Last week, I got the idea to create a messy physical review of my year.
It's a mostly straightforward piece: each month is represented by a different color, the months that felt longer take up more space than the other ones, and I marked my events, trips, loved ones' 'wins' and mundane happenings with little doodles and notes in the approximate points on the months when they happened.
How I created a high-quality digital copy of my graphic recording
There may be easier ways to do this (like the iPhone scan that Sarah suggested I try), so I'll try that with my iPad next time.
But this is what worked for me with this project.
Rating My New Neuland Stash
My friend received my Neuland stash at the IFVP summit in Montclair this year and I was very excited to try them out. I swatched each pen and marker (including Heather's freebies) on camera and recorded my ratings (video here).
Neuland No.One® Art Outliner, brush nib 0.5-7 mm
If there’s only one thing you could buy from Neuland’s whole selection, I would recommend you get this marker. It was the one I used the most in my two-day graphic recording session. I felt the brush getting a little weaker and the ink briefly run out, but it kept recovering and the ink kept returning with force. It is quite a big barrel, so I feel these markers would stay juicy long before they need a refill (which Neuland provides).
1. Use a string for quick measurements and for making long straight lines on paper.
2. To create any construction lines, use a colored pencil instead of a pencil. I do this to avoid any light-colored markers picking up or smudging the pencil lead when I draw over it. This is a small detail but I feel like it kind of adds up overall.
What's an IFVP board meeting like?
I only attended three board meetings so far, but just partaking in something called a 'board meeting' makes me feel like a proper grown-up.
On our last meeting, the IFVP institute president, Phillip Bakelaar (aka Dr. B), asked us to share a little information about our families and personal lives. He started by talking about his own family and what some of them have been up to, and he prompted someone else to go next.
Recently, I uploaded a straightforward tutorial where I show the process of making my new 'film journal'
This is how I've been making my sketchbooks for years now—the only twist here is that I use colored pages instead of white ones. And I think those turned out better on camera.
If you want to pick up a very simple method of putting together a sketchbook, I suggest you give this one a look.
Yours,
—w
I organized a kids' visual communication workshop earlier this summer. It had taken some time for a couple of the kids to feel comfortable with drawing freely and 'making a mess'.
But I think it was much easier for those kids to let go of any negative beliefs they had about their artistic abilities than it was for the adults I trained in the past.
These young people simply didn't have a long-established self-image of someone who's no good at drawing—they were equally new to everything else in life.
Shortly after graduating from architecture school in the midst of the pandemic season, my thesis advisor invited (and mentor) invited me to join his newly founded NGO, ABC. You'll probably be hearing me talk about ABC a lot more in the coming few weeks and months, but from the start, we knew that there was a lot to learn about the NGO world: our experience in academia and design just wouldn't cut it.
In September 2022, I put out a class on an online platform called Skillshare. I had spent months distilling what I learned about conceptualization in architecture school and making all of that as easy to understand as possible.
That class ended up being Staff Picked by Skillshare and because of it, I was invited into an exclusive teachers' club on the platform where I'd receive benefits like guidance with making my videos, resources for improving my shots and entry to competitions.
