Starting the "book"

I have always been a fan of the sketchbook. I have been keeping a sketchbook of sorts ever since I can remember. I always enjoy going back and looking at my old sketchbooks and seeing how I have progressed from sketch to sketch and book to book. I think that the sketchbook is often times more important then the artist's final work because it shows what exactly the artist was thinking and how they got to that final work.

In high school I began to get very excited about sketching and keeping a regular sketchbook for many reasons. My art teachers in high school, Mr. Woolery and Uncle Greg, not only encouraged but enforced the sketchbook. Since I had a background in sketching the sketchbook was not a new concept to me, but I took it to a new level my senior year of high school when I created close to 13 fully developed books.

Another important event in my senior year was when sketchbob came to my high school art class and showed us that the sketchbook can be an artwork all by itself. Until then I always kind of considered it to be somewhat expendable. After meeting and talking to sketchbob I began to research sketchbooks in general and began to look at what other people were doing in their books. I came across many different kinds of sketchbooks, which peeked my interest and increased my excitement even further. Since then I have been creating books. I almost never leave without my sketchbook for anywhere. I sketch as often as possible, because as I was once told 9 out of 10 ideas are lost because they are never written down, or in this case sketched out.

One of my favorite things that I have come across in my research of sketchbooks is the traveling sketchbook. Since I found out about this I have been waiting for an opportunity to create my own traveling sketchbook. Now I am a second semester freshman in college and I have finally decided to start the book. My friend Raime and I were looking to do something artistic recently so I put forth this idea and now we are on our way to creating our own traveling sketchbook.

Every time that the book gets an update I will be posting the new work. Each Artist will be recognized for their work, which will consist of a two page spread. So hopefully some new works will begin showing up soon.

- Luke

P.S. for those who have never seen some really awesome sketchbooks check out these sites.

http://sketchbob.com/ (this is the one who came to my school, he's awesome)

http://lookatbook.com/

http://www.daneldon.org/

http://www.1000journals.com/