A Collaborative Scribble

Occasionally I read about artists going out together and working on a collaborative sketch.  Two artists share the same book and both draw the same subject at the same time, leaping from point to point in the drawing, mixing up their styles to create something brand new.

I tried it a few times about a month or so ago, but we worked in sketchbooks so big that I couldn't scan them.  I still can't but I decided to share this photograph anyhow, so I can share the work!

I drew this with a talented artist friend of mine, sitting at a small table in the side yard of her home.  We opened an 8.5 by 11 inch sketchbook, agreed on the height of the fence, picked pens that matched, and started to draw.  Our hands crisscrossed as we each contributed to different objects, trying to do it so that no one person draw any object completely--everything was a collaboration.

It got hard to reach across the pages, so a few times, we actually flipped the book upside down to bring the opposite page closer.  And let me tell you--THAT was a mind-bender.  I've drawn from upside down objects or photos before, but I've never scribbled an image upside-down using a right-side up model!

The process is terrific fun and as long as you agree to really mix it up, so that one person doesn't draw one whole area, your styles really do blend into a new and interesting whole!

It's a particularly fun approach to urban sketching.