Getting (back) into the habit of sketching

I’ve started uploading a daily sketch on my other blog as a way to get back into the habit of sketching, well, daily. I also post them on my mastodon that I have never really used for anything.

Edit: as a teen I sketched a lot. I had no more ’talent’ at that time than I have today but back then I did not care the slightest about that. I was enjoying sketching a lot, and I had a lot of fun. I want to see if, decades later, I can rekindle that fun (and pleasure) of sketching. And maybe see if I can at least start learning to sketch a little better.

Even though I have anbsolutely no idea of anyone is looking at my sketches — or at this very blog post, for that matter — it’s not very important. I do that in the hope of developing a new-old habit, or could it be two habits? Sketching on the one hand and blogging on the other? Like I said, it doesn’t matter.

At first, I thought I would mostly be doing some light watercolor sketches but, so far, it looks like I’m focusing on pen & ink. Not that I have much to say about it, it just happens that is what brains and hand want me to do. Not that I complain either, I realized I love pen & ink even though I suck at it at least as much as I suck at watercolor.

What I can already tell is that the decision to always carry with me this pocket sketchbook (A6) in a small pouch that also holds all the tools I need — a pencil, a tiny piece of kneaded eraser and two fountain pens — was a game changer. The pouch also carries a waterbrush and my watercolor palette but for the moment at least I’m only focusing on pen work.

I constantly have this pouch with me, I can even attach it to my belt if I want to, no matter what I’m doing do or where I am. I never have to search for the sketchbook or the pens in my bag, I always know where they are and I can easily grab them. So easily that I have already surprised myself sketching food I was about to cook, while I was considering how to prepare it.

Sketching ools

Published: 2024/05/14