#3 - Being sneaky in the pursuit of art
how to be quick and why remain unseen... like an art-ninja
Welcome to the SneakyArt Post. In this issue, I will look at some of my favorite drawings from last year. There is a gif. Some words. I try to answer a set of popular queries.
If you know someone who could use a little art in their day, share this newsletter with them!
An abundant species, thriving in the Indian subcontinent, known as “Oversmart Uncle”. As seen at JLF 2019, Jaipur (India).
#SneakyArt
I find opportunities for SneakyArt in moments of everyday life. People fascinate me. I love to look at them do their people things, moving from points A to points B, talking with each other, using traffic lights and elevators and credit cards to navigate their complicated urban environment. I watch them carefully, because in the flux of this urban life, suddenly you find a moment of accidental art. You have to be ready for it.
Woman, at the Art Institute of Chicago (Jan 2020)
Such moments are unpredictable. Sometimes they last a good hour, sometimes less than 30 seconds. They are transient phenomena. Every moment, worlds are colliding around us to produce brilliant intersections. You have to be on the watch, trust your instincts and react quickly.
Last week, I was asked some interesting questions about my process, on Instagram. Let me answer some of them here.
How do you draw so quickly?
One of the reasons I love to draw with a fountain pen is that I cannot go backwards to erase. This reduces any reasons for hesitation. Because I can only move forward, I only move forward.
Doing so, you understand your unique ‘mistakes’. A small truth is that most mistakes are easy to conceal. You get better at concealing over time. The larger truth is that there is no such thing as a mistake. Everything is style.
To draw quickly, be bold. Your line is your line.
My first #OneWeek100People Challenge, in Chicago in 2017. One page in 30-40min.
What is style? How do you get it?
I’m quite sure 99% of style is actually consistency of ‘mistakes’. The balance of precision vs accuracy.
To develop a style, you have to love your mistakes and stick to them stubbornly.
I draw people who do not know they are being drawn. I have only a little time to capture what is most interesting. So I must be quick to zero in on that and equally quick to skip things that do not interest me. Repeated over thousands of pages, it helps to hone the instincts to make better decisions. I think this becomes style.
Precision vs accuracy is an interesting model for life as well. What do you think?
Isn’t it difficult to draw in public places?
Drawing in public comes with many challenge. The need to be sneaky amplifies each one of them. I cannot always get the view I want. I cannot always draw the person or activity I want. I have to look, then look again.
Packed bar on a warm night. I was able to stand outside by the open windows, at the Firehouse Grill for Eau Claire Jazz Fest. (April 2019)
But this makes each time also a wonderful opportunity to improve in unexpected ways. Every drawing is fresh. It cannot be planned beforehand. Nothing is ideal, or first choice. There is no comfort zone; it is impossible to get stuck in a rut. The unique circumstances of that day dictate what I see, and what I am able to draw. It is very liberating for my overthinking mind, that so many decisions are taken for me. I get to drawing.
At the CIBC Theater balcony for a performance of Hamilton in Chicago (October 2019)
I drew the stage and the set first, using my obstructed view as a ‘frame’. I wish I was closer to the stage, but then the challenge to draw their faces would also be greater. I didn’t want to take too long. I didn’t want to miss anything! When the action eased up a little, and my favorite characters appeared onstage together, I put them inside the frame I had ready for them.
At a friend’s wedding ceremonies, in Coimbatore, India. (March 2019)
My point of view was dictated by other guests nodding along to the beautiful music. I sat where I could be discreet, and they became my subjects too. It was a sneaky view of proceedings.
What are your favorite art-supplies?
Fountain pens are my primary tool. I sometimes take a fineliner or two. Usually, I do not carry more than 2 pens. My typical sketchbook fits in the palm of my hand. This is important to remain inconspicuous. If you unload several art-supplies every time you draw, people begin to notice.
Clockwise from bottom left, TWSBI Eco fountain pen, Sailor fude-nib pen, and Lamy Safari
I rotate between three fountain pens. Lamy Safari is arguably the most popular fountain pen among urban sketchers. It is light and durable. I have taken it everywhere with me. I bought the TWSBI Eco as an alternative because it has a much larger ink reservoir. Lasts much longer than any other fountain pen. Most recently, I bought a fude nib fountain pen from Sailor Pens. It is $8, and I love the things you can do with the bent nib.
I have a hard time determining what to include in an image… Maybe I get so excited I can’t narrow it down.
Same. One way to narrow down is to get specific. I look for natural frames, and the things shown ‘inside’ them.
It intrigues me what is inside and what is outside. Can those things relate to each other?
Docent at the Art Institute of Chicago (Jan 2020), inside the incredible Andy Warhol exhibit.
From inside to outside. Starting with what is most interesting, I radiate outwards. How much time I spend drawing something is directly proportional to my interest level. As I go further from the subject, things lose focus and are less detailed.
Because I focus, I believe the viewer can focus too. Saves time all around.
This becomes the other important way to narrow down. You don’t have to put down everything. Be brash and selective. They call it artistic vision.
On bus #151 heading west one evening. SneakyArt on the CTA, Chicago (Oct 2019)
This is a <2min drawing. I dissociate from the objects as I know them - seat, handle, cap, or leg - and reduce them to shapes. You see shapes and the lines that constitute them. You see the lines next to one another, and trace the path they take. Everything is just lines. It’s a nice way to see your world sometimes.
What do you not like to draw?
Morning on Day 3 of Jaipur Literary Fest in Jaipur, India. (January 2019)
I don’t like drawing legs and feet (or shoes). I also don’t know what to do with hands. I look for clever ways out. But it’s funny how in the above sketch, the only shoes I did draw helped a journalist find herself in my work. Catharine got in touch from London over Twitter and this page of SneakyArt at JLF was published in the Times Literary Supplement (April 2019).
Timelapse of a #WorkFromHome sketch on commission
#Inspiration
Catch-22 is one of the best books I have read. The plot is simultaneously too real and outlandish. The characters are over-the-top and you can relate to every one of them. Joseph Heller punches you straight in the gut, when you least expect it. I suppose that is what war would be like.
I drew this as tribute to one of my favorite passages in the book. The protagonist, Yossarian, is a WW2 pilot trying to get out of the madness of the war. It is the most sane thing he can think of to do. Only the doctor can certify him fit for discharge, that is unfit for duty. There was only one catch...
In the next issue, we will go back to Escher. His explorations in geometry will take him to higher spatial dimensions. We will gape at his brilliance, then take a detour connecting us to one the earliest works of science fiction — Flatland— and its two-dimensional universe. With the plot of this “romance of many dimensions”, we will take another tangent along dimensionality, tying it to human philosophies and revelations in modern physics.
We will end by connecting to a pivotal scene in the fantastic show Sacred Games (on Netflix). It will be a most exciting trip. See you next week. Aham brahmasmi.
