Drawing in Sketchbooks in Cars (scavenged time) and Scavenged Art Materials

One thing most artists know, deep down in that dark lazy place, is that the only way to get better is to keep drawing and looking. Looking and drawing. Just that: look, draw, repeat.

After living in full on denial about this for many years I have reverted back to using a daily sketchbook, and I have never been happier. I might find the time for a colour landscape, or I might just manage to steal a few minutes for a face in a cafe, that’s fine. That’s actually great, that’s my favourite. The pressure’s off to create something finished, I know I only have a few lines to capture a nose or an expression.

I have little gems littered throughout various notepads and sketchbooks and I’m starting to see how these frenetic jottings could be used for source material for some of my ideas.

I love sitting in a car with a pen and paper. It’s even better now because our car has heated seats. On my way to do the weekly shop I might pull over and scrabble around on the floor for a bit of footprinted paper, or park on the far edge of a retail park to sketch the twilight illuminated Scots pines ringing the lake of tarmac. My favourite is sitting on bus and sketching people at the stops, check out some of these characters.

I’ve been working on an idea for a story set in a small Scottish village circa 1800. On the hunt for inspiration I drove out to Dunbar on Sunday and sat in the car for an hour drawing buildings. I’m not sure of the authenticity of the architecture for my project but I think it’s ok, I’ll bend and twist them a bit. Roughen them up and take away the phone lines and drainpipes.

I came across the idea of tactile world building through Samantha Cotterill talking about finding a working practice for those who struggle to stick to one thing, listen to it here on The Illustration Podcast. I was so inspired I practically ran to our bins and started enthusiastically rummaging through our recycling to find suitable receptacles to start turning into village houses. With a bit of masking tape and some pen and ink these tea boxes are transforming into something… well something that needs a bit of work.

They might be a bit too DIY at this point, but another thing came out of this messing about is that I like the idea of recycling waste to create something new. I didn’t think I did, but there you go, I love it! There’s something extremely freeing about working with trash because you can literally just throw it back where you found it if it doesn’t work out. Being able to ditch something and start again is something I’ve always really struggled with. 10 second sketches help and working with children’s crayons helps. Reforming rubbish helps. So I encourage you to grab an empty Pringles tube and make a water tower, or a lighthouse.

To see more of my sketchbook work head over to my Sketchbook page.