{"id":2887,"date":"2012-07-30T18:55:20","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T18:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=2887"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:21","slug":"the-sketchbook-appreciation-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/the-sketchbook-appreciation-society\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sketchbook Appreciation Society"},"content":{"rendered":"<address>Some things seem to come about of their own accord, though clearly a good idea only needs the slightest excuse to happen. Thanks to a handful of creative and enthusiastic forum members, we are adding a new section to the site forum, dedicated to the art of the incidental, that most eminently portable and indispensable artistic accessory: the sketchbook.<\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<h4>Sketchbooks\u2026<\/h4>\n<p>I recall my very first ones; they had spiral bindings, red or orange covers. I scribbled in them furiously, took them to high school art class, and hauled them out to do wholly unsatisfying sketches outdoors \u2013 but mostly I sprawled on my tummy on the floor of my room (purple shag carpet; yes I chose it, yes I was in my teens, yes it was the 70\u2019s, yes I think I should be excused on those grounds alone) dutifully doodling in pencil.<br \/>\nI recall my first real sketchbook, a gift from my colleague Alan Lee during a sojourn in the Antipodes and in Middle-Earth. When I mused how hard it was to start a first sketch in such a lovely &#8211; and so crisply pristine \u2013 object, he advised: \u201cJust open it anywhere in the middle, that way if the first sketch isn\u2019t so good, it won\u2019t be the first one in the book.\u201d<br \/>\nI recall taking the stage in Toronto at IdeaCity 2006 in front of 500 people, and ad-libbing a presentation about the advantages of low-tech hardbound A3 acid-free \u201claptops\u201d, with notes hastily scribbled in my Daler-Rowney A3 Bluewave.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GBsqCKmO1Uw?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"><\/iframe><\/center><br \/>\nI recall spending an entire day, comfortably ensconced under a pine tree, next to the camp of the Laketown refugees, admiring the vista across Lake Tekapu, watching the beautifully costumed extras file by and drawing sketches of Erebor. Or sitting quietly in whatever pools of light could be found find inside dark sound stages, trying not to make too much noise sketching during takes. (I never thought I would ever be choosing pencils in function of their acoustics.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/John_port4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-2883\" title=\"Sketching\" src=\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/John_port4-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Photo: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.claudedussex.ch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Claude DUSSEX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I recall seaside vacations and hammocks, sketchbook perched on my knees, listening to cicadas and drawing whatever crossed my mind, a sketch a day. I recall staring in mild dismay at the contents of my pencil case and realizing that I had forgotten to sharpen 12 hours worth of pencils before stowing my utility knife in my checked luggage \u2013 and undertaking a series of, well\u2026 rather dull sketches.<br \/>\nA lot of your life can go into a sketchbook.<br \/>\nCome to think of it, mine probably has\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Thus, I\u2019ve become a fervent advocate of the sketchbook, with all the truly subjective and categorical qualifiers ranging from the dithyrambic to the dismissive. For all these reasons, as well as for a goodly number of more objective ones, and prompted by the suggestions of a member of the forum, we\u2019ve decided to undertake the creation of a special section dedicated to the very existence of sketchbooks: their history, their fabrication, famous sketchbooks through the ages, the artists who used them, where to buy them now and what best to use to draw in them.<br \/>\nAnd of course, YOUR views and thoughts and experiences.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/forum\/smf\/index.php#c3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sketchbook Appreciation Society<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some things seem to come about of their own accord, though clearly a good idea only needs the slightest excuse to happen. Thanks to a handful of creative and enthusiastic forum members, we are adding a new section to the site forum, dedicated to the art of the incidental, that most eminently portable and indispensable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[425,537,99],"class_list":["post-2887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-ideacity","tag-sketch","tag-sketchbook"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-Kz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}