders of sketching.

I’ve created three workshops in the Pacific Northwest for next year, each in a unique environment. Wherever we are there is culture and beauty to record in our sketchbooks and I am really happy to develop such workshops here in the US.

Nevertheless, I keep going back to the two regions of France I know best: Brittany, where I grew up, and Provence, where I lived from 1992-94. In 2009, I will add Le Lot to my destinations. It is a part of France that I have been discovering over the years and I feel I know enough of the region now to share its wonders with my participants.

I am also about to travel to Mexico to make final plans for a workshop there in 2008 as well.

Each trip is not only a sketching workshop but a voyage through cultures and peoples on which I am able share my friends, food and culture with my participants.

In her book’s introduction Mari says: “This book is a humble statement with no pretensions, written from my heart”. Her enthusiasm for sketching and sincere desire to share it with others is contagious, and I can see that this book was done as a Labor of Love. It was a true joy to talk with Mari and I hope I”ll get to attend one of those workshops soon!

For More Information:
   Book Review: The Art of Travel With a Sketchbook
   About Mari Le Glatin-Keis
   Mari’s 2008 Workshops

Posted in Book Reviews, Holidays, How to Sketch, Landscapes, Travel Sketching, Workshop Reviews | Leave a Comment » | View 14 Comments »

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People who are new to sketch journaling sometimes fear they have years of practice ahead before creating worthy pages. Mari Le Glatin Keis would no doubt disagree. She has been leading travel sketching workshops for 13 years, helping those who have never done visual travel journaling t immediately enjoy the joys and rewards of recording their experiences. No wait or artistic training are required: anyone can jump right in.

Mari has written a delightful book, The Art of Travel With a Sketchbook, which describes her approach. She explains how to make deeper connections to places, cultures, and people with simple sketching and observation. It is what happens during the sketching and the memories preserved that are the reward, rather than any specific artistic result.

The large pages of this concise volume are bursting with color. Subtitled Six Tips to Get Started, these are in fact broad areas which Mari introduces and describes with a variety of tips. Each idea is also demonstrated with lots of work and commentary from the new journalers in her workshops. Their diverse pages feature simple sketches, collage, and colorful backgrounds. It is clear that many have been inspired and moved by Mari’s workshops.

This book would be a great introduction for those new to travel journaling or fun for anyone looking for a fresh outlook or a shot of inspiration. And, I have not taken Mari’s workshop, but it sounds like a lot of fun. In 2008 she will be leading trips in Oregon, France and Mexico.

   Related Article: An Interview with Mari Le Glatin Keis

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I love tulips, and couldn’t pass these up in the grocery today. Merry Christmas, everyone! Or, Merry Whatever-You-Are-Celebrating, as the case may be. I hope you are all enjoying a peaceful and joyous holiday season.

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I wanted to do a sketch for our holiday cards this year but ran out of time. So instead, I pulled out this photo I took last year of the lights on Fourth Street in Berkeley. I had Photoshop-ed it a bit and I really like the result.

Last week I sent it off to Shutterfly to be made into cards. Wow – they did a fabulous job! The cards came quickly and they look very professional. I had no idea they would do such a high quality printing job. Now I have all kinds of ideas for future projects.

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Lately I’ve been thinking in threes. I’ve got triptychs on the brain. I decorated our sideboard for the holiday with three vignettes, and sketched them in little panels.

I’d like to put three large vertical images above the living room couch too, but haven’t figured out exactly what yet. Something big and bold and bright, for sure.

Posted in Holidays, Interiors, Still Life | Leave a Comment » | View 8 Comments »

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