Senior Grace Lightner keeps four sketchbooks, each for a minutely different purpose. “This one is more words and song lyrics,” Lightner said of the notebook pictured at right, which she uses mainly during class. “I doodle mostly, and I take quotes and song lyrics and I make them look pretty with fun typography.”

Like many of the drawings in Lightner’s sketchbook, the art on this page “started with a random circle design,” and grew from there.

In addition to in-class drawings, Lightner has recently started sketching human figures, particularly fictional characters. “There’s more interpretation [with fictional characters], especially with book characters because it’s always just what you want it to look like,” said Lightner. “It’s easier than drawing people from real life, because there’s an extra step of removal between you and your subject.”

Lightner, a second year AP Studio Art student, is also a graphite and digital portraitist. “I use my tablet [for portraits], so half of the art I do isn’t even in a sketchbook,” she said. Lightner’s digital self-portrait work was recently featured in a show of Tam Draw/Paint student art at Noci Gelato in downtown Mill Valley.

Though she doesn’t plan on pursuing an art major in college, Lightner hopes to continue with art classes and sketching after graduation.

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For senior Kate Schlough, sketching goes hand-in-hand with writing. “I like looking at images and drawing them, morphing them my own way, and writing down quotes,” Schlough said of her drawing style. “This page [pictured left] is kind of a mash-up of drawings… I was in the mood to write, but I didn’t really have anything important to say. So I sketched, and collected quotes, in the hopes that inspiration would strike.”

Schlough journals “anywhere and everywhere,” and has filled eight or nine 200-plus page journals since starting her first notebook in first grade. “I carry [my journal] everywhere,” said Schlough said. “Sometimes I’ll leave it under the desk in a classroom, and I can’t sit still the entire next class until I get it back in my hands.”

In the future, Schlough plans to continue keeping sketchbooks and journals “for my own sanity at least,” though she won’t be entering an artistic field. “My notebooks help me see who I have been, who I am, and they help me figure out who I want to be.”