Sketchbook Flashback

Yesterday I was looking through my studio closet for something when I came across this sketchbook I made by hand when I was 18 years old and in art school.  {Almost 20 years ago!}

It’s hideous looking.  Seriously, what was I thinking with that ugly paisley cover?

Anyways, I can remember like it was yesterday all of us Drawing 101 students complaining because our teacher was making us bind our own sketchbooks–plus, they had to be a certain size and be made of a certain very expensive paper.

Little did I know then–she was genius for teaching us a.) such a great skill for an artist (basic bookbinding) and b.) instilling a real sense of pride in our work and appreciation for quality materials.

But what is really fun and interesting to me is to revisit a period of my life through the sketches I made.

The two sketches above are of THIS Roman sculpture at the Cleveland Museum of Art. At 18, I don’t believe I had started working there just yet–but I spent many hours and hours sketching sculptures and paintings there for years.

Something I still love to do.

There are also pages and pages of drawings I did of peanuts.

I think this is the total birth of my whole Pods obsession that keep making cameos in my art every so often!

The two spreads pictured above mustered up my heart just a little.

When I was 18 I had my first real serious boyfriend–and it was a tumultuous relationship to say the least that lasted two and a half years.  The sketches above are from the beginning of that crazy time.

It’s funny how such simple sketches could make me remember exactly where I was–but even more–what I was feeling.

Last, my Dad wasn’t in my life growing up–but I did have contact with my Grandparents.  Unfortunately less and less as I became a teenager.

But these sketches above of my Grandfather were done only a couple weeks before he passed away.

Even at 18 years old, sketching the ones I love, was important to me.  Like I’ve done recently HERE and HERE.

I can’t encourage you enough to begin your own sketching practice in your life.  Not only will it strengthen your drawing skills and sharpen your eye for looking at the world around you—it will deepen your relationship to the facets of your life that one day will only be a memory.

You can see more from my sketchbooks HERE.