I gave up cameras for a year

A retrospective 4 months in

I started Crafture with a simple constraint and no specific goal in mind: to give up cameras for a year. I wouldn’t capture photos or videos from my iPhone, my DSLR, my film SLR or any other camera. You can read more about the motivation behind the project here and can browse the collection of sketches I’ve made so far here.

The first sketch of the project

I started this project the day I left for Burning Man (a few days before my 29th birthday). Its now been 4 months and I’m sitting with all my sketchbooks going through all the pieces I’ve made, around 200, reminiscing over the people I’ve met, places I’ve been, and conversations I’ve shared. Definitely beats going through photos on my phone.
I wondered what I would be end up creating in place of my photography, how my social interactions would change, and if it would change me in anyway. With the new year arriving, and being 4 out of 12 months into the project, I feel like I can begin thinking about answers to these questions.

One of the earlier sketches on the road to Burning Man

Starting the project

Starting the project was difficult. There was all this self-doubt. Would it be appropriate to bring my sketchbook everywhere I go? Would people feel awkward when I try to draw them? Would it interfere with social interactions? Would the art turn out mediocre or worse? Would people even care about what I was doing?

Though I can only capture a fraction of the moments without a camera, each piece has that much more memories attached with it

I make sure to bring a sketchbook and pencil/pen with me wherever I go, so I have no excuses for not capturing a moment. I bought several different size sketchbooks so that I can have something with me even in situations where I might have avoided it. The point is not to sketch every single moment of my life, I just need to have it on me so that when the inspiration strikes I’m prepared. And there have been times where I’ve thought “I won’t be sketching tonight”, and ended up doing so and being glad I had brought something with me. I’ve taken sketchbooks to parties, concerts, brunches, dinners, camping, no-photography-allowed-events, Burning Man, and even a wedding!

I try to be really attentive to what people are saying to find a quote that could represent that moment, conversation or an inside joke

Friends and strangers have responded surprisingly well to this project. There hasn’t been any awkwardness around it and it just ends up making a great conversation piece. The saturation of selfies and filtered photographs make people appreciate this different medium of capturing moments. I don’t know how I would have reacted if my friends and strangers hadn’t end up being so supportive and willing to be my muses. People haven’t stopped inviting me to parties yet, so thats a good sign.

One concern that has developed over the duration of this project is that I start wondering how people will feel if I don’t sketch them. Will some friends of mine feel left out if at the end of the year I haven’t sketched them? I don’t know if this expectation or feeling is there with photographs.

I’ve found that I love sketching to music. I feel like I’m partaking in the creative process with them and we’re tapping into the same inspirational muse.

The Beginning of a Sketch

The beginning of every new sketch I’m making myself vulnerable and open to judgment. There’s this fear of the unknown and how the future will turn out — will what is in my mind and imagination become reality? I have to pour so much emotion into the creation of a sketch that I never experience with a photograph. However, what I have learned is that there is a point in every creation where the art transforms from something you want to hide to something you are excited to share. When you start, you just have to have this faith that you will reach that point. And the few times you don’t, its okay, because you can just throw away that sheet of paper!

It helps living in a place where you have no end to interesting events — like this Bob Ross Themed Birthday Party

The Moment

I was afraid that sketching would take me completely out of the moment, but its actually been a great way to create a shared moment with someone. People have said they feel I’m paying more attention to them and what they say — and I certainly am more observant and sensitive to being continuously engaged with a person. The difference between looking down at your phone and looking down at your sketchbook is that the phone takes you out into another world while the sketchbook digs you deeper into the one you’re in.

I’ve been slowly adding color and trying out different mediums. With every change I feel like I have to learn how to create again and its wonderful to be constantly in that state.

Unscheduled Creativity

I’ve found that my other creative senses have heightened. It may not be due to “giving up cameras” but conditioning myself to feel that I can be creative at any time. I don’t have to slot my creativity into a calendar. I hadn’t done much art in the last 10 years because I felt it required a huge time commitment.

I’ve been geotagging, time-stamping and adding other meta-data just as we attach data to all our photographs on social media

But by incorporating it into my life, it was no longer separate from me. Since starting this project I’ve drawn almost 200 sketches, written around 30 poems, and composed around 20 short piano tunes. Oh and I also failed to write a novel for NaNoWriMo, but at least I put down 15,000 words.

Onwards…

There are still 8 months to go. Looking back at my sketches I can see a progression of improvement but there’s still quite a bit of room to grow:

• a lot of my portraits have similar expressions and they don’t bring out the personalities as much as I’d like
• I need to add more detailed environments
• I want to try focusing on still objects or just parts of a person (like just the eyes or hands or some shape they create)
• I really want to sketch more urban landscapes and architecture
• I want to keep trying different mediums: color pencils, art markers, watercolors, charcoal, digital sketches etc
• I’ve started getting my friends to sketch me back! And at some point I’ll sketch a “selfie” too.
• There needs to be more stories, people love the quotes I capture and I want to expand on that, add more narration, maybe even try a comic book format!

I’d love to hear about what other mediums and techniques I can try out over the next 8 months!

I don’t know where this project will be in 8 months but I’ve been positively surprised at where it’s taken me in 4 months. I was worried that I didn’t have a “style” but now I’m worried everything will look the same.

I actually “live sketched” my best friends wedding. Creating around a dozen pieces during the day’s events.

I want to express myself in new mediums, styles, techniques, and formats. I have several international travels (Toronto, Pakistan, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru) and weddings to attend in 2014 and it will be an exciting challenge to not have the luxury of capturing 100s of photos and instead making a few sketches.

A recent sketch, one of my favorites so far

Thanks to everyone who has been part of this journey so far! I am starting to feel quite nostalgic about cameras and there have only been a handful of fleeting moments that I wished I could bring out my camera. I think it’ll be very bitter-sweet when this project ends on August 28th, 2014, but I’ve already starting thinking about ideas of how I can take this experience and apply it to my photography and videography.