The Importance of a Sketchbook

I'm not an artist and didn't know about the importance of the 'sketchbook'. There are even courses on sketchbook-keeping. I know I have to practice my life drawing or drawing in general and also keep a collection of samples that show my thinking and progress.

The problem is that I want to reuse everything, so a sample in a sketchbook feels like a waste! But I'm sure I'll get used to it. So far my sketchbook contains trials and tribulations from my CityLit textiles course.

A definition

It's helped me to define the purpose of the sketchbook as: to record, review and revisit ideas and work towards the mastery of art and design techniques.

I'm also understanding that primary observation (drawing from real life) is really important. I have yet to understand why.

My sketchbook so far

Here's how I'm doing.

That sample I made that I didn't like turned out well

Mixing and matching my samples in strips - not sure I like this; there's no real thinking behind it

Wing outstretched

Curious and beautiful shapes that appear in nature

What to do with murmurations of starlings

Quite liked this funny little bird made of wire

Eggs, and why not

I love how messy I'm allowing myself to be. That's quite a big thing for me. Nothing has to fit within boundaries. And I've stuck things down with staples, badly-applied sellotape with creases and fingerprints and clumps of glue. Better to get something done than to wait to do it perfectly and miss your moment.

Artists' takes on the sketchbook

It got me to wondering what do some of my favourite textile artists do. Here are some quotes from textileartist.org

Jane Neal

I spend a long time, sometimes years, researching and developing an area of interest by using books, images and visiting exhibitions to feed my ideas. I keep a sketchbook, often like a journal, in which I record all my thoughts and ideas, notes from books I have read, and preliminary trials and experiments. In this, I also draw ideas I have for a piece of work, and stick in images that link to my thinking or inspire me.

Aisling Smyth

I then collect loads of modern imagery and create a visual bank of inspiration. From this research I start to sketch a version of the end goal. 

Yes. I use my sketchbook as an archive of all my embroideries that went wrong.
Every week, I chop up my samples and sort into two piles: glitchy and finished.
The glitchy ones get stuck into my book and annotated as to why they went wrong.
The last and probably the most frequently occurring feature in my sketchbook is a list of aims. These could be daily, weekly or monthly. I can’t really settle until I make a list and it has almost become an exercise of habit rather than a practical organisational tool. The lists may not always be ticked off, but their existence keeps me sane, so why not?

Ana Teresa Barboza

My work starts from the notes I write in my notebook and from the things I read or see everyday in my life. I am ready to work when I have a clear idea of what I want to do and how I can achieve it. I do little proofs because embroidery work takes a long time to develop.

Alice Kettle

Q: Do you use a sketchbook?
A: Sometimes.

Another good source of sketchbook inspiration is a simple Google image search.

On a practical note, I've bought this great Artway Enviro wirebound A4 sketchbook in landscape and I love it!

And she's off

The record of my development starts here and I look forward to seeing the progress (I hope) over time.

Did you learn any lessons from sketchbook-keeping? I'd love to know.

A New Course

What are the chances of this?! I signed up for a course with no idea who the tutor was only to find it's Louise Baldwin whose work I adore. The course explores mixed media approaches to surface design with textiles. Less emphasis on stitch and more on the surface, which is new to me.

So there's lots of mucking about with paint and dyes and gluing things together. Like being back at primary school.

The theme is birds, which can be interpreted to be anything - feathers, eggs, murmurations, nests, flocks etc. Again, this might seem obvious to a natural artist but I'm having to learn how to take one word or idea and let it run to a place that I'm interested in. And that the interesting new place might be something I'd never imagined would grab my attention.

Here was the first exercise we did. Looking at mark-making, textures, composition and colour.

Using a magazine picture as inspiration for colour mixing I came up with this first which I didn't like

Same idea, using a magazine picture to pick a colour palette and trying out different mark making techniques

Rubbings with a graphite block

We then cut our sheets of painted paper up to join things together. Interestingly if there is something you've done that you don't like, for instance my first example above, try cutting a piece out of it to see if it appears different at a different scale.

Collage of mark-making and colour

I'll let you know how other classes go on this course as I've got a feeling I'll be pushing the boat out and learning all sorts of new techniques.

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This post is part of a series: this is Part I -- see Part II -- see Part III
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