sketchingspirit

Services at Notre Dame

This was done on January 11, 2009 during the 6:30 Mass at Notre Dame in Paris, France. It is one of my favorite sketches from the trip and represents the opportunity I had while there to just sit and contemplate.

Moleskine Large Watercolor Sketchbook Number 26

This was the last page of my very first watercolor Moleskine and sketchbook number twenty-six in my sketchbook career. It took me a while to get into this sketchbook, but once I did... I was hooked. I purchased a new one right before this one was full so I would never have to be without blank pages.

This sketch is an image of a pumpkin, or to be specific, a cross between a pumpkin and a gourd. That explains the bumpy warts on the surface. I purchased the pumpkin at my local pumpkin patch last October. The basketball sized pumpkin sat on my hearth until it was time to put it to rest. I thought about adding color to the sketch, but lately I am enamored with simple black and white line work. On this page I tried something a bit different and wrote quite a bit and used the words as a background. Overall I think it was effective and now I have some memories to look back upon.

Clan Apis

I have worked on these pages off and on during church services since August 2008. So I figure the pages fall under the category of meditation. I do consider my sketchbook pages a way to slow down, connect with God and pray.

Star Mandala

This mandala was inspired by a similar one created by the Ninth Wave Design's artist. This artist created one of the first blogs I used to watch for their sketchbook work in Moleskines. I love stars, especially the five pointed variety and so… I had to do one for myself.

Mandala

A mandala is a circular art form and a prayer practice that dates back to medieval times when Hildegard of Bingen, a nun and mystic created them to communicate her experiences and understanding of God with others.

It has been used in Christian art as a monogram of God, representing the perfection of God and the everlasting God. The idea verbally expressed in the Gloria Patri, (page 70 of the United Methodist Hymnal), “as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” Examples can be found in churches of all denominations and faiths on their paraments, vestments and other items where imagery is displayed.

Pinecones Study

This little watercolor sketch of two pinecones was done as a result of a prayer walk. A prayer walk is a prayer practice outlined in the Paths to Prayer book by Patricia D. Brown.

Non Sequitur - July 2007

A Non Sequitur page from last July featuring the multiple approaches I use in my sketchbooks. Those include prayer/mediation in the form of a mandala, inspiration sketches inspired by Van Gogh, documentation of flowers observed, an Italian soda and a travel stamp from a trip to the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The flies were created using an image transfer process from a found image.

Logo Development

These pages are an example of prayer clustering (a type of brainstorming in my case) and logo development for the sketchingspirit identity.