This was originally written as a post on April 14, 2019, and today, 6/22/2025, I have been editing this and more:
Having only sketches here might work best, as that is all I would want to see (some days anyway) on a page called “Sketchbook….”.
I do not have sketches to put here, yet, however.
About sketching plants and their floral and faunal communities
I am hoping to accompany many recipes with a visual and written sketch. The sketch will be a look at one or more ingredient’s origins – a look at them with their companions and communities, and in their environment, before becoming an “ingredient”.
A sketch like this requires a leap of thought – traversing, from viewing an ingredient that gives life, to a being that is alive; traversing from something known for how it reaches human senses, to getting to know a plant or animal for their own sensibilities and senses.
An approach to sketching, is to consider plant “guilds”/groupings, through:
1.human and animal senses
sight/vision, (from smaller than a ladybug, from human points of view, and from aerial views, and visibility/camouflage considerations, for example) , smell/scent, hearing/sound, touch, and the internal sensing of well-being and health –
2.and also by imagining how plants might sense their world.
If one imagines how plants might imagine being torn, munched, pruned, it might be fine and one would come home with many ingredients – after all, berries, for example, even sometimes require a trip through an animal digestive system to eventually sprout and thrive. Then again, one might not.
Another approach might be to go very small, and think of the sum and balance of many parts – of chemistries.