Illustrated Food Diary

One subject that is always available, and is conducive to using different techniques for sketching is food. This might be just the subject I need to kickstart the resurrection of a daily sketching practice!

In past years I’ve kept a food sketchbook here and there. Sketchbook Volume 5 was food from 1 February 2020 to 11 March 2020.

Sketchbook Volume 7 was food from 1 February 2021 to 13 March 2021.

I continued with Sketchbook Volume 8 from 14 March 2021 to 13 April 2021. I picked it up again on 17 January 2022 to 22 January 2022.

Sketchbook Volume 11, in August 2022, I was sketching food in with everything else, instead of having a dedicated sketchbook for it.

I would sketch food off and on irregularly for the remaining volumes until July 2024. I felt the food was dominating the sketchbook too much.

My notes indicate Sketchbook Volume 16 is also food, but I don’t have that one scanned, and I am not entirely sure where it is, so I shall hunt for that one.

I’ll start sketching my food again, though I’ll make no goals for how long. I want to use it to get back into a daily practice. I have a small Stillman and Birn Epsilon 5.5 x 3.5 inch that I briefly used years ago, which seems good to use up. The small size and landscape format works well for food sketches. Thusly I will begin sketchbook volume 21, another food sketches volume.

It will also be nice to document the food, as food prices are going up again. Also, I have always found it very useful to have the visual record of what I eat, as I have so many allergies, and auto-immune issues with food. It’s a big challenge, though, and I’ll admit to some trepidation about even sticking to it for a week! Ha! But hey, a week of daily sketching will no doubt feel great, and I’ll get the sketching daily practice and habit going again. Which is the ultimate goal.

To being strong and with momentum, the beginning of today’s illustrated food diary page!