sketchbook journaling: part two

the middle years: 1994-2015

I kept a couple of small treasured sketchbooks from about 1994-1996, but started working for a packaging design company in 1996 so I did not have so much time to keep up a sketchbook on a regular basis. Around this time I started what was the genesis of my current sketchbook journal, though there was a lot more writing in them and they mainly served as my diary.

I favoured the smaller stitch-bound non-lined journals, about 4 inches x 6 inches in dimension. It was usually only during holidays that the visual content went up. It takes time to document and draw to the standard I like in my sketchbooks, they are not things to be rushed. I have such great memories of luxuriating in the expanse of time I had to create pages on holidays at this time, on such things as discussions with the Beatles about drinking habits, or legends of cartoon characters’ ancestors (see this blog’s header photo).

When my daughter was young and took up most of my time, my sketching activity was almost non-existent. Any time for creativity I had  was spent on my freelance illustration work or making papier maché objects to sell.

But in 2015 I bought a thin, plain A5 Moleskine exercise book. I took it on holiday that summer to Norfolk, I didn’t really take to that format of sketchbook, but that was when I started to get back into the habit of keeping a regular sketch book again.

Looking back on that book now, it makes me realise how out of practice I was. With each book I have started since then, I can see the progression in my technique and in the variety of content. This is hugely down to regular practice and that I have gradually had more time as my daughter has got older.