Notes and Sketches

Notes and sketches go together in my sketchbooks. Sometimes, my idea of notes is as simple as this: just a couple of words to note what I sketch. This spread is an exploration of ways to render water, and my references were a bunch of photographs from different locations.

More often, I’ll record a conversation that goes with a sketch. Here, I sketch Dan at the Farmers’ Market while he tells me about his family’s long connection to corn growing.

“What does a good day look like?” I ask at the shave ice stall. The answer comes back quickly: “85 degrees”.

Here’s a sketch of Russ working on laying pavers in the backyard, I quiz him on all the fascinating tools he uses. My favorite of the day is the “Paver Persuader”. You can see I not only drew it in, I also made sure to label it in my sketch, so I remember this fabulously-named tool.

And then there’s the page of random little drawings in my book where the sketch itself may not mean much but the notes do.

As I sit in the waiting room while my daughter has her annual medical checkup, it strikes me that she’s been with Dr. Silverman since she was born and at her next checkup, she’ll be an adult! Where did the years go??