here are a few pics of tiny sketchbook no. 2 – i use it for car sketching.
which.
i think is an extremely excellent way to spend 20 minutes. i just pull over wherever. unless i’m having repair work done on the old jalopy. then i draw in the waiting room.
i am 3/4 through this book and i think in about a month i’ll need a new one. that works out about right since i got this one in september of last year.
i won’t be breaking any sketch speed records anytime soon.
it certainly feels good to flip through my book though and see all the completed pages.
car sketcher left. stockholm sketcher right.
buying this little book last year and keeping it in my bag along with a tiny pan of watercolors & waterbrush was one of the best artistic decisions i’ve made and the learning has been powerful.
one thing i’ve realized is that i prefer to draw live versus from a photo. not because it’s more authentic or alive or blah blah blah (insert lofty word here), hellz no!
it’s easier than sifting through a zillion photos and figuring out what to draw. which is what i’m doing now to finish up the last of the white pages in my travel journal.
it’s amazing to me how many pics don’t translate well into a sketch. when i draw live it’s a great confidence builder. i start out thinking NO WAY am i going to be able to do that, but i just jump in with my pen or paint and 25-35 minutes later i’ve muscled my way through it. done! no subject matter to kvetch over later. sure sometimes it looks like rainboots are sticking up out of the roof, like circus bears are waiting for the bus, like cartoon buildings are falling off their foundations, but WHOKAYRES?! (insert NY accent)
all of this is going to alter the way i put together my next travel journal.
over and out from moss cottage, where all the women are smart, all the cats are good lookin’, and all the ideas are above average.
usually.
What a fab sketchbook! You might want to “Blurb” it, eh?
Have a great weekend. xo
Well you’ve done it again. You’ve brought smiles and humor to me on this Friday with your wonderful sketch book filled with gorgeous fun sketches. I came in from the yard after doing my 112th rain dance and found your post on my putor and sat down to get my MAM fix. Low and behold it is pouring rain!!!!! So you will excuse me but my puppies and I are going out to dance in the rain. The last time it really rained here was about four months ago. I am so happy. 🙂
I have a wee book and watercolor box like that (said in my Scottish accent). The trouble is, I need to get out more. 🙂 Circus bears….a sketch of my dog ended up looking like a fig with a fan glued on it.
I’m with all these chimer-inners here who applaud & tease & laud your freewheel sketch mentality and practice! And I so want ON BOARD with the tiny on-the-go 3X5 puppies—EXCEPT: the blank black cover is such a hurdle for me! Are you adding a label? Embossing your initials? Carving into the leather-ish material? Inquiring graffiti-ing minds want to know!!
Oh MAM, your posts bring me chuckles, guffaws and insights. Thank you. About your little sketchbook, assume it’s a 3×5. Is it a Moleskine or that other brand that starts with a P but I can’t remember what comes after the P. And is it only a sketchbook or is it a watercolor sketchbook. I just saw one of the P brand 3×5 books today, but it was sketchbook only and I didn’t know if it would hold up to watercolors, so didn’t buy it.
Great idea to have a teeny one to bring everywhere. I’ve tried hauling my regular sketchbook that I made from your Sketchbookery class, but it’s too heavy.
your talent is really amazing and lovely. thanks for sharing with us.
Loving your style, and more importantly, your attitude!
Love it! What a treasure that book is. And what fun to sit and sketch….welcome back to CA.
I second every single comment that has come before mine on this post… including getting my 3×5 sketchbook ready for our tide pool investigation course … where shall we meet? :-)) Seriously though, out of all the millions of “how to draw/sketch/paint” books and videos and classes out there, nothing inspires me more than you do my dear and I will be forever grateful to you. xoxo ~ gretchen
Mary Ann!!! ???
I’m with Tina… of course we need to know what that meant. How could you possibly just leave us hanging like that – “all of this is going to alter the way I put together my next travel journal” !!! DO TELL… Inquiring minds want to know…
Love the tiny sketchbook. And I too, love love love your style. It is so loose and free and fun. Nobody here cares if there are rainboots coming out of the roof either!
I have a pretty small little sketchbook that I made but I haven’t put it in my bag. Now I will along with some pens. I think that probably the painting will get done after the fact. I’m much too hyperactive to sit in a spot long enough to sketch it and paint it!
Susan
Oh yeah, PS. thanks for answering the question in my last post!
As always, gorgeous sketches Mary Ann! Have a fantastic weekend!
You have the bestest approach to sketching and drawin’ Mary Ann. Oh yersiree you really, really do…love how you keep it real and put aside all the fan fair and horn tootin’ but all that said, you are getting pretty darn good at scale in that tiny sketchbook of yours…you truly are…with love from the very steamy, swampy, Minnesota, acting much more like Florida today….give me winter any day of the week please….;)
Mary Ann you said you just pull over wherever and sketch, and then the next sketch was of the 5 freeway. Please tell me you didn’t pull over on the freeway and sketch:). teehee! Just teasing you. I love your sketches and the informality of them. I see some sketchbooks that are so “perfect” and every detail is captured, and that’s great, BUT when I see your work it just utterly charms me. I LOVE that things are slightly wonky, and that there are boots on rooftops,. There is something about your work that just delights me. When I am browsing sketchbooks and see the other kind I move quickly past them, and stop on the ones that are like yours and just get so much JOY out of them. I love your style, and your freedom, and love seeing things through your minds eye. I was afraid that when you were studying perspective that it would take something away from your free spirit way of translating things. That is what I love about your work. The free translation! I kind of like things wild and free, I guess. I took your Sketchbookery class for that very reason, and got so much out of it! Don’t stop being you, because you are a treasure and a delight. Oh, and you are funny too! So much fun seeing that little sketchbook!
Lovely post! Off to buy my own 3″x5″!
This is so awesome! I keep a notebook in my totebag and it comes with me everywhere. The bar, the beach, even the Walmart parking lot. It takes forever to fill, but when I finally get to the last page…man, it’s such a good feeling.
I also really like that it’s not really a mixed media book, but just ink and watercolor? I like that alot.
Just ordered my small sketchbook for our intensive tidepool investigation course. I assume you will have space in your 3×5. Send me an S.O.S. if I should get you another one!
Love this post! I read them all but this one is giving me the idea of trying a smaller sketchbook. Thanks for all your inspiration!
Wish I could page through those tiny books with you! I know that feeling of satisfaction — you start page 1 and wonder how you’ll ever do that many sketches, and sometime down the line, it’s all full! You’re probably not into labels (“WHOKAYRES what I call myself??” 😉 ), but I think you are a closet Urban Sketcher. 😉 I have one question: “all of this is going to alter the way i put together my next travel journal.” How so?? Oh, I’m sure you’ll tell us eventually, but I want to know now. 😉 I’m always, always, always thinking about my next travel adventure and how I will sketch it.
– Tina
So much inspiration!! Have been loving the continued travel stories and drawings. Have been making sketch books and watercolor books and idea books…still enjoying the sketchbookery lessons. Am sketching more and love your tiny purse size watercolor journal. Your photo backgrounds have changed….missing your tablecloths, birds, art supplies!