So what are you going to whinge about today, Dee?

I dunno. My lack of new photos? I really need to get the camera out next week. There's only so long that these leftovers will last, even on this blog.

I could complain about my head, I suppose, but so far things haven't gotten any worse than they were yesterday so I don't want to jinx that. I've obviously picked up something, but maybe if I'm really REALLY lucky it'll turn out not to be the office crud. We've had some very sick people around the workplace, and I definitely don't want to be one of them.

I could talk about my new toy courtesy of my father, but then I wouldn't be whinging and I haven't actually had much of a chance to use it yet anyway. Guess we'll save that one, then. And when it does come up let's hope I'm not complaining about it. It's not the type of thing that should lead to complaints, even from me.

So... um...

A little help here?





Well, I suppose I could whinge slightly about my sketchbooks. Or how I use them, rather. I have a couple of moleskine sketchbooks that I really like (one for sketching and one for watercolour, I should say. And anyone who's looked at my other blog knows what a joke it is that I have a watercolour book). That's a big thing for me, because I get so bored with the paper in most sketchbooks or field sketchbooks that I find myself not using them at all. The moleskines, though, I like. The moleskines I use. There's a but, though. As in, but why can't I make myself use them better, then?

Notice that I didn't say use them properly. I don't think there's a way to use sketchbooks properly since different things work for different people. What I'd like for me, though, is to stop being so freaking nitpicky. In my mind I'd like my notebooks to be places for experimentation. Places to play in. To try new things, new techniques, new subjects. Places where the end result shouldn't matter as long as I've learned something from them.

But I don't do that.

Not as much as I'd like to, anyway.

See, I get too caught up in the permanence of a book. If I doodle something in a book it's going to stay there for as long as the book exists. There's that air of setting in concrete that makes me nervous to stretch things too much. An effed-up doodle is always going to be there staring me in the face unless I tear the page out and I really don't want to do that. So what do I do if I'm in the mood to do all those things I'd like to do with the sketchbook but I'm not sure how it'll turn out? Oh, I usually end up using a cheap sketchpad instead. Tear-out sheets and all. And then what happens?

Ok, here's the really stupid part.

Fairly often things turn out well enough that I find myself wishing I'd used the moleskine instead because it'd be nice to have a more permanent copy.

HOW STUPID IS THAT?

Pretty stupid.

I think I may have a solution, though. The solution's pretty stupid as well, but it just might work for an olf like me. I think that maybe, just maybe, I'll buy myself another moleskine sketchbook. One of the smaller ones, maybe. Or maybe even one of the ruled notebooks rather than a dedicated sketchbook.

And how would that solve anything, Dee?

Well, if I got another sketchbook and devoted it entirely to experimentation, that would mean I could keep my current "good" sketchbook for more finished doodles and actually experiment in the other one. Right?

Yeah, yeah, I know. But it sort of makes sense in my head. Sort of.




Anyway, there's your whinge for the day. I'm off to check out the Illustration Friday entries (so far), since I finally posted mine this morning (I don't let myself look at any until I've done one myself. More olf, yes). Or maybe buy a moleskine. We'll see what the day brings.