What Sparks An Idea?

Check out the dotted lines printed on each page

I'm finally doing something with the sketchbook I bought specifically to organize my thoughts and work out ideas regarding this water series I'd wanted to pursue. That idea came from those three months I spent with my friend in Rochester MN while she got treatment at the Mayo Clinic. We discovered so many water fountains, a couple of small lakes, and even a little creek and a man-made waterfall with pool within the city limits. They all provided respite from our serious business, the sound of them and the movement of the water healing. Could any of this be captured in fabric? I started jotting down ideas in the sketchbook I'd brought along and once home started setting aside inspirational photos and fabrics. But I decided if I was ever going to make progress, I needed to have everything in one place, and I needed to start jotting down some of the small things that came to mind, not just design sketches.

Make your own table of contents

I chose to try a Leuchtturm1917 notebook with dotted line pages. I kept seeing references to this sort of notebook, apparently all the rage lately for organizing your life. The dotted line is sort of a compromise between lined and graphed pages, subtle enough to stay in the background but there to guide writing and sketching when you want straight lines in any direction. This version has other handy features, including numbered pages and a space for developing a table of contents so you can quickly find specific things. 

Reminding myself of what I thought I wanted to explore

So I've been doing some writing, printing out photos, transferring some of the sketching and notes from other sketchbooks, feeling in my element (I really do love organizing!). This is in preparation for making a very small sample that I can add to that sketchbook, a sample that has to do with portraying sparkles on a body of wavy water. I'm finding those dotted lines wonderful to work with, keeping my script in line and providing vertical and horizontal references for lining up the pictures I'm adding.

A bag of silk ties, a spark of an idea from just one

And what sparked the idea that I want to try in the sample is this, this one tie peeking out of the bag of Goodwill silk ties. I'd walked past that bag a number of times with no reaction, but it only took the one time when I only saw a sliver of those multicolored squares and could envision it creating the kind of visual movement I had in mind.

Reminders of the illusive "color" of water

It doesn't take much to move you forward, give you a possible solution to a challenge. But it also doesn't take much to lose it. Or to repeat something without realizing it. One way to avoid that is with a sketchbook, designed to hold all those flashes of insight and all those little things that may not appear directly related but feed the whole.

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Addendum

I just found this great short video explaining better than I have about the value of keeping a sketchbook, or as Austin Kleon calls it, an art journal, a place to put your thoughts, all your thoughts, down on paper.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtweA9JHYqe/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading