Category:

Soul of the City

1/23/2013

Here are some photos of a graphic recording I had the honour to create today at a really cool local speaker series hosted by the ever-dynamic team at Calgary Economic Development. "Soul of the City" is presenting speakers on a whole range of subjects. Who's invited? Calgarians who are passionate about what's happening in Calgary - and who want to contribute to the discussion.

Today's talk, entitled "Weaving Public Art & Architecture into the Fabric of our City" featured four speakers, each of whom contributed a unique take on the concept.

My job: draw what they said!

I'll post some more images from this great event soon. After I've had some sleep. (6 AM wake-up call, power-drawing session and subsequent long day with an energetic 4-yr-old have left me no choice but to conk out without further notice. Stay tuned!)

Update: Here's a link to a time-lapse video of me making the graphic recording, edited delightfully so you can listen to the talks, too!

5 Comments

Calgary's first graphic jam?

11/16/2012

2 Comments

A new scene in an old building!

Matt & Rob of Conscious Brands invited Calgary graphic recorders to a "graphic recording jam" where we could practice this innovative art form. The jam was hosted by Tracy and David at their office in the Calgary Public Building (right downtown, next to the Performing Arts Centre).

This wonderful historic building - featuring possibly the best elevators in town, complete with trestle-style brass doors and a real live elevator operator - offers visitors a wonderful mix of old and new. One of the new features that the graphic designers particularly appreciated was the "green wall", coated in a special green paint that allows you to draw right on it! Well, we dove right in (some used paper, but I just had to try the wall), and here are some of the results.

Follow Calgary's brand-new graphic recording scene on twitter at #yycdrawlive. And to find out more about graphic recording, you can check out the International Forum of Visual Practitioners, here.

2 Comments

Mural Painting Alphabet

11/1/2012

1 Comment

Well, since I've been thinking about alphabets, I thought I'd post one more - an old one. In 1999 I painted a large mural on the wall of a Calgary office building. I hired my brother's friend to help me. This was one of the most enjoyable summer jobs either of us ever had. Here's my alphabet-style "graphic recording" of the work. It never was coloured in completely, but maybe I'll get around to doing that one of these days.

"A was an Author who went for a walk..." was the Edward Gorey alphabet that inspired this one.

1 Comment

Edmonton Expo Alphabet!

10/28/2012

6 Comments

My goodness - I drew this whole thing at the Edmonton Comics Expo, and it took me a week to find the time to get it up here. Hope you enjoy my graphic recording of a great weekend at the expo. As before, apologies to Edward Gorey, who came up with this alphabet/poem kind of format.

Also - don't you think this would look nice in colour? If there's enough interest, maybe I'll colour it in. Let me know what you think!

6 Comments

Hester's Edmonton Expo Alphabet - Part 1

10/23/2012

0 Comments

I really like the notion of graphic recording. And I also really like comic-strip alphabets (you can see another one I painted recently, on a Calgary utility box, here). So, the obvious thing to do at the Edmonton Comics Expo was to create an Expo Alphabet. I drew the alphabet while lounging around in Artist Alley, but I haven't had time to ink the whole thing just yet. So I'll just put the first part up here for now... with apologies to Edward Gorey, who invented this alphabet/poem style. The rest of the alphabet will follow soon! Once the whole thing is done, I'll put it up on my website in a format that's a bit bigger and easier to read. This will do for now!

0 Comments

Dylan in YEG

10/11/2012

0 Comments

Took in a great show by Bob Dylan in Edmonton last night. To see my full review (illustrated!), take a look here.

Two highlights:

1. Finding out that the opener, Mark Knopfler, is responsible for writing the riff that's featured in the now-no-more CBC Radio show "Dispatches" (it's part of a Knopfler song! I had no idea);

2. (Much more exciting!): Dylan performing a cover song (wow!) and speaking an extra three whole sentences to the crowd! This show was a rare treat indeed.

P.S. The mystery cover song was by Gordon Lightfoot (another song I didn't know... I guess I have to expand my listening beyond Dylan and CBC Radio). It's funny... I remember Dylan played "I'm not supposed to care" at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto 1998 - but that was because Lightfoot was in the audience (or, at least, it seemed pretty likely that this was the reason, since G. L. was sitting right there.) But maybe that's just something Dylan likes to do when he's in Canada. Ah well, what does it matter... it still was lovely.

I have drawn quite a few other comic strips about Dylan shows. A couple of them are online, and you can see them here. One of these days I'll get around to putting some of the others up.

0 Comments

Hot Nuts & Popcorn

9/29/2012

1 Comment

Since my main activity these days is hanging out with a three-year-old, I don't go out on the town as much anymore. In the company of my son, a serious trainspotter, I've learned to get my kicks from counting Alberta Wheat Pool boxcars (Alec is a fan of reading "Canpotex" over and over - he just thinks it's a funny word). You know you've sat at too many train crossings when you actually begin to recognize the work of different graffiti artists - people who probably live as far away as Ontario but whose tags ride the rails through my neighbourhood on a daily basis.

This may not sound like much fun - but hey, as three-year-old obsessions go, it could be much worse. Sometimes, though, I have these faint but glorious memories of the time I spent out in Calgary's hipster scene long ago. Even now, a fair-sized chunk of my identity owes its existence to that now-buried decade of, among other things, late-night artsy escapades. So when I heard that Hot Nuts & Popcorn was scheduled for a brief renaissance - and just a few blocks away in the Loose Moose Theatre at the Crossroads Market - I knew I couldn't miss it. ...

1 Comment

Graphic Recording Workshop

9/29/2012

1 Comment

I had the chance yesterday to participate in a really eye-opening workshop that was put together by Bowness-based Conscious Brands. Kara Stonehouse of AHA! Graphic Facilitation was in town to tell Calgarians about a unique job that's increasingly in demand. "Graphic recording" means creating a live illustrated summation or record of an event like a board meeting or workshop. ...

1 Comment

Forward>>

sam hester

I am a graphic recorder based in Calgary. I like local stories. I write comics when I have free time. And I leave eraser shavings everywhere I go.

Looking for a
graphic recorder?
Look here!

contact me

[email protected]

my website

www.the23rdstory.com started as a blog and now includes some information about my graphic recording practice as well.

I also have an (old) website which features a lot of my (old) work. Look out, it's a bit clunky and there are a lot of links that don't go anywhere, but there are still a few interesting things there:
www.thedrawingbook.com

Soul of the City

Calgary's first graphic jam?

Mural Painting Alphabet

Edmonton Expo Alphabet!

Hester's Edmonton Expo Alphabet - Part 1

Dylan in YEG

Hot Nuts & Popcorn

Graphic Recording Workshop

sam hester

Looking for a
graphic recorder?
Look here!

contact me

my website

Categories

archives

sam hester

Looking for agraphic recorder? Look here!

contact me

my website

Categories

archives

Looking for a
graphic recorder?
Look here!