Old habits die hard? Hardly.

When I was a kid, I always kept a sketchbook. My mom would buy them and my grandma would always remind me to bring one with me whenever we'd run errands. Whenever there would be an idle moment, I'd take out my handy dandy sketchbook and I'd get to sketching.

Sometime in high school, I stopped sketching. I don't have a reason why. It was most likely because I had hours and hours of homework and studying to do. I didn't pick it back up until I was a sophomore at UArts (The University of the Arts, rest in peace).

I didn't restart because I wanted to, I restarted because my Figure Drawing professor required us all to keep a daily sketchbook. Shout out to the amazing Roger Roth! I must admit, at first it felt like an absolute drag. I had to carry my sketchbook everywhere, and I would forget that I had to have sketches ready by the end of the week. But I quickly started to settle back into the feeling of sketching daily. I began to look forward to it.

I kept a regular sketchbook until about 2016. I stopped regularly sketching to focus on creating my kidlit portfolio. And year after that, I began illustrating professionally. I didn't have any extra time to sketch regularly.

Fast forward to late 2024. I was sitting at my kitchen table pondering the intricacies of life (as usual) and I suddenly had the urge to sketch something. I'm not gonna lie, it scared me a little bit. But I thought about it, and I asked myself, "Why not?" It's healthier than scrolling mindlessly. I wasn't necessarily doing anything else in that moment. So, what do you think I did right after I decided to start a sketchbook again?

I picked up my phone and scrolled mindlessly.

Yup. I picked up my phone, opened Pinterest, and I scrolled... right to this screenshot from Tumblr that someone pinned:

I reread that first paragraph again... and again... and again. It made me think of all the places in my hometown that I knew like the back of my hand.

...I probably sketched them.

I scanned a few of my sketchbooks in 2014, so I set out to find my collection of old sketches. I looked everywhere. I ended up finding my old hard drives in the bottom drawer of my bedroom side table. There were folders and folders of scanned sketch jpg files, organized by date. Jackpot!

I don't want to post a ton of sketches at once, so here's one of my favorites to get the ball rolling:

I remember that moment. I remember driving up, parking, and sketching what I saw, but I don't remember what happened right after that. Knowing me, I went straight home and added watercolor. But definitely remember how I felt while I sketched it. It was a hot day, but not uncomfortable. It was late afternoon. Not a lot of people were in the parking lot, but the traffic was steady on the street next to me. I was in a good mood.

Sketching is a way to remember, and I want to leave things for my future self to look back on.

Here's to getting back into the swing of things,

Alleanna