Materials I use for quick sketching and some thoughts.

I have a sketchbook that i draw in daily, during my lunch break. I work in these bastards with a watersoluble pen (High-tec c's), a waterfilled brush pen and watercolors. I use, W&N, Holbeins and Graham's. I also have made myself a handy little box of halfpans from an Altoids box and some glue. I also stole a tape measue and syuperglued the beltclip to the back of the box, so I can clip it to by sketchbook and not have to worry about holding it. Take that Macgyver!

The sketchbook is a "hand-book", not the usual moleskin. The "Hand-book" takes watercolors really nicely, as it has a toothy surface and no sizing. I guess whenI go for graphite I'll start using the moleskins again.
I decided to work in ink, because;

1) I'm not happy with my line quality, and I assume that over time, I will start thinking more what lines I put down instead of just chicken scratching all over the place.

2) I enjoy the water solubility so I can quickly use the line to get a faint ink wash with my brush pen

I highly enjoy myself on some days (If all the planets are aligned so to speak) and on other days I thoroughly hate it. I'm putting up the pages I thought where least bad. The others are banished to the depths of a shoe box under my bed, to be taken out and cringed at when i fell self tortuous. Kind of like sucking cold air through your teeth just to see if it still hurts...

I try and remember that everything I do isn't gonna be better than the last one. The goal of my SB isn't to make pretty pages, but to expand my visual memory and slosh about my mediums. Because the poses people take are often only a few seconds long (they move, someone inevitably sits RIGHT in front of you when you're "feeling" it, you have to go to the bathroom, people become uneasy and notice you etc) what it forces you to do is to try and capture the essence of something really fast, and it sort of builds up a mental reflex. Hopefully.

After all, I cant do that when i use my precious Arches papers.... Oh no... ahem.