I assume most of us still keep sketchbooks. I really enjoy having a sketchbook, because it is practically the only way I interact with design in an analog manner. Day to day in the office doesn’t really allow time for hand built study models or fun artsy kinds of projects, but sketching is quick, and remains away for me to actually use my hands. I use my sketchbooks for everything from thinking about a project at work to keeping grocery and to do lists.I find more and more that my sketchbooks end up filled with random thoughts, ideas, and weird nothings more than helping to develop one specific project (like it would have been in school).
Another Change to my sketching since school has been the integration of more watercolor. I find that I don’t always draw that well, and I have problems with line and proportion, but that I have a good understanding of value, shading, and color. Watercolor helps me quickly get those things onto the page, and I find the sketches in which I employ water color are usually my favorite. I would say currently about 50% of my sketches end up with some amount of watercolor, and 50% are just line work. The biggest problem with water color is that it can be messy and if you want to take it somewhere it usually evolves taking a bunch of things with you. The water color set I use alleviates a lot of these problems, I use a small water color palate about the size of my iphone, and waterbrush that has the water contained within it. This set up makes it very easy to travel with, and will even fit in the pocket of my pants. For the most part though it just sits on the end table next to my couch and allows me the freedom to add some quick color, when I am doodling.
I am curious what you all use your sketchbooks for, and how if at all your sketching has changed since school.
Pictures here is my sketching set up with an iphone 5 for scale.
Gallery of sketches from recent times.
The watercolor adds a nice style and it seems like you have developed an efficient way to incorporate that into your drawings. I’ve always enjoyed how playful your sketching is- it looks like you are having fun doing it. I usually end up using different pens if I want a different color; seems like I write more than draw so I am usually struggling to find the right pen for that.
I’ll keep a personal sketch book/journal which is usually at home and another larger one which I keep under my keyboard at work. For the work sketchbook I generally end up writing a bunch of numbers, checklists, etc as I am not drawing all that much. I’ll draw out details I am working on, or will sketch with my boss to try to come up with solutions. It ends up being a little cluttered with all the things but I enjoy keeping all this in one place so that I can later review the record or go back to verify something or look at an old idea.
Last year in my personal sketchbook I wrote out some of the goals I wanted to work towards and thoughts and feelings that I had of the year past and year to come and then sealed it with wax to be read at the start of this year. It turned out to be a very useful and insightful tool and I am in the process of doing it again this year.