Time for a new sketchbook

I finally gave in and started my new sketchbook, #4. The old one has like two empty pages which are not so easy to locate, as they are not next to each other. I have to page through all these old drawings trying to find a blank page.

When I say old, I ain't kiddin' McGee. This was my Visions piece for 1998, but was drawn in '96. It took a while for me to get around to making it. Eventually it became Parallel Paths and was badly shot for the cover (too dark) but looks pretty good in the book.

This was my '99 Quilt National piece, Aquifer. I am always saying I should make this again, only bigger. I could since I have the original here, plus the transparency which is what I used to project it full size.

I made this piece in '98 for a show in Germany. It is called Tropicana. A big, no HUGE quilt (78x47") which now looks so BRIGHT, almost to the point of garish. This design really should be made again, only not so big.

Now that I think about it, I did make a smaller version, but sold it years ago. How time flies...

This quilt is small and is called Yellow Bird, but when I made the original version the working title was Bird in the Lobby. I saw it as a hotel mascot, and the rectangle behind the bird was an elevator door. More than you needed to know. These memories surface when I look at the old sketches. The orange segment stuck to the edge...I have no idea. I made this twice, once for sale and once for the pattern. I still have #2.

This itsy bitsy piece became a slide presentation. As I made the quilt, I shot the step by step process, on slide film, eeeouuuwww. Thank heaven digital is here, where I can make sure I have the best shot, lighting and focus etc.
I eventually sold it too.
Why would I have to sketch something so simple? So I could see where I was going. These sketches are like roadmaps. I figure out the parts and where to begin. I can't imagine all this in my head first you know.
Sometimes I just doodle and it comes flowing out. Actually, mostly. It's magic to me.

And last but not least, this is the sketch for Red. Obviously I used artistic license when I started constructing the piece. But my confidence was already on the page. My sketch is an anchor in a stormy sea of doubt. It is the breadcrumbs on the path home. It is the skeleton in my body of work...OK, enough with the lame metaphors.
It is the answer to the question of what is next? or what goes where?

When my work was not going well I neglected my sketchbook. It's tough to explain it. Perhaps I was just empty and nothing good came out. Now that 'all things have become clear to me' I have plenty of sketches to bring to fruition.

I hope you feel encouraged to sketch, because you have ideas, or because you might prime the pump and find that ideas are in there already and need to have a place to pour out. Sketchbooks like these are easy to find. I got mine at that wonderful art supply store, Office Max.

O, and these books are also a great place to cut and paste pictures and postcards that inspire. I have a big fat one, full of stuff that reminds me that my ideas are not as weird as I think...