Episode 257: Red Sun | Creativity Matters Podcast (CMP)

Above: one of my August 2017 ballpoint drawings (based on a photo at Sktchy) along with a glimpse of a page from Paul Madonna’s books, discussed in today’s show.

Episode 257 of the CMP, a Creativity Matters Podcast

In this episode of the CMP, a pair of books by SF-based Paul Madonna, All Over Coffee and Everything Is Its Own Reward, some library #wander talk, urban sketching, and an unexpected heat wave puts philosophical thinking in overdrive.

My not-so-wander-y weekly library stop leads me to two unexpected books by Paul Madonna… that I love. I think you will, too. From the foreward to All Over Coffee:

“There is the life you think you lead, and then there is the one you really do. The first is made of solid dots–your home, your dog, your office–that connect in a straight and pleasing line for months and years, forming the sensible narrative of a life. Details that do not help the story–telephone wires, bus delays, someone else’s receipt falling from a used paperback–are left out. It is a neat fantasy. It is, in its way, quite beautiful. But Paul Madonna remembers what you forgot.”

Tune in as I deep dive into these beautiful books that are and are not cartoon style — mostly not. If you are able to get your hands on a copy of these at your local library, you will be mesmerized. If you draw, you will probably walk away with a newly kindled interest in urban sketching and in drawing what you see out there. I know I did!

The Flow of Episode 257 (and relevant links or referenced people/shows/books):

All Over Coffee (Paul Madonna)
Everything Is Its Own Reward: An All Over Coffee Collection (Paul Madonna)
Close Enough for the Angels (NEW!; Paul Madonna)
Paul Madonna’s site
Sept 15 book launch at The Booksmith, at the Bindery
What It Is (Lynda Barry)
“moments within the moments” (catch the Maira Kalman-focused Episode 197)
Station Eleven (by Emily St. John Mandel)
The Age of Miracles (YA; by Karen Thompson Walker)
All Over Coffee is not a collection of “coffee” pieces (in the way you might have expected), but these small books by Glen Greenwalt have that approach, if you want to see coffee/mug/still life moments. (Each drawing is paired with a quote.)
A Writer’s San Francisco: A Guided Journey for the Creative Soul (Eric Maisel; illustrated by Paul Madonna)
Urban Sketching:
- Archisketcher: Drawing Buildings, Cities and Landscapes
- The Urban Sketcher: Techniques for Seeing and Drawing on Location Paperback(Marc Taro Holmes)
- Urban Watercolor Sketching: A Guide to Drawing, Painting, and Storytelling in Color Paperback (Felix Scheinberger)
- Liz Steel – Urban Sketchers
- The Urban Sketching Handbook: Architecture and Cityscapes: Tips and Techniques for Drawing on Location (Gabriel Campanario)
- Urban Sketching: The Complete Guide to Techniques (Thomas Thorspecken)
- Sketching People: An Urban Sketcher’s Manual to Drawing Figures and Faces (Lynne Chapman)
- Dare to Sketch: A Guide to Drawing on the Go (Felix Scheinberger)
- Urban Sketching (class or “kourse” from Sketchbook Skool)
Guitar music: Nicholai Heidlas on SoundCloud
Creativity Matters Group at Facebook
Patreon page

“To work in a series is to define a set of rules, then create within those rules. When I began the strip I only had a concept and a set of theories, so every piece I made was a variation of testing those theories in practice. I imagined that I had interieed a plot of land but didn’t know how bit it was, and that each day I was setting out on an expedition in search of fences that defined my borders. Some expediteions worked better than others, and with each strip I began to forumulate the rules of All Over Coffee as a series.” (Paul Madonna, Everything Is Its Own Reward)