Found Objects
spontaneity in your ordinary days
One of my favorite types of art content to consume on the internet is sketchbook tour videos. Despite sporadically running my own Art Youtube account and amassing a sketchbook collection through the years, I’ve only ever posted one full sketchbook tour video myself. As an artist, sharing the contents of your sketchbook to the internet is an act of vulnerability that I have yet to overcome. So here goes!
Unearthed from my personal archives is this small sketchbook I completed in 2023, aptly titled “Found Objects”. (View the full scan of this sketchbook here)
I picked up this Passport Memo from Muji while on vacation in London two years ago. I thought that I would use it to document the vacation in real time, but the idea for this sketchbook actually didn’t come to me until after the trip.
The rules for the sketchbook were as follows:
Identify an object you’ve recently encountered that resonated with you - through either an activity, a memory or an experience.
Illustrate the object.
The object must be drawn from live observation (...though admittedly, there were a couple of pages I worked on that I used a photograph reference due to time and location constraints…)
Don’t overdraw. Each page should not take more than 30 minutes to complete.
Label and date the illustration.
Lastly, provide a short description either describing the object itself or the experience associated with the object.
Keep the media of choice minimal - I opted for a blue 0.5 Muji gel pen, a green Prismacolor Col-Erase pencil for sketching, and 1.5 x 2 inch mini post-it notes for the descriptions.
For the first couple of pages, I documented artifacts from the London trip. It was fun being able to recall the memories associated with each object, but the greatest revelation came when I started documenting just the random objects that popped up in my daily life.
I realized that when we move about our days in an ordinary fashion, ie: fulfilling your typical work day, or working on your weekly household chores, we aren’t always able to recognize the special moments that happen in the midst of our mundane routines. But, if you actually take your time to document all those seemingly unimportant, little moments, over time, you get to witness a collection of small joys that bring.
I definitely improved my live drawing skills throughout the duration of this sketchbook, but more importantly, it gave me inspiration to find wonder and gratitude within my ordinary days. I encourage you to find a moment in your busy day to identify one spark of joy, no matter how small it may seem. ∎