Ep 17 - Looking for Magic with Roisin Cure
In this episode, I speak with Roisin Cure, an urban sketcher and illustrator living in Galway, Ireland. We talk about learning to draw from comic books, and the ways that urban sketching has transformed her art and approach to life.
I have enjoyed Roisin's sketches for their unique illustration style and for her focus on human activity. In this conversation, I learn about the art that influenced her when she was very young, and how that defines the subject of her sketches even today. We discuss learning to draw from comic books, and the useful habit of identifying solutions to our problems in the styles of other artists. Despite drawing all her life, Roisin was still looking for the "magic" that would define her work. We talk about how she finally found that magic through urban-sketching. She shares the experience of putting together multiple books of and about urban sketching. We discuss her experience leading workshops, and how she has pivoted to online classes since the pandemic.
Related Links
Follow Roisin Cure on IG, Twitter, or visit her website to find her blog, her books, and links to her workshops.
Follow SneakyArt on IG, Twitter, or visit the website for a transcript. If you liked this episode and would like to support my work, buy me a coffee.
During the episode, I recommend the following podcasts for artists looking for inspiration and ideas. Danny Gregory's 'art for all' - and Swarnavo Datta's 'Paper Pencil Podcast'.
Transcript
Intro
Hello and welcome to the SneakyArt Podcast. Today I'm speaking with Roisin Cure, an urban sketcher and illustrator living in Galway, Ireland. I was immediately attracted to Roisin's work because of her use of bright watercolors and the focus on human activity. Her renderings of people reminded me of British illustrator Quentin Blake, who illustrated all the children's books by Roald Dahl.
It was one of the styles of art that I copied a lot when I was a kid. It made me feel like drawing wasn't so hard, and I could do it if I tried in this way. At different points in my life, different artists and illustrators have made me feel that I can do it too, if I only try this or that in the way that they do. Empowering yourself to learn in this way is crucial, and in this conversation, Roisin and I talk about the different comics that have taught us how to draw.
Another source of inspiration for both of us is the global urban sketching community. The diversity of backgrounds among urban-sketchers exposes us to art from different perspectives, practiced in different styles, informed by different kinds of training, or not. We talk about being "self taught" artists, and what that phrase means and what it does not mean.
Roisin's work is fun to deconstruct - I see what she shares on IG and I like to think of the real world that she saw, and I imagine the creative decisions she took to depict it in her illustrative style. Which problem did she solve with color, and what did she choose to depict with line? How much attention did she pay to the people, and how much to their surroundings? Her work is a careful distillation of the real world. It tells us many things - it tells who the people are, how they are feeling, it tells us where they were at what time of day and in which season. It tells us all the things we need to know to understand that place and the people who live there. This is a very difficult job, like a highwire balancing act, which Roisin accomplishes with ease, and flair, and as we discuss, a little bit of magic.
It is appropriate that we begin conversation on the subject of finding that magic. Roisin tells me how she spent years without it, searching for it. We talk about how she finally found it, on the island of Mauritius, in front of a swimming pool, inside Danny Gregory's wonderful book, Everyday Matters.
It's remarkable, by the way, how many people have mentioned Danny Gregory's work as their entry-point to urban sketching. If observational drawing is of interest to you, you should check out Danny's books, plural, because he's written a lot of great books. He also has a podcast, of which I've heard a few episodes now. It's called 'art for all', and it has bite-sized episodes driven by Danny's thoughts about creativity and the essential practice of art. If you are suffering from an artist's block, it's a great place to come unstuck. If you're short on enthusiasm, or plagued by self-doubt, it is a good stimulus to action. Find the show on your streaming service and add it to your podcast list. It's called art for all, which is also a great description for Danny Gregory's philosophy around making art.
But more on that later! For today's episode, I want to thank the listeners and supporters who bought me coffee these last two weeks. I also want to thank the members - new and old - who support me every month - Russ, Sanket, Ruth, Becky, Santosh, Ellen, Marta, Dinah, Megan, Mark, Rashmi, and Etienne. All of you have directly helped to make this episode happen.
