My sketchbook is my playground and my Hyperbolic Time Chamber. It’s where I explore, where I figure things out, and where I improve upon ideas. It’s also where I train. Where I build muscle memory so I can apply what I learn to other projects. It’s a safe place to push myself to failure, whip up a lab experiment, or conjure a sword from nothing.
I love sketching, it’s a daily practice for me, and it’s always been where my best ideas are born. It allows me to follow my curiosity, to delve further into the archives of history, to understand how something works, or to understand the building blocks that make up the world around us. I love to push ideas forward, asking myself what the shape language communicates to the viewer, what rhythms could I push, or simply asking where the shadows live. It also allows me to explore my mark-making, how I organize lines, or how to emphasize things with line weight. Finished illustrations show what I know, but my sketchbooks show what I'm still curious to explore.
Sketching forces me to slow down and observe. It's amazing how often you think you know what something looks like until you actually try to draw it. Drawing has a way of exposing assumptions. So, I often sketch to observe or work on a subject matter I’d like to improve. I like to mix it up because I think play helps ideas flow more freely.
It’s also a journal for me. I love looking back and seeing how far I’ve come on my journey. A sketchbook doesn’t have to be a bound thing, either; sometimes my sketches are on loose-leaf printer paper. I discovered my love for sketching when I was a small, youthful kid sitting in front of the TV watching Batman Beyond and drawing whatever captured my imagination in that episode.
Each sketch has a unique memory tied to it, and a complete sketchbook is almost like a moment in time captured forever.
I could wax poetic for a long time about sketching, but I’ll leave you with this: I hope you enjoy these snapshots in time as much as I enjoyed making them. If you're an artist yourself, I hope they encourage you to pick up a pencil, keep drawing, and keep creating.
