Full and Empty

A second bookshelf cleared, waiting to be filled with sketchbooks.

Last year around this time, I showed a photo of the bookshelf I had cleared off to make dedicated space for my sketchbook collection. That shelf is now full, so I cleared off the shelf below it to make room for more. It’s delicious to anticipate all the sketchbooks yet to fill! (I considered cropping out the disheveled pile of “studio mascots” next to my bookcase, but hell, I show you all of my sketches – you might as well see the rest of the way I live.)

Those of you who are bothered by visual disarray are probably wondering about those three sketchbooks lying on their sides above the other books on the left. They are among the generous supply of sketchbooks I received at the Urban Sketching Symposium last July, and I used one or two pages each in Barcelona. For two of them, I decided quickly that I didn’t like the paper enough to continue using them, so I can’t really count them among the completed sketchbooks that fill the rest of that shelf. The third is a Stillman & Birn, which I do like, but it seems random to use it now after so much time has passed since I made one symposium sketch in it. I’ve considered cutting the few sketches out and giving the books away. But I’m also sentimental about those books, since they all have the USk Barcelona logo on them. (One is even autographed by Lapin! There’s no way I can give that one away!) Hmmm. Another first-world sketcher problem, I guess.