#WhyIRide: How Commuting Makes Me a More Productive Artist
This guest blog is written by Charles Woodruff Coates, Creative Developer at Block Paper Print. Find Charles on Instagram @woodruffcoates or check out his website. Know someone with a great reason to ride? Email Jessica at jessica@bikesiliconvalley.org.
How commuting makes me a more productive artist
In February this year, my wife Meg, and I, turned in the keys for our end-of-term 2016 Ford C-Max Energi, thus becoming a one car family living in the Bay Area. She would use the Civic to take our daughter to daycare and go to work, while I would bike to the Caltrain station and travel to Palo Alto.
Commuting enables me to routinely schedule drawing sessions
I’d mentally prepared for the 15ish mile bike commute between Caltrain stations, work, and home. I was finally looking forward to once-again fitting exercise into my routine. Waiting at the station for the train to arrive was, however, an unexpected opportunity to fit in a drawing session. Within a few days, drawing found a secure slot into my daily routine, which looked (and still looks) something like this:
- 7:00 am: Leave house on bike
- 7:25 am: Arrive at station to draw
- 8:08 am: Caltrain arrives at station
- 8:10 am: Draw on train
- 5:00 pm: Leave work
- 5:20 pm: Arrive at station to draw
- 5:42 pm: Caltrain arrives at station
- 5:45 pm: Draw on train
- Bonus drawing time for late trains (I get a lot of bonus time)
Commuting enables repeated drawing sessions to turn into a series
David Hockney (famous for his gorgeous iPhone and iPad drawings) frequently returns to the same road in East Yorkshire, England, to draw, and has done so for decades. His plein-air drawings document the natural seasonal changes along the same road. You can also see Hockney’s many creative interpretations of the same subject matter using a variety of mediums including: charcoal, digital, and photography.
Likewise, commuting offers similar creative restraints Hockney employs in his work, including: place, time, session length, and materials.
Speaking of materials, each daily drawing uses one or more surfaces (Traveler’s notebook, iPad Pro, or iPhone). Eventually, sketchbook drawings will translate into woodblock prints, and the digital drawings into limited archival inkjet printouts.
Routine practice gives birth to new routines
Once an initial drawing schedule is set, a snowball effect begins to take place. Even a daily 20 minute drawing session heightens the desire to find more ways to fit another session into my schedule. Lunch breaks, after dinner, and right before bed are all time slots I plan for on a semi-routine basis. Every session, no matter how short, is time well spent, and an opportunity to hone your observational skills.
I track commuting and drawing habits through Bullet Journaling
Yes. I jumped on the BuJo train. Wooo Wooo! Or, is that Buuu Jooo! But seriously, This simple habit tracker for Bullet Journaling is a great motivator to go along with the biking commute for getting those daily drawing sessions in.
Follow my everyday routine
Below are some in-process works that I continue to develop each time I travel by bike. Have a favorite commuting spot, or a happy-hour hangout close to a Caltrain Station? Let me know and I’ll do my best to draw it during my commute.