sketchbook

i love my sketchbook.  i take it with me nearly everywhere.  so when it comes time to fill in the last pages of one, it always makes me nostalgic (even if i've only been using it for a short time).  my current book has only 3 pages left before it finds its place among the mausoleum of our book case.  its the book i took to singapore, thought i lost in seoul, and has been housing the sketches, measurements, and random thoughts and drawings, doodles and notes that have inspired my latest bodies of work.  here are a few random pages in no particular order:

the opera house in winamac, a study done for one of the stencils we ended up using in the mural

making a quilt mural got me thinking about patterns.  this one taken from some carpet somewhere, and now resides in stencil form as context in the background of several paintings.

a meeting doodle

i've been getting more into cartoons, and i find that many of my past sketchbooks contain stupid little cartoons like this superhero cat.

a silly doodle mindy and i made one night, just drawing together on one page.  very fun (and a good date idea).

the helix bridge and marina bay sands in singapore...one of the sketches i wasn't super happy with

a random shrine in the airport in bangkok

i began teaching a class called 'urban arts' last week, and the first project we did was to construct a sketchbook.  we used blank or lightly used pages from old pads of paper at TAF and tore them into size.  then duct taped two pieces of cardboard together to make the front and back covers.  then i made a little clip and latch to keep the covers closed and the pages down.  this was my simple make-and-carry-and-use-a-sketchbook demonstration for my class.  but i'm going to use my demo as my next book.  it's not as big as my others, but i think when i'm done with it, it will be bookshelf worthy.  i hope my students will understand the importance of having something like this as a creative tool.  it took me a while to learn, however, before i was interested in art, i always kept journals and doodles in notebooks.  it's just a great place to capture a wandering mind.

my little clip helps hold the pages flat

p.s. you can look at past sketches by clicking on the "sketch blocks" link on the right ...