June 20, 2026

Here are the rules: I sketch in-person, only in the time I’m physically present, and I try to be quick and unfussy. I don’t set out to create anything publicly presentable: my sketchbook is less about technical accuracy and more about flexing muscles that I don’t often use — to look. Really look. It’s one thing to recognize an object, another entirely to observe it.

It’s fun to decide what to sketch — some of my recent subjects have been the Rodin sculptures at the Stanford Cantor Arts Center, boats at the Coyote Point Marina, and a giant swarm of bees on the stucco of a neighbor’s house. I use a fine line pen, so no erasing, and I’m trying to make it a regular part of my practice.

I see shape and shadow instead of single objects. I see lines and angles and light that put together, turn into form. The sketches themselves aren’t really the point: they’re teaching me to look at the world as marks to be made on a page. And to practice those marks until the observable becomes something recognizable. To go back to a recent theme: chicken and egg!