One of my recent projects was to pare down my old sketchbooks. Many had drawings of my kids when they were little. I rummaged through the books, cut out the pages I liked and glued them into one new sketchbook titled, “Kids”.
I found many sketches drawn on pieces of tracing paper. I’m not sure why I chose it as my paper of choice during those years. Perhaps I had aspirations to one day, when my life slowed down, turn them into “proper” pictures, to invest more time into them. I’d also written down funny things my kids had said to accompany the sketches.
Bringing three children into the world in 5 years, while fulfilling my homesteading dreams of gardening, making my own bread, yogurt and dried food kept me busy.
Despite being immersed in so many things, I still found minutes to unearth my pen and paper and sketch quick moments of my life.
Thankfully, the desire to record with stories and drawings never stopped. It was like a never-ending, bubbling, fountain inside. Besides the appeal of catching the colors and lines and shapes of the moment, there’s the itch to record so you can experience the “events” once again at a later date.
The beauty of having little time to draw is that you can’t include every detail. Instead, you can aim for an emotional response.
Sometimes I wonder what is so important about a moment in time that I’m moved to record it.
As I look back at my “kid years” collection, it’s mostly about love, joy, laughter, and humour.
Something about the process of creating a sketch and writing a few words is enduring, perhaps because recording a moment manually pushes you to observe with all your senses.
As Cathy Johnson says so well on her DVD, Keeping an Artist’s Journal,
“Have you ever noticed that when you look back on one of your drawings, especially one done from life–no matter how crude or hurried that drawing may be–you’re able to remember clearly just what you were doing? The sights, sounds, scents and more that were taking place as you drew? It’s like a magical time machine, throwing us back to that moment and allowing us to experience it again. When it was a pleasant, relaxing time, that’s a true benefit!”
Couldn’t agree more! I wish I had taken up sketching when my children were small. So many memories forgotten! Now I try to sketch the moments and stories as I remember them and put them in my art journal.