I have seen the light

I have a new inspiration for drawing lately...sketchbooks!

I used to hate sketchbooks. The idea of having all your drawings, good or bad, all bound together was intimidating. The few times I used them, I felt like every drawing had to be perfect, or the book would be ruined. Instead, I always drew on plain copy paper, allowing me to discard any crappy drawings, and keep only the ok ones. Then I'd organize them in giant binders and analyze them months later.

Lately though I've been drawing exclusively in sketchbooks, and actually enjoying the combination of drawings I like and drawings I totally failed at. Sketchbooks aren't for showing off, or being perfect, they're a tool so that you can draw whenever and where ever.



Here's my favorite type- Moleskine makes them, but they're thinner and flimsier. I've heard much more advanced artists than myself give them a bad review because of the way marker reacts to the paper, but personally I love them!

Sketchbooks are even something like diaries- they have weird notes written in them, phone numbers, drawings from friends, really bad drawings done while out drinking and being silly with buddies, etc. Each one has it's share of doodles, studies, successful experiments, and ridiculously silly art. Each one is dated and numbered, and I decorate them haphazardly with whatever is around in the house so I know which is which. Each one tells a personal and accurate story about what was important to me during that particular month.



Here's a random sketchbook page with an ink/brush experiment, an assortment of hillbillies and forest girls, my cannibal queen character, some cats, and a weird Gandalf/Frodo combo...the cluster of weird little hamburger type things at the top is me trying to figure out how to draw Sean Astin's weird lips (aka Sam from LoTR). Sometimes the least glamorous pages are my favorite ones.

I recommend giving sketchbooks a try to anyone who used to have the same phobia I had!

This is my favorite sketchbook right now, a gift from friend Brandy from the Renaissance Faire:


It's a handmade leather book that is filled with the strangest cotton paper. I think it will take me a long time to complete it, so I'm only drawing forest folk and elfin types in it, and using my dinkier sketchbooks for everything else.


The pens and markers I'm used to using react in strange and unpredictable new ways on this paper, and it's really cool. I'll probably do a post with better photos/scans of the drawings in here later.

This is kind of a weird and artless post, but I'm actually really excited about these things. I've been drawing more than usual, and having more fun. I did almost a whole book worth of Lord of the Rings drawings, so I'll probably post those later on, too.


Check back later! Sorry for the wordy post! ^u^