Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Studio Friday: Sketchbook(s) and or Notebook(s)

Had to miss Studio Friday for a couple of weeks, but I'm happy to be back with this week's theme - sharing our studio sketchbooks and/or notebooks. First off...I have tons of them both. I have a bad habit of being in Hobby Lobby or Office Depot and "forgetting" that I still have 99 blank pages left in a sketchbook with 100 pages at home. If I happen to see a new sketchbook and at that same moment have an idea for something to sketch, that baby is coming home with me. Consequently, I have stacks of sketchbooks with the first few pages colorfully filled in and the rest lonely from neglect. I'll have to work on that. I don't limit myself to just true sketchbooks either - any tablet of paper will do...spiral notebooks, graph paper pads, memo pads, composition books - all are fair game.

I have a thing for notebooks too. Actually, I have a thing for magazines which drove me to having a thing for notebooks. I used to have way too many magazines - stacks and stacks of them. Some years ago it became clear that I had to get rid them, but they were filled with such goodies - what to do? So I began tearing out appealing pictures from my magazines that I wanted to keep, and throwing the rest of the magazine guts away. I then began to purchase photo album notebooks with "magnetic" pages in which to keep the cool magazine pictures. At first I would just randomly trim and stick pictures on pages and fill up a notebook...but then I began to group the pictures by season, and then by color, so that each notebook went from winter through fall with all color coordinated pages. I have about 9 of these that I've worked on for several years. They still inspire me and the pictures often serve as models for when I need to draw a teacup just so or need to remember what a daisy's leaf looks like. I now have 4 huge folders filled with tearouts from magazines that are waiting to be artfully arranged in a notebook. One of my greatest luxuries and guiltiest pleasures is to sit and spend several hours processing a stack of pictures. I don't get to do it too often, but I thoroughly enjoy it when I do.

6 comments:

  1. great ideas. i have some torn magazine pictures and my husband is already wondering why i am not throwing it away.

    i love those flowers and porcelain you have drawn.

    thank you for sharing!

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  2. Anonymous8:56 AM

    I have a thing for journals/notebooks. I should take apicture for this one. LOL!

    Lately, it has been a sketchbookt hat I was eyeing though. A plain one in Walmart and charcoal pencils. I think it's your fault. *snicker*

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  3. Thanks for your comment on my blog! It really seems like we´re having a similar way of collecting magazine cut-outs! But I only started doing so a few month ago, also in order to reduce my large stack of magazines! I love your watercolors! I wanted to try making some of flowers, too, but I shyed away from it. I´m scared I may find out that I can´t do it, I think...

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  4. Anonymous8:52 PM

    Beautiful illustrations, you have! I also have a thing for collecting quantities of books, whether I need them or not and I love composition books. I would love to sit and look at your albums full of color and inspiration, what a great idea. I too have a pile of tear outs waiting to find a home. I may follow in your footsteps soon.
    still thinking about that gorgeous thistle!
    :)

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  5. Beautiful teapot!

    Great idea to use those magnetic albums for cut/tear outs. I have been gluing mine in sketchbooks, but since I have zillions of tear-outs, this idea would be much faster.

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  6. Anonymous9:54 AM

    I'm the same. I love buying beautiful notebooks and paper of all sorts, and this last year my magazinepile is growing since I've started to do collages and art journaling. Your collection resemble a art journal, I really like that spread and your writing here. :-)

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