Let’s Talk about Sketchbooks
For me the process of using a sketchbook is about developing my own creative practice. They are not art pieces in themselves. It’s important for me to be free to just practice, play and learn - as a result So many pages are quilt ordinary.
How I Use My Sketchbook
The first way that I use my sketchbook is about familiarising myself with my subject matter for a new artwork or new artwork series. This is about considering a subject and getting to know it through drawing - lots of different drawings, different angles, different styles. As I draw a subject, I start with more accurate and exact drawings, and then, as I become more familiar with it I can stylise where appropriate, choosing the features and elements that I want to highlight. This familiarisation process through drawing is a very important part of my creative practice.
Another way I use my sketchbooks is for drawing practice. If I haven’t drawn for a while, opening up a sketchbook to draw can feel quite hard, whereas maintaining a regular drawing practice makes this so much easier. One way to make this work is to take my sketchbook wherever I go. This worked especially well when I still had little children home with me during the day - I would draw them at the playground, or in the waiting room, or together with them in a cafe.
I also use the sketchbook for nutting out ideas for new artworks. This involves nutting out what I want to say in an artwork, what elements I want to include, and recording any helpful notes, and playing with combining all my ideas for the artwork. This is where I love to use thumbnail sketches to consider potential composition ideas, before developing more details artwork sketches.
Another big use for my sketchbooks is to develop illustrations. So much background work happens with pencil in a sketchbook before a final illustration takes shape. I capture really rough ideas and notes, stick figure drawings for capturing how characters might engage with each other, developing character details, thumbnail composition ideas, playing with potential illustration details (supporting characters, plants, objects and so on). Developing illustrations can take up a lot of sketchbook space!
One thing that I really love about my sketchbooks is going back through old sketchbooks. I find that really, really inspiring. There is always something to jog my creativity. If I’m feeling creatively stuck, I can always go back into my old sketchbooks for new inspiration.
Some of the sketchbooks I’ve used:
Sketchbooks I made using whatever paper I had in the house, including old books. These were great as they had some interesting pages in them already even before I started drawing in them.
Shaun Tan sketchbooks. I like the size and dimension, and the paper quality. Not watercolour paper, but nice and sturdy.
Moleskine books. I use the standard size sketchbook (nice thick paper) and the larger size notebook without lines (so, plain pages, but thin paper - perfect for pencil drawings). I don’t love the dimensions of the standard size book, or the yellowish paper colour.
Handbook or Seawhite of Brighton small square sketchbooks. These are perfect for slipping into a hand bag and have lovely paper that can handle mixed media.
What I currently use:
My Eucalyptus sketchbook: I love this size and dimension. It’s not mixed media level paper, but contains heaps of pages. I love this for the hard work of sketching and nutting out and capturing ideas with pencil/biro. I take one of these whenever I’m heading out the door and might have time to kill.
Stillman & Birn alpha series: this paper is the perfect compromise - perfect for mixed media, not as expensive as watercolour paper and therefore still has a good number of pages in each book. I have these in various sizes.
What do I do in my sketchbooks?
A lot of pencil drawings, especially familiarisation of subject matter and planning artworks and illustrations.
Water colour play.
Incorporating some collage, especially vintage book pages or scraps of screenprinted fabric.
Drawing challenges.
My favourtie mixed media sketchbooks:
Stillman and Birn Alpha series
My eucalyptus sketchbook: