Question of the month: Show your sketchbook!
April 4, 2008 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Artist Communities, Question of the Month
I keep several different notebooks going at any one time: one for jewelry, one for other mixed media art, and one that’s small enough to travel with me. I’ve also got files and files and files of pictures, but that’s a whole other matter! I have no drawing skills at all, so a notebook is less intimidating to me than a real sketchbook would be. I indicate colors only by spelling it out, or occasionally taping a swatch into the notebook. I’m not proud of them, but there they are!
Would you send me a shot of your notebooks or files? I’ll post them here if you’re brave enough to take the challenge. Tell us a little about how you work, or let the picture speak for itself! You can even send in a shot of a notebook page and a shot of the resulting artwork! That would be really cool if you did that 
Send all entries to cyndi@b5media.com and use the subject line “Jewelry Sketchbook”. I’ll post them as they come in, with links you your site or blog. Come on, I showed you my lousy drawings…show me yours?
Sketchbook, what an interesting idea. While my garden gets noted and plotted to the nth degree, I never even thought of treating my beadwork that way. Not that I don’t sketch, I do, and often…but my sketches are on envelopes, the back of my gardening pages, wherever I have paper. I only keep them until I finish the design I just sketched. I probably should get more organized!
Well, only change your ways if they stop working for you! Maybe you don’t care about having the sketches organized, and that’s just fine…as long as it works for you
For me, there’s always more ideas than time to make them, so I like to jot them all down for later. Later doesn’t always arrive, but I know that I’m all set if the well runs dry some day!
Cyndi, have you tried one of those multi section note books? I do beading, wire working, dream catchers, design and sew clothes and love to cook. I found a note book that has a section for each, plus a pocket in each divider. I put the misc. designs I doodle when the mood hits me and the book isnt with me. Just thought that I’d share that.
Yes! I love those
That’s actually what the two larger notebooks in the photo are, but each has only two sections. One section is for chaotic notes and the other is for working them out a bit! The teeny book in the picture is the one I travel around with.
Oh, I should have mentioned…one of the large notebooks is for jewelry and the other is for mixed media art of all other types