Sketchbook's end

I've reached the end of my current sketchbook today and that makes me a happy bunny. I can't speak for any other artist-types, but getting to the end of a sketchbook is a very cathartic experience for me. I think it may be because when you're carrying a sketchbook around, physically, you're also carrying around a body of work with you, emotionally. To be able to put all that away in a drawer somewhere, or in the loft, or wherever you put finished sketchbooks, is like taking a huge cleansing breath. Of course, there's always the vaguely exciting feeling of having a brand-spanking-new sketchbook to start filling up as well!

Anyway, as I'd reached the end of my current sketchbook, I thought I'd share with you a few sketches and doodles from it that I haven't posted yet. As with all my sketchbooks, it's a really mixed bag, with everything from fully worked up drawings to extremely loose sketches and even just pages of colour studies.

First up is my Blood Bowl pencil sketch, which I call 'And The Blitzer Is Toast!': This next one is an ink wash piece of a vaguely spooky nature:

Here's a charcoal sketch of a zebra, called 'Camouflaged Strawberry':

More fantasy artwork here, also in charcoal, of a rather rude troll:

This is just a colour study in oil pastels for a painting I never actually got around to doing:

A pencil sketch of one of the faerie folk here. I drew this because it occurred to me that you only ever seem to see young faeries in fantasy art, so I thought I'd draw one that was getting on in years. Presumably she's suffering from wing-droop:

A little feline doodle in brush and ink:

A pencil sketch of actor Leo McKern:

This is a quick costume design sketch I did for a mate's character in an RPG we were playing (Hi Rob! Murdered any aliens lately?):

In one of those bizarre 'bored at work' conversations, somebody said 'Can you imagine what Superman would look like as an old man?' Saying things like this when I have a pencil near-to-hand is a surefire way of a doodle being perpetrated. I envisioned this sketch as being an elderly Superman, having outlived everyone on Earth due to his 'super-ness', leaving the planet but not being able to resist one last look back on the planet he protected for so many years. This is the sort of weird shit I think about:
This was just a sofa-doodle, brush and ink in nature. I think I was watching either 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Full Metal Jacket' or 'Platoon' at the time. A war film, anyway:

A quick oil pastel sketch of a sunrise that had some amazing colours in it:

A pencil drawing of a section of the River Medway in Rochester:

I hope you enjoyed taking a trip through my more neglected sketchbook pages! Now to start filling up that new sketchbook...