With music on hold, drum major stretches her creativity

by Chris Weber

Trading a conducting baton for a stylus pen, Blue Devils B drum major Izzi Cristobal has switched gears in recent weeks looking for a new creative outlet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attending online classes as a nursing major at San Francisco State University, but without the prospect of her fifth summer with the Blue Devils organization ahead of her after the cancellation of the 2020 DCI Tour, Cristobal turned to her iPad to recreate some of her favorite drum corps scenes and personalities as “blotch art,” a sort of colorful digital illustration based on a photograph.

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a drawing, I’d say it’s more of a graphic because I am taking the image and turning it into a cartoon style,” she said. “Basically it’s taking the colors and then also switching it up in the color palette, and then kind of blotching it onto there.”

A member of Blue Devils C from 2016-2018 and Blue Devils B in 2019 and 2020, Cristobal is an avid photographer and was at one point pursuing an art degree before she switched to the nursing field. While she admits she only started playing around with illustration for fun, with help from her sister who’s taught her the finer points of programs like ibisPaint and Procreate, she’s rapidly improved her skills and built up her collection.

Starting by creating art primarily for her circle of friends, Cristobal has since been inspired by Drum Corps International’s #MarchOn campaign and spent time blotching scenes of this past summer’s Top 12 World Class corps.

“It’s been a way of coping with stress and easing boredom, especially after drum corps being cancelled,” she said.

Each scene takes her between 30 minutes and an hour to create, varying based on the complexity of the original image and the amount of detail she works into her interpretation. Her “Top 12” project is one that she completed in her free time between online courses and other obligations.

As a creative relief in an uncertain time, Cristobal, who showcases her work on her Instagram page (@artmajordropout), has drummed up enough attention to start up a GoFundMe page and start taking commissions from others in the marching arts community who are interested in custom designs.

With three younger siblings at home and parents who are both essential workers — her mom is a nurse and her dad works in waste management — it’s also been a way for her to stay occupied as she does her part following stay-at-home orders during the pandemic.

Cristobal says the reaction to her creations within the close-knit drum corps community has been overwhelmingly positive.

“A lot of corps members have been like, ‘Oh, wow, this is so cool,’” she said. “They were all really surprised by it because for the Top 12 one they didn’t know I was doing it. There’s just been really sweet compliments.”