Sketches & Thoughts
…as of August 2026
While working on laying out Sketches and Thoughts …as of February 2026, I had to decide whether to print the book entirely in black and white, or attempt to print the few pages drawn on tinted paper in color. In the end, I decided that coordinating the few color pages with the printing company would be too much bother for both them and me.
That left me a little dissatisfied, though, and I decided to devote time towards learning to use color in my sketches, so that I could justify printing my entire next book in color.
That turned out to be a wonderful decision. Several of my regular models loved seeing which colors I chose when drawing them from life, and my ambition to learn to draw in color led me to learn new materials, mediums, and techniques.
I set my ambition along the way to include my next 6 months of work in my next book.
As I had hoped, I found the book format I had designed for my previous book worked very well for this “update”.
I reused everything I could and was able to compile this book in just 3 days. I did make a few typos and copy/paste errors, such as the cover’s incorrect “…as of February 2026”, while the spine correctly stated “…as of August 2026.” Oh well.
I did not create multiple cover designs this time, as it was also too much of an administrative burden for the printing company. I had another idea, however, to help me personalize the book gift for particularly special people.
That idea was to create personalized bookmarks that I hoped the recipient would enjoy. That was great fun and a stretch of my skills. The results (shown below) illustrate that I’m still learning, and also remind me that I have a supportive and kind audience.
