Sketchbook Saturday

Welcome to another in my semi-regular section on my drawings, ideas and doodles. I draw (in the broadest sense) pretty much everyday; in books, on scraps of paper, the backs of important documents, other people’s stuff, etc and have been putting bits of it aside over the last few months. A lot of it is simply rubbish and has been filed in the round file, but one or two often seem to have something of an idea brewing around them and they just ‘come out.’ It’s a kind of involuntary reaction I guess. Very much likely a visual form of Tourette’s Syndrome.

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

Sketchbook Saturday

Welcome to another in my semi-regular section on my drawings, ideas and doodles. I draw (in the broadest sense) pretty much everyday; in books, on scraps of paper, the backs of important documents, other people’s stuff, etc and have been putting bits of it aside over the last few months. A lot of it is simply rubbish and has been filed in the round file, but one or two often seem to have something of an idea brewing around them and they just ‘come out.’ It’s a kind of involuntary reaction I guess. Very much likely a visual form of Tourette’s Syndrome.

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

These are all inspired by Allan Ginsberg’s Howl.

Sketchbook Saturday

Welcome to my semi-regular section on my drawings, ideas and doodles. I draw (in the broadest sense) pretty much everyday; in books, on scraps of paper, the backs of important documents, other people’s stuff, etc and have been putting bits of it aside over the last few months. A lot of it is simply rubbish and has been filed in the round file, but one or two often seem to have something of an idea brewing around them and they just ‘come out.’ It’s a kind of involuntary reaction I guess. Very much likely a visual form of Tourette’s Syndrome.

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

Every so often I will post a couple of examples, without any explanatory notes or justifications. It’s just another one of the things I do…

Sketchbook Saturday

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

Every so often I will post a couple of examples, without any explanatory notes or justifications. It’s just another one of the things I do…

Sketchbook Saturday

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

Every so often I will post a couple of examples, without any explanatory notes or justifications. It’s just another one of the things I do.

I am not the only one either. My niece is a very enthusiastic sketcher too, and especially when she has one of my little sketchbooks to do it in…

Thankyou Huong Lan!

Sketchbook Saturday

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

Every so often I will post a couple of examples, without any explanatory notes or justifications. It’s just another one of the things I do…

Sketchbook Saturday

Some of the things I draw are quite interesting. Some are quite good. Others just ‘are.’ I am not organised enough to be constantly carrying around a particular book, or even consistent enough to fill a book with stuff worth seeing – all of this work was drawn upon whatever was to hand; sometimes books, more often bits of photocopier paper; card offcuts; the back of meeting agendas etc. I have scanned them and superimposed them into an image of a sketchbook just to put them into context – they are not finished pieces, works of art or any form of serious output. It’s the stuff that most of us do, somewhere at some time. The kind of stuff I wish I could fill a sketchbook with.

Every so often I will post a couple of examples, without any explanatory notes or justifications. It’s just another one of the things I do…

Just In Case

Another little handmade sketchbook I finished last month, 135 x 100mm casebound with red buckram cloth on the coverboards. This was inspired by a very frustrating experience. I usually pick up my eldest daughter from gymnastics class one evening a week, and will go an hour earlier to watch, think, write and sketch over a big mug of very strong black coffee (caffienated – but don’t tell Mrs. Lestaret!). I often write quite a bit of content for this blog, or expand on ideas in progress, or doodle inconsequencially. One particular evening I arrived early at the viewing area with my hot mug of joe, sketchbook and trusty fineliner to find that my trusty fineliner wasn’t as trusty as I had originally thought. S**T! I nipped out to the car to see if I had left it there, or to pick up another from the glovebox (always prepared!) but there wasn’t a single pen or pencil to be had (always prepared – ha!). B******s! I returned and asked to borrow a biro from the lady on reception, who seemed to think that I had asked if I could have a look at her underwear given the response she gave me. Honestly, these municipal facilities must go out of their way to hire officious, miserable little people to work in them. Miserably, I returned to my seat, sipped my lukewarm coffee (I daren’t ask for it to be re-heated!) and sat clutching a sketchbook with no way of making use of it. I vowed never to be in this situation again, and thus, the integrated sketchbook/pencil combo was concieved!

It has a double cover, firstly opening from the right, which reveals the pencil:

The inner cover opens to expose the book block:

The pages are deckle edged on a creamy marbled paper:

I do love blade sharpened pencils over over the traditional conical ‘pencil sharpener’ ones:

The pencil is attached with a ribbon loop glued into the spine:

And here’s a close up of the deckle edges again. These were created by tearing each one against a roughened metal strip:

I really like this book. It’s not perfect as I had not  accounted for the extra length needed for the endpaper inside the inner cover, but I can live with that. Although I was frustrated at the time that this book was ‘concieved,’ I am happy that things can turn out well from these little domestic dramas. I got a neat little book out of this, and the lady on reception still looks like Mrs. Puff from Spongebob Squarepants! Serves her right – it was only a biro!

Oh F**k! I meant to edit out the swearing, or at least apologise. Sorry, but this will become clearer next week…