Notebooks/Sketchbooks and Drawings

Above is my drawing from Monday night. It felt good to get back to the Studio sessions. My break turned out to be longer then I either expected or wished. Though I shouldn't have been surprised, I tend to pick up some bug over the Holidays, it is an unusual year that I don't. This years bug is still with me, though I am feeling much better. The drawing isn't too bad considering, but I then did spend the break doing a lot of drawings, not of the figure but still drawing.

With my Arthouse Sketchbook done and mailed it was time for me to turn my attention to the Sketchbook Challenge. When the Sketchbook challenge was announced last month each participating artists blogged about their sketchbooks answer questions about them,  how many at one time, and what tools they preferred and when they started. I decided to answer those questions for myself. Above are some photographs of the notebooks/sketchbooks/journals I have around the Apt. The open book in Photo #1 is the oldest book I still have, it was started in 1984 and dedicated to wild flower drawings. I didn't get all that far in that book, but have kept it and enjoy revisiting it. Photo #2 is one of my 3 Quilt Journals. In these I document my quilting. I started the first one in 1986. These have been maintained in an off and on fashion and am now working in my 3rd book. Photo #3 is the Notebook from my Intaglio class last spring, in it I documented all of my plates, with sketches, proofs, techniques used etc. I will use it again if I go back to printing. Photo #4 is the sketchbook I started when I went back to school and realized just how rusty my drawing skills were. I tried to draw something every day. On days I wasn't working on class work I tried to make a drawing in this sketchbook. The final photo shows one of 3 sketchbooks I have of various sizes that I used to develop ideas for projects or just sketch/doodle. I have now added a dedicated book for the Sketchbook Challenge.  Materials used vary, colored pencils for the flowers; Pen, pencil, fabric, photographs, and pieces of paper for the Quilt Journals; Pen, pencil, and inserted materials for the Intaglio journal; finally graphite pencils for the last two. Course I have had doodle sketchbooks since I was in High School, but those are long gone. 

The Sketchbook Challenge theme for January is Highly Prized. The above page is my brainstorming what I highly prize and some quick sketches of those things, highly prized items are nature, including animals, birds, trees, plants and my drawing tools. I pulled out my new Inktense pencils to see what color would do for/to some of the drawings. This page is purely experimental.

 My next page was done with one of my highly prized Rapidograph technical pens. These are technical pens that are sort of like Micron pens, except they are refillable which the Micron's aren't. They are expensive, but if you are into technical pens, I think they are well worth the money. That said I wouldn't stick one in my purse to casually haul it around with me, I would be afraid of loosing it so I do own and use Microns. The drawing above was done using one of my Rapidograph pens in a style called Zentangle. You can follow the link to the Zentangle web site, though I found this site more informative. I fear I am not into mumbo jumbo when it comes to talking about drawing techniques which the Zentangle site does (my opinion only). Nor did I want to wait for a kit or to take a seminar to attempt one, the Squidoo site explains the general concept and how to get started. 

I found the first Zentangle fun to do so decided to do a second, the above photo is the 2nd one in progress. it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Enough for today, this turned into a longer post then I intended. I am fairly sure that the next few posts will be much shorter. Thanks for hanging in, and per usual comments or questions are always welcome.