This afternoon was a trifectal pleasure - a session at the climbing gym (only had time to run up and down the auto-belay routes a few times but it wasn’t too busy, so I was pretty efficient in the time I had), followed by a visit to the library (ah, bliss, always) and then our weekly sketching club, an informal group that meets each week on Fridays at Elevation Place. Because all three take place under the same, weirdly sloping roof (I once tried to draw that wacky building) I didn’t even have to pull on my winter woolies to make my way from A to B to C.
I was on a mission at the library to pick up a copy of Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton. It’s a graphic novel memoir getting rave reviews and keeps popping up everywhere on my radar as a must-read. Of course, every copy in the Alberta library system is out on loan, but I’m now in the queue and hopefully won’t have to wait too long to get my hands on a copy.
While at the library, I took a look in the graphic novel section and picked up half a dozen to read for inspiration/my further education. Which brings me to the question -
What are the best graphic novel memoirs you’ve read? What should be on my must-read list??
(Drop a note in the comments or reply to the email newsletter, depending on how you are reading this).
While in the library, had a chat with April (a local library legend with her finger on the pulse…) and we started chatting about ironing boards (see my post yesterday). Her suggestion was that the narrow upper arm I was wondering about was for sleeves. Agree? Or, if you know better, drop a note in the comments…
Once at the drawing group, my attention turned to finding a way to draw my dad as a young man. I have almost no reference photos of him in his youth - but I did find this snapshot taken pre-mustache, so he must have been in his teens.
I tried a couple of different strategies. I need something quick and repeatable that suggests a younger version of Dad (no mustache, no wrinkles, lots of hair… )
Then, I tried another technique and imported the original photo into Fresco on my phone and did a super quick, loose scribble layer over the photo before getting rid of the photo layer completely.
It was fast, to be sure, but I’m not sure I like the style better than the first rough sketch. [Note: Neither is quite what I’m looking for when it comes to a repeatable ‘Young Colin.’ I’ll keep experimenting.]
I think this photo must have been taken while Dad was at the Sunderland College of Art, somewhere between 1952-1956. This might be the only image anywhere of Dad sporting a dapper neck scarf. I was reading some notes I took during an interview with Dad (oh, if only I had more of those…) and I’m guessing this might have been inspired by a teacher he very much admired at Sunderland, Harry Thubron. Here’s a self-portrait done by Harry Thubron believed to have been painted when he was himself a student at the Sunderland College of Art.
Note the neck scarf and compare to the glimpse you can see of Dad’s. Coincidence? I think not…
[That’s Granny, by the way, of ironing fame, enjoying a holiday moment with her son.]