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During my freshman year, I took Drawing I (or Drawing Fundamentals, if you will). It was a required fundamentals course. My professor was very lax and at the beginning of the semester, she encouraged us to work in whatever medium we pleased, which was a huge deal at the time. One of our first days in class was just experimenting in our sketchbook with different mediums from our drawing kit. We had to fill up an entire 100+ sketchbook over the course of the semester, which I was dreading because I'm not really a sketchbook girl by nature. As a way of taking up a few pages we were advised to test out our materials and doodle. For example, we tested the varieties of charcoal and lead pencils recognizing their different weights and colors. We were encouraged to play with vine charcoal, conte crayons, and ink just to get a feel for it. 

These are some of those ink doodles/experiments I found in my old sketchbook and decided to scan in. I'm especially privy to the first one. 

At the time, I thought these were just sketchbook fillers. But now, looking back, I can find some appreciation in my experimentation. I tried shadowing with ink and exploring the human form. I tried out different ways of writing with the brush, skinny structured lines versus thick solid ones. I tried working a little with texture. It's crazy the stuff you notice in hindsight, right?

Thanks for letting me share! It's so fun digging up old work from out of the archives.

If you like this feel free to check out The Virgin Suicides Poster from freshman year, that time I made a Wire Dress for 3D Design, and my Black Keys Album Cover Redesign.