Sketchbook Journal….around the world
One of the last exercises in my Joggles class (which now feels like it was about a thousand years ago) was to work within a grid. I chose to work with items in our living room from our life around the world.
![2012.05.Blog.SketchGrid005](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.SketchGrid005.jpg)
The finished (I think it is finished) page….may add some color to the upper left corner, just a light wash of the ochre….
I chose things from my parents’ home, like the bedwarmer and the Tibetan horn:
![2012.05.Blog.SketchGrid001](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.SketchGrid001.jpg)
The Peruvian copper bedwarmer (lift lid, fill with coals, close lid, pop in bed! from the pre-electric blanket era!). Behind it is a decorative Tibetan horn–think like on the Swiss Alps, except in Tibet. This one, since it is perforated with holes, clearly could not be used to signal a nearby mountaintop.
![2012.05.Blog.SketchGrid002](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.SketchGrid002.jpg)
Things I sketched….observed by the dog! Left to right back row: one of Paul’s carved monkeys from Zaire (remember hear no evil, see no evil? This one is speak no evil–his buddies are still on the shelf), a Mate cup (tea, with a strainer on the bottom of the straw, used by the Gauchos aka cowboys) from Argentina, an M’Bigou soapstone carved head from Gabon, and a duck made from a pully. My half-brother TJ was very creative; he lived in LA near the docks, and made things from leftovers–our coffee table is actually one he made from a ship’s hatch cover. On the bottom it has a note from him to my dad, for whom he made the table. They are both gone, but the table lives on! In the front is a rebenque, the crop/whip used by the Argentine and Brazilian gauchos. Not pictured is the bird on the left side of the page. It also is M’Bigou soapstone.
![2012.05.Blog.SketchGrid003](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.SketchGrid003.jpg)
Jane LaFazio was our teacher. She wanted us to draw a grid (3×4 squares or whatever filled your page) then fill the squares, sometimes merging a couple of squares if needed. This is at the inked-but-not-colored stage. On the bottom I wrote the places I have lived.
And now I’ll send you back to the top to see the finished page. I rather like it!
July 24th, 2012 at 8:09 pm
I don’t make elaborate colorful drawings like yours, but I am starting to journal a bit. I have kept a diary type journal off and on since I was 12 or so. I still have all of them too! But recently I have started delving into art journaling and draw a page of doodles instead of writing a page of what happened that day. (I still do the other journal too though). I bought some SMASH journals among other plain ones that I will embellish. I have an embellished journal that I keep my Creative Prompts in. I recently read “Steal Like an Artist”. I subscribed to the Sketchbook challenge. I am enjoying, bringing out this artistic side of me that hasn’t really seen the light of day for maybe 40-50 years!!! I have you and Jaye to partially thank for this. 🙂 I am saving up to buy a few books to help keep me inspired. I even really splurged and bought Cloth Paper Scissors’ special edition “Pages” and have some ideas for making my own journal books from scratch! I love it all!
Thank you for sharing this side of you. It inspires me greatly. 🙂
July 25th, 2012 at 4:15 am
this is very special what you have drawn. I love it. First of all I love to travel, so this is a good way of keeping memories! I will keep this in mind! Thanks for sharing.
gr. Marjolijn