I forgot my laptop at the office this weekend, and wasn’t able to do anything in Illustrator all weekend. I felt it was a great time to pull out a sketchbook and try a pattern by hand. I’ll take both of these eventually and turn them into patterns in Illustrator, but it was an interesting experience to sit down and work with pencil again. I haven’t used a sketchbook in years; I have become used to working completely in Illustrator. A big reason for this is that I don’t have long stretches of time by myself, unless I am in front of the computer and working. If I’m at church, my hands are busy keeping the kids quiet. And I can’t honestly think of any other time that I could actually dedicate to working in a sketchbook. (And yes, I did these patterns at church, while Mike was at home with the sick kids.)