During June I pledged not to buy anything new, except food & drink, just to cut down on my consumer habit to help save the planet etc...Anyway, it's started to change the way I do things, and I've made myself two sketch books from scrap paper. One is all watercolour paper, which I've cut square and glued inside a stiff card cover for protection in my bag and held closed with a bulldog clip my dad must have got me from his old school years ago (thanks dad).
The other is just oddments of paper which I've punched holes in, and secured with a modified old A4 ring binder which was in the bin. In WH Smiths a small sketch book is anything from £3 to £6, so I've saved some money (which will be spent instead on either oil paints or red wine) and I've also helped to save the planet in a small way.
I intend to keep at least one of these sketch books in my bag at all times, along with half a dozen pencil stubs, which again nearly got binned. Hopefully I'll start sketching on the bus, at my desk, and at other odd moments while other things in my life give me a chance to pause for a few minutes.
Today I spent the morning with my little girl, while hubby & son went to the Barbers. I took my scrap sketch book, and drew our house whilst waiting for the bus, and the park on the way home while she had a snooze in a friend's buggy (thanks mate). I suppose sketching is like practicing a musical instrument. The piece isn't like a polished performance in itself, but each time I'm concentrating on a different aspect of drawing, or playing. Unlike practicing playing, when I sketch I can look back at what I've done, what I've learnt & how I've progressed.
