How Shari Blaukopf Learned to See the World Through Sketchbooks
Artist Shari Blaukopf (Ep.52) sat at the front of her design students one day early in her teaching career. She had put painting aside years earlier to focus on her career as a designer and college instructor and to raise her two sons.
But as she watched her students struggle, she began to realize something.
“When I studied graphic design, I sketched out my ideas,” says Blaukopf of a time before everyone had personal computers, Photoshop, and Illustrator. “We all drew our ideas on paper. So our ideas went from our head to the sketchpad.”
She looked at her students and suddenly understood, “They didn't know how to sketch. They didn't know how to draw out any ideas.”
Because they could not sketch, they were frustrated. They stared at their computers, expecting ideas to appear there.
But Blaukopf knew better. She knew ideas came from working in the tactile world, from thinking and solving problems on paper. From sketching.
“I said, we’ve got to get them sketching.”
PICKING UP A PENCIL
After leaving art for decades, Blaukopf found herself picking up a pencil again.
She had her students get sketchbooks, but she realized she needed to lead by example.
She made a public commitment. She would sketch for 10 minutes every day and share the results on a blog.
She hoped that showing up consistently would encourage her students and show them that sketching was not about perfection or making something beautiful.
“It didn't really matter what they drew,” says Blaukopf. “They could draw on the bus or draw each other or just doodle or draw from imagination or whatever.”
What mattered was getting their hands moving and, through that, their minds.
URBAN SKETCHING
Carrying a sketchbook was not new for Blaukopf. When she was younger and taking painting classes with adults, she always had one with her.
Back then, its purpose was clear. It was used to plan a painting.
So when she began sketching daily again, she still thought of it that way. A private space for ideas, even if shared publicly.
That changed one night when she decided to see what other artists were doing with their sketchbooks. She was blogging and knew others were too.
What she discovered would change everything: the Urban Sketchers blog.
“It was so exciting to see what I saw online that I couldn't sleep that night,” says Blaukopf.
She was stunned by what she saw. These were not static paintings of pretty subjects. This was life. Artists were capturing the world around them in ways she did not know were possible.
One of the first sketchbooks she encountered was by an artist in Jakarta who had documented the ritual slaughter of a goat. Blaukopf had never seen anything like that expressed through a sketchbook.
“So it wasn't just like a landscape sketch…you're sketching people who are moving, you're telling a story. It was so thrilling, so exciting.”
She was hooked.
“I started looking at other people's work, and they were sketching in markets. And it was the storytelling aspect that was so exciting for me.”
PAINTING FROM LIFE
Even though Blaukopf had painted extensively earlier in her life, the shift to urban sketching was not easy. She experienced the same fears she now sees her students face.
Painting in public creates a vulnerability that studio painting does not. Blaukopf recalls her first time sketching in public, sitting in her car.
“I was so worried that somebody would see me and call the police because I was loitering on the street,” she says.
She also knows that being in public brings the fear of judgment. Part of urban sketching is being in the environment, and sometimes the environment responds.
It is something Blaukopf loves, but she knows it can be jarring for beginners.
“That's why Urban Sketchers is also a great organization because there's regional chapters and city chapters so people go out with others,” says Blaukopf. “And when you're with somebody else and you're both doing the same thing, or there's three of you, or four of you or six of you doing the same thing, then you feel comfortable, because you're not the only one.”
MATERIALS
Today, Blaukopf advocates for both studio and urban sketching. While there is overlap, the biggest difference lies in materials.
“It's very important to not bring everything and I was always guilty of that of bringing too many things. And now I really pare it down.”
It took a few tries before she refined her urban sketching kit.
She started with a 3x5 sketchbook she could keep in her pocket.
“I still carry one in my bag all the time, because you never know where you are, if you're waiting for the garage, or the dentist or whatever.”
She also carries a pencil, a Pitt pen that does not smudge with water, a small palette, and a water brush.
“If you have it in your pocket, then there's no excuse. If you have five minutes, you can always draw.”
EXPERIENCE OVER PERFECTION
Blaukopf loves to travel. Even before traveling to teach, she was drawn to how urban sketchers shared their worlds. As a viewer, you can experience different places and lives through an artist’s sketchbook.
Sometimes that means the interior of someone’s home looking out onto the street. Sometimes it means standing in the middle of a protest. Blaukopf once sketched during a school strike. And sometimes it means witnessing something as intense as the ritual slaughter of a goat.
For Blaukopf, none of this is about perfection. Early on, she worried someone would ask to see her sketchbooks, so she taped the pages she disliked together.
Today, she shows everything.
“You put in the bad drawing and then put in [a good] drawing ...and if you show somebody the good drawing, the bad drawing, the okay drawing. All together. It's just part of the process. Good and bad.”
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