I’m a little tired of my drawings. It’s not the drawing process itself, but the way the pictures are turning out. Some days it’s hard to get into the right frame of mind and as you have seen, they sometimes end up not well-observed or well-executed.

So to find a bit of outside inspiration, and maybe a few new ideas, I stopped into a Bargain Books yesterday. These are the bookstores that take over a vacated shop in a stripmall and fill the place with folding tables full of paperback overruns and out-of-date travel guides. They always have a big selection of large-format paperback cookbooks and crafting guides. And plenty of books on art.

I browsed through some of the “Best of Art” titles: Picasso, Degas, Monet, Calder. Studying those familiar images was helpful, but I realised that I’m not likely to imitate any of their styles. It may be sincere flattery, but I am not interested in copying. So I tucked into a few art instruction books until I found one that wasn’t too annoying and put it in the basket.

Though there’s nothing new to me in The Sketching and Drawing Bible, it’s good to have some reminders of techniques I don’t normally use. When’s the last time I did a scratchboard? I don’t have what I need to do one right now, but with the materials I have in my travel bag, I could try more crosshatching or a different blending technique.

Glad I stopped into that cheesey bookstore. I feel possibilities opening up.