We’ve been so swamped with school and work lately (as well as job applications for next year,) that my sketch booking has fallen to a record low. In lieu of fresh sketches, here are a few more flashbacks with hopes that they inspire you and me to draw more! And collage more, of course, which I think is nearly as important a practice as drawing! I’ll find the time in a week when final grades are submitted to do more than doodle in-between the lines of my to-do lists.
Some of these are from way back… early to mid 2000s, even. A lot of them are plans, tracings and collages, with a few from an altered book I worked on near the end of undergrad. I incorporate a lot of found things as well as a lot of things I probably should throw away but don’t want to throw away. I used to hoard paper stuff in labeled Rubbermaids, but it becomes too much. I use what I can to collage and try to throw out the rest at least once a year. As much as I want to save that weird sticker, greeting card or shopping list I found on the ground: if I can’t collage it, I make myself part with it, these days.
I loved this little graph paper book. It fell apart before I could finish drawing in it, though. I’d like to experiment with binding my own so that it’ll stay together longer. Another to-do!
A few blind contours never hurt…
Sometimes it’s good fun to get an old book from a thrift store or used bookstore and fill it in, spread by spread. It gives you a goal and encourages lots of layering and collage to achieve the desired surface. Also, you can make drawings that converse with the text and respond to it. Or you can make drawings that delete, negate–even obliterate–the text. Altered books bring out the “silly” in me, as you can see.
I know what you’re thinking: I could have been drawing rather than posting this. Well, now I’m thinking that, too! Perhaps I’ve given myself the pep talk I needed right here! All it takes is 1 minute to get going, 5 to invest, and 10 to explore!
