Sketch roundup 18.Jul.2016

Some sketchbook pages from the last week or two.  

All the quotes are from the internet, not my original writing.  I don't know who the original sources are, since most of my quotes come from English translations of international facebook pages that pair quotes with photography.

I want to start a travel blog, or maybe slant this one to focus on my drawings and photography of specific places.  It's not exactly within my means right now to fly halfway around the world, so for now, I'm going to practice drawing around where I live.  When I do take that trip, I want to do the best work I can.

Throwing Out Sketchbooks

This is a sketchbook I finished last year.  Should I keep it?  

Serious question.  I always throw out my journals and sketchbooks. I buy the cheapest writing journals I can find because I know they're going to end up in the garbage.  I'm picky about sketchbooks for paper quality, but I still buy them knowing I'm probably going to trash it.  

In 2013, I threw out 15 years' worth of diaries/journals and ~10 years of personal sketchbooks.  I decided that carrying 20lbs of past around with you is dumb, and sacrificed them to the god of the trash chute.  I remember posting about my liberation in a Minimalist facebook group.  My post received an overwhelming response of horror, disbelief, and... my favorite... a chorus of middle aged women saying "you should have kept a few to share with your kids later on."  

Okay, listen up.  1) I am in a committed relationship with the next 20 years of my life.  2) There was nothing in these books that I want to look at again, much less show to the imaginary kids I'm not going to have.  

I have been throwing out my books since.  

I know I should want to keep them, but I don't.  

Okay, so I've kept three sketchbooks from college.  Two are reference books containing class notes and demonstrations, the third is a moleskine I took to Italy when I studied abroad.

I don't think I need to explain why I don't hold onto journals.  Or maybe I do, since aspiring minimalists were shocked that I chucked 'em.  I use journaling as a tool to resolve problems, and I can't think of one single good reason to dedicate space in my home to a list of things that bothered me last year.  My pre-2013 sketchbooks, barring the college stuff, were more or less a diary of low-lights.  Raise your hand if you draw when you're sad.  Keep it raised if looking at those drawings afterward makes you sad. 

As part of my minimalist journey, I made a commitment that I won't hold onto objects with negative associations, including artwork.  I've seen a lot of benefit from this.  Basically, you feel better overall if your home isn't a gallery of negative associations.  Even if you don't consciously realize that the stuff in your house is affecting you emotionally, it is. 

Which brings me to this.  I used this sketchbook from 2013-2015.  I can't decide if I want to keep it or not.  There are some nice breakthrough drawings in here that I care about, like my boats, but there is also some personal content I'd rather be without.  

I'm never going to be one of those artists who has a massive floor to ceiling bookcase full of old sketchbooks lined up neatly with dates on the spines.  I don't think it's necessary to keep every single drawing I do.  My old drawings are not irreplaceable, like a lot of people believe.  I can do another drawing.  In fact, I intend to.  

Maybe I'll keep it for now.  My first boat drawings are in here, and it will be the only past sketchbook I have that isn't school related.