Over the weekend I finished the last pages in my current sketchbook, with the watercolors of artichokes and fruit that are shown below. This particular sketchbook was started back in the fall of 2022, so it spans more than a year -- today, the view out my window is very much like the first page in this video, painted in January 2023, just without the snow.
Last winter I did all the drawings that went into my book Snowy Fields, in much larger drawing pads -- that explains the big time gap between the second and third pages in the video. I also began a dedicated sketchbook for our trip to Greece, and I keep a small pocket-size sketchbook in my purse for metro-sketching and car trips -- so that's why this larger one covers so much time. In any case, I thought I'd make a video of the pages from just the last year - late winter 2023 to mid-March 2024. I think two pages are missing, one that I tore up and one that I gave to a friend. The next task is to gather up the courage to draw on that very first, blank page of the new sketchbook which is already waiting for me on my studio table.
This book is the latest in the series I've been keeping since I started drawing seriously again in 2010. I'm not nearly as prolific as some sketchers, but drawing and making watercolor sketches has definitely become a regular practice for me, and even more so in the last five or six years. When I look through the sketchbooks, I can see the improvement, and yet I feel there's still so much to learn and to experiment with. But it's not just about drawing and filling pages...the sketchbooks are really a visual diary, and I can usually remember exactly where I was, and some of what was going on, when I was working on a particular page. I don't make many notes - just the date and sometimes the location on the back of the sheet. Maybe I should - I rely on my memory being pretty good, but it may not be forever!
For those who are interested in the tools-and-materials side of things, this is a Stillman&Birn Gamma series 6" x 9" landscape format sketchbook - the paper is slightly cream-colored, perfect for pencil or pen-and-ink, and heavy enough to take light watercolor washes. It has no texture or "tooth", though, and won't stand much re-working, nor is it good for powdery media like charcoal or pastel. It's not a watercolor paper per se, but is versatile enough for me as a multi-media sketchbook. Most of the ink drawings were done with either a fine-tip fountain pen or a fude-nib Sailor pen, and Noodler's ink; the rest are either pencil, or pencil and watercolor, or direct watercolor with no preliminary drawing at all.
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