I’m blogging about these because I have been enjoying doing sketchbook-diary pages as a way back into working on my stories and picture books; after having recently moved house and my aunty dying in early June.
It’s been a hectic summer and my children and I have been left a little with the feeling that it just passed us by (August being so damn wet didn’t really help). So I guess this is a way for me to take some time out, to breathe and to record the small things, the beauty of nature all around me.
We’ve moved to a beautiful place on an estuary – and I love it. The small things are right here. The sounds of the estuary birds, the loud ‘parping’ of the train as it passes, the rise and fall of the hills (it’s unusually hilly for this area). I feel happy here, so I think I notice the small things more. Drawing them is a way to appreciate just being here, a way to feel alive (some people ski down black runs or throw themselves from aeroplanes. I draw rocks and leaves – I’m no endorphin junkie!).
My sketchbook-diary entries are like Julia Cameron’s morning pages. And – just as the morning pages are intended to do – they help expand the feeling I have of being a creative person – somehow helping me to be more productive, despite having only tiny amounts of time to do my own work. The picture book I am currently working on, although progress is not fast, it feels overwhelmingly as if it is going in the right direction. And that feels good.
Its all very ‘Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady’ but the botanist, scientist & explorer lurking within me is enjoying the light of day (or the fading light of summer?). And most importantly perhaps, it’s fun.
Natalie Eldred 