Reportage illustration with just 3 tools

Last weekend, my daughter’s middle school orchestra had a very special concert, where they met with orchestras from a whole bunch of schools in San Jose. They practiced together for a few hours in the morning and then played together in a concert, the Halloween MegaConcert.  I sat in a large gym at Lincoln High School on bleachers towards the back. I had a good view of the bases and cellos standing near us but a view of the back of the heads of most of the kids. The spread has kids waiting for the concert to begin. Middle school kids, surprisingly, can wait pretty patiently!

And here they are, finally, in action.

It was quite something to hear all 490 students play one final piece together.

For all these sketches I used a really minimalistic kit: one pen, one pencil and a smallish sketchbook. Much as I love watercolor, I’m finding that there are many places and situations in which dry media, as small a kit as possible, and a more note-taking approach mixed in with sketches makes for much better reportage. All I carried with me was a Handbook Journal, a Sailor bent Nib pen, and a Rainbow Pencil.

I may add a couple of tools or switch out the rainbow pencil sometime for something else, but I really like the idea of a kit that allows me to work with so little.