Wordstock, by writers’ organisation 26, is part of the Bloomsbury Festival. I was the warm-up act: five minutes on listening through drawing and an invitation to try a different kind of note-taking.
I’m told I draw like a journalist – it’s seeing a story that makes me grab my sketchbook. But that wasn’t why I was there.
In that place, for that moment, I notice things I wouldn’t otherwise spot. But there’s more…
Sketching gets me out of my own head and tunes me in, to sounds, smells – and words. So as we moved on to the writerly business of the day, I invited the audience to try taking their notes visually: drawing the readings, sketching whatever they were focusing on as they listened or doodling abstract shapes and patterns in response to the words.
Later in the afternoon, I co-presented a writing experiment about – well, which perfume in the Blaze of Glory collection by 26 member and perfumer Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays? Scented paper was passed to the audience for their thoughts on where it took them. I gave some insight on the illustrations.
These have been small moments in a bigger event but nonetheless, I wanted to be worth turning up for. So I had been on a sketch walk to think through what’s often an instinctive thing. I had chosen sketchbooks to look through. Because it’s easy to overrun and it’s useful for editing, I had rehearsed, with a timer. And the adaptability in my design skillset made me able to rethink and improvise to suit event needs on the day.
If you’d like a talk about sketching for your organisation or event, contact me for a chat.
