Sketchbook Pages

Here are some recent pages from my sketchbook. A few of them are from the driver's seat while waiting in traffic, at the car wash, or in line at In N Out Burger.

Las Vegas

Here are two sketches of the Las Vegas Strip done from the Trump International Hotel. The top sketch was done in my Aquabee 9" x 6" sketchbook. The bottom one was done in an 11" x 14" Canson watercolor sketchbook.

A Church in Whittier

Here are a few studies of a Church in Whittier. I added some gesso to the bottom of the painted version to give it a vignette feeling. I'm not sure if the composition is working yet. The bottom sketch was painted with gouache.

New Sketchbook

It took me almost a year to finish my last sketchbook. You can see the old one next to a brand new one. I have a little ritual I go through to prepare it for use: first I date and sign the cover in silver paint from a paint pen; then I stamp my address in the front cover; finally I make a list of my current color palette and paint a swatch of each color. In this case, I did a quick sketch of my artist's paint box, just for fun.

Now I am ready to go.

Sketchbooks and Journals

I have a large collection of sketchbooks and journals beginning in 1979. Back then I used an A4 Architect's and Designer's Diary. Now I use a Lett's weekly planner for my scheduling and journal entries, a Aquabee spiral sketchbook for drawing and a pocket Moleskine sketchbook for both. This photo also shows my Canson Montval watercolor sketchbooks and my collection of Canson All-Media sketchbooks.

I recently discovered the very large Moleskine sketchbook, shown at the top. It is 12" x 16.5" and is perfect for capturing large landscapes and nice horizontal vistas. You can see its size as compared to my pocket version. I usually keep this one in my car and just pull it out when there is something big to sketch.