Sketch Practice - Marti

For a year or more I've been sketching (well, doodling, more like) on a stack of unused day planner calendar pages held together with binder rings.  I keep it in the living room and it's become a handy place to jot down notes, practice my writing or just doodle.  Since the calendar pages didn't cost me anything and are on cheap paper, I don't feel any guilt about "wasting" them on idle scribbles.  Here's a sample page where I drew a small coneflower and scribbled down a recipe I heard on television.

Unfortunately, I'm running out of the calendar pages.  And in some cases, my doodles were actually rather nice sketches that I wished were on better paper and not done in ink pen.  So I decided it was high time I committed to using a real sketch book.  Therefore the calendar pages have been replaced with an honest-to-goodness hardbound blank journal (purchased years ago and never used), a pencil and an eraser.

I drew this face while watching television and titled it Marti after the classic movie I was watching at the time.  Marty is a touching film from 1955 staring Ernest Borgnine as a 34-year old, single butcher who lives with his widowed mother.  He struggles with the desire to find love for himself versus pleasing his family and friends, who make it clear they would prefer he stay single.

Since I haven't sketched too many faces I'm pleased with how this one turned out, and I plan to use her in some enhanced form on an art journal page or perhaps a piece of mail art.  In the meantime, I'm glad I have a "real" sketch in a "real" sketchbook to refer to.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great Presidents' Day.