Strangers, spreads 1 and 2
Strangers, spreads 3 and 4
This visual map assignment was a lot of fun because it got me out and about, and observant of my surroundings. While drawing people candidly is challenging, I managed to capture likeness in most of my drawings and saw it as a form of journaling, or documenting my experience. It was hard to pick people to draw considering lots of folks don’t take kindly to getting stared down by some random kid with a sketchbook. For that reason i chose to draw people who either weren’t facing me or were far enough away that they wouldn’t notice. However the mom of the twins in my central park spread did shoot me some nasty looks before packing up and leaving. This assignment made me more aware and in the present and overall I had a really good experience traveling from place to place and sketching. I wish I had paid more attention to the environment instead of solely it’s people because I can admit my spreads are lacking of a setting aside from written labels. I drew in 4 main locations but sat in several different areas at each one, especially central park being as big as it is, I walked to different spots for each piece. Journaling is actually a practice that is psychologically proven to increase happiness as it produces mindfulness. I haven’t kept a journal in quite some time, but felt the resulting gratitude and appreciation for the present moment immediately as I worked on this assignment. I like the idea of sketching as a form of documenting and hope to find the time in the future to continue a visual journal.
