SneakyArt Podcast Ep2 - Drawing Lines with Paul Heaston
The first conversation of my new podcast is with good friend and incredible artist, Paul Heaston. Below is a summarized transcript of our 88min conversation. I hope that you will enjoy listening to it and I look forward to hearing what you think about it.
I have followed Paul’s work for many months before I ever got to meet him. I honestly did not expect to ever meet him. I would scroll down his Instagram feed to pick up on what he was doing, to uncover the tricks of his ‘magic’, so that I could steal his best ideas. I kept hoping he would release a drawing video, so I could see exactly how such drawings came to life.
Sketches Vol 1
A really cool book of his sketches that I recommend you buy!
I was able to meet Paul at the 2019 USk Chicago Seminar. Both of us were instructors leading our own workshops. But fortunately the timing was different, so I could attend Paul’s workshop during my free time. I realized that what you can learn from looking at his work is only a tiny fraction of what you can learn from listening to him speak.
With the aid of this podcast and the text transcript, I hope I can share Paul’s ideas, inspirations and journey with all of you.
Summary
We speak about Paul’s education as an artist (MFA in oil painting) and how USk happened to enter his life. We discuss his motivations to draw in a little sketchbook instead of a large canvas, and try to see what urban-sketching offers him over his past work. The conversation winds through Paul’s influences from inside the world of art and outside it, and the many paths to developing a ‘style’.
Click to hear it on Spotify!
You can also play it below, and follow along with the transcript.
Transcript
(This is not a fully detailed transcript. Instead I offer a summary of the points that stood out to me at various points in the conversation. Like any good deep conversation, you would be best served by listening to it in full.)
2:20 Nishant asks Paul to explain how and when art came into his life.
3:25 Paul - "It’s interesting because … once you get to know artists, whose work you’ve only seen on the web, you’re confronted with a static idea of what they do... People are surprised when I say that I started out as a painter.”
5:50 Paul - “Anything that makes you do it more, is helping you build skills. It’s all about putting in those hours at first.”
6:10 Paul on the effects of playing music and having other side interests which influence the direction of one’s curiosity - whales, Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park and paleontology. Refers to paleontologist, Dr. Sankar Chatterjee.
12:20 Nishant - “What is it like to switch from canvas to sketchbooks? How did it happen?”
13:28 Paul recounts carrying a sketchbook upon the recommendation of his art professor during a semester in Italy.
17:12 Paul - “I started capturing everything that was happening near me … that problem became a sort of irresistible challenge…”
19:20 Paul talks about sharing his work on Flickr, and his participation in the early days of the USk blog after speaking with founder Gabi Campanario.
25:30 Nishant - “People assume having an arts education must give you an advantage. But what were some special challenges for you in trying urban sketching?”
28:00 Paul “I consider observational drawing as an open book test - all the information you need is in front of you...”
33:00 Nishant - How do you go out to draw? What is your primary toolkit?
35:00 Nishant and Paul talk about how fountain pens are a big part of the USk community. Paul credits Alvin Wong to bringing him round to fountain pens by gifting him a fude nib.
44:00 Paul speaks about warped perspective and the development of his ideas on the subject.
50:10 Paul - “If you just follow curiosity, and organically find your way through these things that you’re interested in … that’s pretty typical for artistic development”
56:20 Nishant - “Do you use a pencil at all?”
57:35 Nishant on the idea of accuracy versus precision, and what constitutes ‘style’.
60:10 Paul, on finding motivation through difficult times and pushing through the ‘bad’ sketches.
75:55 Nishant - “When you sit down to sketch, do you plan your page in any way?”
78:00 Nishant and Paul talk about the unexpectedness inherent to urban-sketching and how to make up for a subject suddenly leaving.
82:00 Nishant - “What is one good reason for a non-artist to get into urban sketching?”
I would love to hear what you think of this conversation. Follow Paul’s work on Instagram to see more of warped perspective and his fantastic linework.
In the next episode, I will speak with watercolorist and art-educator Shari Blaukopf.
Related Links
Dr. Sankar Chatterjee, paleontologist
Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
Kim Jung Gi, Korean illustrator and God.
Gabi Campanario, illustator for the Seattle Times and Founder of ‘Urban Sketchers’
My newsletter post, on Accuracy v Precision and how that leads to style