Flights, a Sketchbook

My relationship with sketching is always in flux. I go through periods where I never go anywhere without a sketchbook, and then I‘ll not touch one for a few weeks. I also have at any one time at least three „active“ sketchbooks. I‘m not one of those artists who can post the cool sketchbook flip-through videos every month or so, or share pictures of a stack of completed, and dated, sketchbooks. Rather I have a stack of started, half-finished, and nearly-finished sketchbooks on my desk, in desk drawers, on studio shelves, and tucked into my backpack. They‘re all different sizes, different papers, and a couple of them have drawings started years ago.

I brought my current „favorite“ sketchbook along on our recent trip to the US. It‘s the Fabriano Square Artist‘s Journal, one I bought when we went to Venice last year. I‘ve used them in the past and I like the paper changing through the book, and they take ink quite well. My pen of choice lately has been the Pitt Fat Black, which is a big ole‘ pen and a lot of fun to draw with. It doesn‘t let you fuss about with itty-bitty tentative lines. You do not try. You simply draw. I like sketching with pen rather than pencil because it forces me to commit. I always feel like I can change things when I draw with a pencil.

After getting home I pulled together a handful of my favorite sketches into a digital zine, using a quote from Olga Tokarczuk‘s Flights as a through line.

I‘ve also collected these images here, as a „Collage Adjacent“ project.