The Sketchbook Series - Nadezda

MY NOTES
~Sketchbooks are filled for discovering self



~Nadezda keeps different sketchbooks of different formats and papers and takes different ones for different feelings or purposes.



~She keeps loose paper of many types and formats to work on as well and collects loose sketches in boxes.



~has a theater background that influences her work. Takes many posed model photos which she "directs" with some form of story involved. Theater focuses on the human condition.



~Sketching once a day can mean getting one thing a day for yourself to make yourself happy, in spite of whatever else happens in the day



~"Artistic depression is a price we pay for the immense joy that we experience during the creation times. So if you want to make good art, you have to be able to cope with these dark days. And I guess when it happens repetitively, because we keep creating, we keep confronting those dark places, you just figure out your own system to handle them. As artists, we should consciously accept, because sometime you go some places so dark, but then you have to tell yourself, It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. It's just one of those times of the month I guess, when you fall into this dark paces I guess, but then you don't just sit in the room and cry, you just okay, I'm gonna go for a walk, or okay I'm gonna go meet my friends, or whatever tickles your fancy. i think a sketch a day keeps the psychotherapist away."



~results you don't like: Face the page. Ripping it out means you didn't face it. there is a certain feeling of reward when you look back at project. evident even in the type of mark making



~Consider the energy of mark making. avoid static even over-all rendering. mark variety/ mood



~Working with fellow creators as models means they will not think it's so weird and will understand innately more of what you are looking at in terms of pose and gesture and story. Some people are more innate emotive actors than others who are more awkward to pose. Some artists light a set or light miniatures for reference. Posing sessions can be like "let's play dress up today"



~Nadezda didn't have success with mixing fantasy elements with photo elements in photoshop because there is some part of reality lost in that translation.



~Looks for weird and grotesque and strange inspiration from off putting things.



~spray fixes her drawings



~accepts happy accidents



~Sketches are usually a recording of something going on in the brain. even if it's ugly, it informs you for future work.



~sketches take way less time than a painting, so it's a way to test out multiple references and see what is happening or if it holds up. Some references make good sketches, others are meant to be paintings.



~N. experienced 2 different educational systems. One had lots of gesture and fast poses and drawing. Then a separate school had long drawings and detailed renderings. N. benefited from training both ways. As a young artist, experiment with everything, listen to all your instructors with a grain of salt and go out ans test it yourself and discover. Best way to grow is always to put yourself outside of your comfort zone.



~but a comfort zone can also be a great place to fall back to when things are uncertain or falling apart. You can go to the comforter. Make a conscious effort to choose- am I pushing myself, or do I need to go to a comfortable place now?



~finds she needs different studio/working environments for painting than for sketching.



~Uses music to put herself in a repeated mood for repeated results.



~References a podcast called Bulletproof Radio from a show aired a couple years back about storytelling. NEURAL COUPLING scientific evidence of similar brain patterns between the storyteller and the listener. (here is a link to a pdf referencing this concept https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/107/32/14425.full.pdf ) Storytellers and listeners are actually syncing up their brains.