Using a pocket sketchbook
Combining diary doodles, cartoons, newsletter ideas, and observational sketches
Hello readers,
It’s been a while since I’ve shown you my sketchbooks 👀 I got around to scanning the pocket sketchbook I’ve been using all of March to show you how I’ve been using it. My practice of using these tiny sketchbooks isn’t “Instagram worthy”, but it works well to capture my observations and ideas. Scroll onward to take a look!
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This sketchbook is the Moleskine cahier pocket notebook in size 3.5” x 5.5”. It’s about the size of a phone, which makes it a perfect substitute when going on offline walks.
I started the sketchbook with some visual journaling. I’m using a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen with my favorite ink, along with some water-soluble graphite.
These notebooks have thin paper (70 gsm) so there’s some ghosting on the back. I use the back to write ephemeral thoughts in pencil.
I’d been neglecting my paints for a few months and felt like a raw beginner. As a way to start again, I copied a painting. Learning by copying is so useful (provided you don’t claim it as your own, of course!) Here I doodled some illo ideas on this topic to use in the future.
I love finding metaphors in creative tools. Pencil = candle, brush = mop. I’m not sure what these seedlings mean just yet, but I am thrilled to capture them and let them simmer.
Drawing people in the wild begets drawing from memory. When you look at people you’ll find they are rarely in the same position for long periods of time (unless they are looking at their laptop or phone). Practicing drawing from memory requires lots of patience and love for wonkiness.
I used the bottom half of the page to ideate a newsletter post—it’s the one on min/max creative time that went out last week!
I read Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger, a truly thought-provoking book that sparked a lot of connections with artists’ alter egos and the perceived safety of performance, especially with actors and K-pop idols.
This page also has a few tiny cartoons that I personally adore, but I’d love to hear your thoughts—are they worth making bigger and sharing properly? Let me know!
I use little to no color in this sketchbook, an intentional choice that helps me travel lightly and prioritize documenting over fussing. Of course, now that it’s spring I am dying to use color everywhere. Everything changes with the seasons.
Surprise nephew drawings! Is it just me or does this baby look way older than 1.5 months? Time has taken on new meaning watching him grow.
I changed the pen I used because I was getting annoyed with the page ghosting. This is a Muji gel ink pen in blue black. I usually don’t like sketching with pen very much but this is making me practice.
More on time—I’ve started reading Jenny Odell’s Saving Time. The concept of chronos and kairos is one I heard last year when I went to her panel at Brooklyn Book Festival. I drew these abstractions in another sketchbook and copied them here, as I find the visual distinction really meaningful.
On the right are some landscape thumbnails while passively watching a forest walk video. On one hand they look like scrawls and scribbles…but they also distinctly give an immersive feeling of being in the forest! Drawing is wild.
I drew this page at my local park, and I have to confess I am in love with this tree. Something about its wispy greens gets me! Studying David Hockney has inspired me to keep drawing the same tree, so I am determined to revisit and capture it regularly.
LOVED everything about this post, Carolyn - thank you so much for sharing your process! I'd love to have a decent sketchbook habit but my pencil gets shy.... I'd love to build my confidence in sketchbooking. Terrific post!
I carry a pocket moleskine exactly for things like this and yet, I don't use it nearly as much as I should. This inspires me!