Walking about...

Looking and drawing can be a simple activity of stopping where one walks, cradling the sketchbook on the knee and making relaxed casual marks of notation of what is in front of one.

The intention was not to make a masterful drawing, but to note the character of related objects one sees, and to give enough information to use the drawing as reference at a later date.

This sketch used up about ten minutes of my walk on the dike near my house. The pencil and sketchbook were in my purse, the path was dry and I sat on the ground with crossed knees supporting the sketchbook. The sketchbook is 9 by 12 inches, a good size for both full page drawings or pages of small studies.

Some people prefer to use a camera for note-taking. I do not. I far prefer to use my own eyes to make decisions to simplify, include, or leave out, and find the discipline of doing so useful. The action of drawing allows time to meditate on what is seen and helps build visual memory as well.