collages

Sketchbook pages

11/23/25

For the past three Saturdays, I’ve been spending wonderful afternoons in a local workshop series called “Living Sketchbook.” We were encouraged to use sketchbooks as tools to capture ideas, experiment with types of media, and try new approaches.

During the first workshop, we spent some time writing about the past week. Then we drew over the text. The drawing could be related to the text, or it could be separate.

We spent the second workshop collaging. I liked looking for different textures or contrasting colors to glue next to each other.

The third workshop was to experiment with using different types of media together. I chose Tombow brush pens and Ink Joy gel pens — two things I haven’t tried using together in the same drawing.

Up to now, I’ve used sketchbooks on and off, when I had an idea to work on or new tools to try out. I didn’t know what made sense for me to do in a sketchbook on a consistent basis. This workshop series was helpful to see different approaches to keeping a sketchbook practice.