A Journey Into My Sketchbook (Part 1)

It’s midsummer as I write this post, and this seems like a good time to take a break from my usual format and offer something different. For my subscribers who have supported my work over the years, I invite you to journey with me into my sketchbooks, and take a deeper dive into my creative process.

Drawing is the lifeblood of visual art, and sketching is what keeps it flowing. My sketchbook is a freeing place, a private refuge where I can relax and play around with ideas. This is where concepts take their first form, sometimes emerging raw from my unconscious, other times “cooked” in my mind for days or weeks before I start drawing. Here I can indulge in trial and error. Here I’m free to practice shapes and lines, textures and tones, free of color considerations. Once in a while I do use colored pencils or conté crayons – but by and large, these are unrehearsed, unedited monochromatic compositions.

Sketches leave the seams showing, and expose the artist’s process of developing an idea. In my sketchbook, I’m free to make mistakes, erase my work, and start over. Some drawings slip out easily just as I imagine them, while others immediately depart from the vision in my mind, setting me on an unpredictable path. Who is in charge here, the drawing or me? Many sketches become the basis for future paintings, while others are complete as is. Some ideas sprout into three more, or beg for multiple versions.

Presented here are 12 drawings from my most recent sketchbook. For the purpose of this article, I’m giving them informal titles. Enjoy!