I always thought of myself as more of a journal person since I tend to seek out words to help me make sense of the world. But deep down, I think I have always wanted to be a sketchbook person, too—someone who can translate the world around them into a striking visual. While I had plenty of field-based geology classes to equip me with the basics of sketching, it wasn’t something I was good at and therefore I didn’t have much of an interest in it…until now!
I remember visiting the Pacific Northwest for the first time with a group of geology students in the summer after my first year of college. By this point, I had enough practice drawing outcrops and taking meticulous notes in my Rite in the Rain notebook that I knew what was expected of me when we arrived at a site. First, I would write down logistical things like the date, the location, the weather, and if I’m feeling intimate, I’d make a note about how I’m feeling. (When looking back on your notes you may be surprised by the lack of detail or prevalence of mistakes. Making a note of the shitty weather or a shitty day may put that all into perspective for future you.) Then, we were onto sketching the outcrop. In our notebooks we focused on the layers, the contacts between beds, the superpositioning, and identifying features and compositions. Geologic sketches are not necessarily meant to be realistic or be an expression of beauty, but some of my peers’ previous (or concurrent) art curriculum definitely came through in their notes. My friend Shelby was one of those peers. Her field notes were just incredible.
In the middle of June, we hiked through snow to a viewpoint of Mount Rainier. We sketched the mountain and identified its glacial features. Soon my notebook was a cluttered with arrows pointing to aretes, moraines, and cirques. If someone would have come across my field notebook, they might think I was learning French! After we concluded our instruction and note taking, Shelby pulled out a tiny watercolor set and her sketchbook and began a beautiful watercolor of Mount Rainer. I watched in awe as she scooped up some snow into a little glass jar to hydrate her paints and her brush, amazed at how resourcefully she used the world around her to interpret the world around her. She inspired me greatly then, and at another instance when we used her watercolors on a ferry ride from Friday Harbor a few years later.
But it isn’t until now that I am trying this sketchbook thing for myself. Truthfully, it isn’t until now that I feel confident enough to give it a try. And I don’t mean that I magically got better at sketching—there is no comparison between Shelby’s and my watercolors of the Puget Sound—it’s just that I don’t really care about being good anymore. I am shedding these limiting and expired beliefs that I must be great at something in order to do it or naturally talented at something in order to even begin.
So today, inspired by many artists on YouTube and their amazing sketchbooks, I bought a sketchbook, some brush pens, and barely gave it a second thought before making my first marks on the pages.
I present to you, my very first sketch:
And not half bad! A little muddy, but that’s ok. It was really fun to try out my new pens and see what I could create. I really loved having the lighter blue pen to do a basic sketch before going in with the black and adding details. I also love that my first sketch in this book is a scene in downtown Hood River, my new(ish) home that’s really starting to feel like home.
In some of the videos I watched about sketchbooking, the artists were reflecting on how sketching the scene in front of them or a live subject allows them to remember the moment more vividly. That was certainly true for me with this sketch. I love that I captured the blue Adirondack chairs in front of the store, the clear cuts across the river, and the kiteboarder, too. Because of this sketch, I see these quintessential Hood River elements in new, more meaningful ways. I can already see how this sketchbook will become a visual diary, bringing me back in time in a way that my written journal does not.
I am really excited to start this new sketchbook journey and take this little book with me on my travels this summer. I will update my blog with some of my pages as I go!
Materials
- Talents art creation sketchbook (9 x 14 cm)
- Pentel portable pocket brush pen
- Tombow brush pen in 192 and 553
Kharrazi Glassworks 