Sketching Around the World

I used to fancy myself quite a photographer when I was in boarding school. I took rolls of Tri-X, developed them myself (in Dektol, a paper developer, much to the bemusement of some pseudo-professional photographers in Madrid), adored the high contrast and mega-grain. And then I got tired of my fingers smelling of stop-bath and switched them for fingers stained in black ink, which they more or less have been since.

I feel I have nothing to add, now, to the deluge of digital photos inundating the blogosphere. But when you draw ten different drawings of the same sunflower, one of them might be interesting. I have learned a lot about myself on Saturday.

Contemplating our trip to Europe, I find I am drawn to blogs that feature a lot of sketching. I have my journal made, though I haven’t pinpricked my grid yet. I’m dying to have at least an hour or two at the aqueduct in Segovia: a structure spanning a city with no mortar, built 2,000 years ago. The press of stone on stone keeping the arches together.

We are out of practice for stone (the Central Valley hasn’t much). We’ll do our best…