Sometimes it's good to just dwell in your own creative meanderings now and then. And taking some time off helps to feel invigorated and inspired. Breathe in... breathe out... and doodle away! I always have skectchbooks aplenty lying around the house, and while looking through magazines or seeing something I'd want to try for myself, it's easier to just quickly scribble something down. Sketches are such a wonderful creative tool; they're pure expression, an attempt to capture the fleeting moment of an idea as it's touched your mind, and the drawing is just a light impression of it. Your mind will recall it in greater detail (hopefully) at a later time, when you revisit the scribble. It becomes like a visual footnote for a thought about to be realized, no?

How do you use sketchbooks for your creative process?

Jaunty Fine Print: illustrations by Denise Sakaki

The Magpie scrapbooks, this is true. But let me clarify -- there are no decorative grommets, lattice-cut edges of family photos, or enough flim-flam fussy adhesive decor slapped onto an album page to make it weigh over a pound. The Jaunty Scrapbook is just a plain blank sketchbook that is starting to bulge from the pasted-on collage of imagery that is slowly filling the pages. The only special tools required is a pair of scissors and a small batallion of glue sticks, which I buy in bulk at the office supply store. This Bird goes through those things like they're going out of style!

I see an interesting photo in a magazine or catalog -- or even a funny scrap of paper -- and it gets saved for a rainy day when I can compose a little theme of imagery for each spread in the blank book. It's a sketchbook of possibilities and future inspiration. And it's an invigorating creative exercise to train the brain to gather imagery that doesn't necessarily match, but somehow "goes" together in a thematic way.   

What about  you? Do you have a way of organizing your thoughts and creativity in a collection of some sort?


Jaunty Fine Print:  photos by Denise Sakaki