If you like this show, or if you enjoy this episode, use the link in the shownotes to buy me a coffee, and you can help to keep me going as an independent artist and podcaster. Members also receive a free bonus commentary after every episode, which covers some of the interesting tangents that cropped up during the conversation. This episode's bonus commentary will be about comic book influences like Asterix and Tintin.
And now, to Roisin. I begin with the big question, about Mauritius, and Danny's book, and the magic, and the start of her quest to become the artist she always wanted to be.
05:05 Nishant asks about how the book, Everyday Matters, changed Roisin's life.
(reading Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory)
"I opened it up, and I was sitting by the pool and I was about 5-6 pages in and I just said out loud - Why am I not sketching?"
What did Roisin begin to draw as an urban sketcher and why was it unique to her?
Roisin explains how urban sketching felt more real and intense than otherwise making art and illustrations. Explains how she went about exploring Mauritius as a sketcher, with a theme in mind.
What about the book "Everyday Matters" moved Roisin?
"It was just a nudge, a door waiting to be pushed open because it was already a part of my life. The mojo didn't arrive overnight, but I knew it was on the way."
The frustrations of being a certain age, and not having found your mojo. They talk about artists who died before their time. Nishant refers to Egon Schiele, who died in early life of the Spanish flu. Roisin talks about reading Herge's biography, and trying to figure out where his magic came from.
They talk about the skill and knowledge-sharing within the USk community and how that accelerated her learning. Roisin shares how she likes to do multiple line widths but also colors. She carries multiple fude pens to do the different colors.
32:00 Early inspirations towards becoming an illustrator
Roisin would be taken to art museums and galleries as a kid. Early obsession with Pieter Bruegel, from buying a print on a museum visit. Then the influence of reading Asterix books.
"There was a quintessence to the line, that I just wanted to own. So I drew obsessively, and every now and then I would see a hint in one of my drawings of something beautiful."
Nishant talks about copying drawings from Asterix and other comics. Roisin suggests copying from paintings and drawing from observation, but not from reference images.
Talks about discovering Ukiyoh Japanese wood-block prints. She learned many things from copying them as well as she could.
"If you master your craft, you can do those observations in a split second, your voice will follow."
They talk about the need for endlessly practicing, and reaching a flow that is instinctive and not deliberate.
Roisin talks about the urban sketchers who have inspired her - Marina Grechanik, Don Colley, Inma Serrano, Wil Freeborn, Nicola Maier-Reimer.
49:25 How did urban sketching evolve once Roisin came back to her home?
Nishant asks about founding a chapter in a small part of Ireland.
"I live in a world of beauty that I've become conscious of because of drawing."
63:05 Has COVID affected what you draw and how you draw?
There is more family time - sketching and wandering around town and the countryside with her children.
Starting Zoom classes and the bonds developed with students over time.
Nishant asks about writing two different kinds of USk books - a handbook of how to sketch and a book of urban sketches. RC also talks about her next book about Dublin, seeing things as a tourist.
Sketching the homeless, and having frank conversations with sections of society one might not otherwise interact with. Checking our privileges.
Outro
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I hope it influenced or inspired you in some way.
If you look at observational drawing as a problem, illustrators often have very pleasing solutions. In this light, Roisin's work has a lot to teach anyone involved in the practice of depicting reality.
I recently started listening to another podcast, which features conversations with different illustrators. It's a lot of fun and very useful to listen to illustrators, because you can pick up good tips about color and composition and different art-styles. The podcast is run by a fellow Kolkata-native, Swarnavo, and it's called the Paper Pencil Podcast. Check it out! I have a link in my shownotes.
Thank you for your time and attention. I'll see you in the next one!
The bonus commentary for this episode will be available on my BuyMeACoffee page. It is free to members of the show who support my work every month. In it, I talk about the artists who inspired Roisin’s art and illustrations.
If you liked the show, I would appreciate you leaving me a review on Apple Podcasts.