Becoming a blue cat

And keeping handwritten sketchbooks and notebooks

In my last newsletter I shared the beginning of a sketchbook page. Because of some of the questions and comments that resulted I thought I'd walk through my entire process of making the page.

One morning I woke up thinking about the new year and my hopes and fears. So I wrote a note by hand in my notebook, pictured below, “may your choices and actions today be rooted more in what you hope for than what you fear.”

Another morning I was still thinking about the topic and rewrote that phrase and drew in my sketchbook.

While that was a nice enough drawing it didn't quite express what I felt. But the process of doing these pages helped me refine what precisely I feel.

So on another morning I tried again. This time with “blowing bubbles” as the visual metaphor. The bubbles captured my feeling about the ephemeral nature of both hopes and fears. They're both soap bubbles - but of the two only the hope bubbles are cleansing and useful to ongoing life.

I started with pencil lines for the cat and then drew some ink lines over that, (enlarge the image and you can see the scribbly pencil lines) drew some circles and hand wrote the text …

Then another morning I did an under-painting on the cat. I selected a light blue watercolor and did a wash in the cat shape. I also drew some more ink circles.

The under-painting provides some tones for me to work with on the next morning. This, like the pencil lines, will disappear, becoming a layer, an addition that will blend in the viewers eye adding depth to the finished sketch.

But beyond the look of the finished sketch all the layers going in to this sketchbook page - from the handwritten note in my notebook to both of the sketchbook pages - give me multiple chances for “a quiet gentle think” on this topic in the mornings.

Yet another morning I added more layers…this time using blue ink and ink washes on top of the under-painting. I'm using blue ink in my fountain pen and a water-brush containing plain tap water. So you can see it better this video was done in my studio using the table and special lights that I have there rather than in the living room where I usually sit, cat on my lap, to draw during breakfast.

Here's a still photo from the progress at the end of the above video.

Below is another similar video that builds more layers on top of the previous ones.

And here's a photo of what I did in the above video. See how the cat now looks “dark blue cat” even though there's a lighter blue under-painting?

What follows are photos from 2 different morning sketchbooking sessions that followed the above....

I'm sure you can spot the differences.

On yet another morning I signed the artwork and scanned my pages in 2 sections…

… so I could “finish my thought” by putting my sketchbook pages on a coffee mug. Focusing on hopes rather than fears and remembering the ephemeral nature of feelings seemed 17oz coffee-cup-worthy thing to remember in the mornings. (Link here)

All of which could beg the question: why take so much time to handwrite and handdraw so simple a thought?

It's about the process not the end result. It's about taking the time (15 minutes or so) for myself each morning to explore something slowly, gently, without a destination. No test, no deadline, no rush, no demands, no quest for perfection - just pure play. Using the same topic for more than one morning sketchbooking session extends my playtime. Remember being a kid playing with paper and crayons? It's like that but for grownups.

Using my hands and my mind together in real life is how I think and play most soul-satisfactorily. I'm like many humans in this - thinking and playing best while moving my body.¹ Using my hands to write and draw is also my way of resisting the enshitification of things, to deliberately go slowly, thoughtfully, playfully within the tactile world reclaiming a bit of it for sanity sake.²

And why does that matter?

I'm the only me there will ever be so I might as well notice things within my life, write those things down and make my writing-things-down time as sensory and as pleasant³ as possible.

It helps me to hope.

You and your thoughts and feelings are worth exploring and keeping too.

Especially your hopes.

Thank you, to all of you, for your ongoing patronage and support of my work! I appreciate every one of you! If you're a newly paid subscriber please feel free to access or download any or all of the 24 ebooks that I've written and illustrated which you can download and access anytime you wish from this index page.
Thank you again for being here!!

1. Don't let blank books scare you.

Do this to stop letting blank sketchbooks scare you

2. How Did We Get So Dumb?

3. Go ahead and get good quality blank books and pens and art supplies - things that you'll enjoy looking at and using. It's okay to make messes, imperfect drawings and poorly worded writing … you can redraw, rewrite and you don't have to show any of it to anyone. Just play with the materials! Quality materials are more fun to play with. Here's one of my favorite independent art supply stores run by real humans who often include handwritten notes and drawings when they pack an order:

https://shop.stlartsupply.com/

BTW: I don't get anything for recommending this art supply company - I've gotten good supplies from here and sometimes when I read their newsletter about new supplies it reminds me that there are good people and good things in this world… and again I have hope.