Sketchbook Journal Tutorial

There are times that I just want to sit down and draw something...
I may have nothing in particular to draw - I just want to put pen (or pencil) to paper and make some marks.

While sitting at sporting events
(it IS baseball season, you know)
(fyi my sweetie is a college umpire)
is a perfect example.
I find it extremely difficult to just sit any where...
especially during a slowwww, uneventful baseball game that may last for up to three hours (!).

So, I take my sketching kit with me to every one that I go to.
I did a post on the Sketchbook Challenge blog about the things that I carry with me.
I may add a thing or two to the kit but I never take anything out of it.

Back to the original topic - aimless drawing...
Sometimes I just want to make marks but have no idea what I want to draw or what to actually draw.
Yesterday I was in that particular mood.
I tried some pencil sketching but found that it was one of my "off" days with drawing realistically.
I don't know if everyone is this way, but there seem to be days that I just can't draw anything.
Even the odd little things that I make up to draw.

I don't want to just completely waste paper when I fulfill this need to make marks
so I try to doodle something that I can add to later or  put to use later.
So, I came up with a simple solution for this issue.

I draw very elementary shapes that are joined together with  lines. Like the shapes above.
Something that anyone can draw, right?
Yes, you included.

Then I outline (or echo) my original drawn line with a second line - but I vary the distance that I draw it next to that original line.
Like this -

Simple so far, right?

Then I add short lines inside this space.
My friend Denise calls them "zippers".
I'm not sure what to call them...
other than space fillers.
They look kinda like this -

I do this all the way around my odd shaped designs until I'm tired of it, the game is over

or some little kid comes to my seat wanting to draw with me.

But the great thing is that I have a page for my sketchbook journal that I can write on later.

It looks fairly interesting and I can paint it  if I am so inclined.

This is the page that I finished at the ball game.

Another easy peasy sketchbook journal page and no experience required!