Over the years, and because it’s particularly useful in my role as an art & design lecturer, I have kept my own version of a Commonplace book, a book where I would jot down all manner of facts and information that I feel may prove useful to me at some future point. Quotations, poems, ideas, and plans- all find their way into these notebooks alongside which I also place information that is somewhat mundane and prosaic-notes from work meetings for example.
When I began teaching as a career I quickly realised that the obligatory staff/work meetings that I had to attend were an ideal place to sketch. My work colleagues who were present and, as a consequence, being somewhat static and focused elsewhere, presented ideal opportunities for impromptu portraiture.