“I suggest that you wed yourself so thoroughly to your sketchbook that it almost becomes a physical extension of yourself. And now what you must do is draw and draw and look at the drawings and draw and draw and draw and look at the drawings and draw …”
by Robert Kaupelis in his book “Learning do draw”.
Have you ever noticed that certain sketchbooks end up with a particular personality? Some are more floaty and conducive to dreamy drawings, simply due to what’s been already drawn in the book… or adventurous drawings, where you try new things… and sometimes you get a book that stagnates, and then it’s time for a divorce and you have to investigate the mail-order Russian sketchbook dating service.
It’s sad to leave a sketchbook partly filled, but sometimes It Must Be Done.
Talking about “getting wed to your sketchbook” and “divorcing from not filled ones”, what does it say about me, using different books for different purposes 😉
And yes emma, they all have different characters, too. E.g. one is just there, to collect all my littler scribbles I do, whenever I do not have an s-book at hand. And that tiny (7×4 inch) purple one I really like the most. It’s my little one with that ideas, which have to grow and be taken a little more child-care off until they go out on their own – to blogs or strange people …
… good luck with the dating service.
I think the best sketchbooks are the ones where you trip and fall on occasion. It means you’re working for something. When I get wrapped up in “who’s going to see this”? My stuff gets less interesting. Stream of consciousness is where it’s at for me, baby. I like to carry a sketchbook around with me all the time and cram the thing with drawings, notes, coffee stains, ect.
then when it seems done, I’ll be too lazy or whatever to get a new one so I’ll go back into the earlier pages and cram more drawings in between the other drawings.
Oooh I feel like drawing all of a sudden
excellleeeent … excelllent … so great to read all this. Glad you guys are digging discussing this. Great thoughts there.
Sketchbooks … little babies growing up ? partners we’re trying to get along ? Trying to think if i ever divorced a sketchbook, I don’t think so …. not that I remember
😉
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Lovely sketches!!
Alina
http://alinanimation.blogspot.com/
I’ve evolved to the point now where I carry three sketchbooks, one is my everyday journal/sketchbook, one is my “work” sketchbook where I keep notes and research sketches devoted to my job, and meetings with directors, the third is just for subway portraits. If they are all spouses, I guess I’m a bigamist. I haven’t been in so many relationships in the past year!
What do you get a sketchbook for Valentines day?