“A sketchbook is both a playground and a safe gathering place…it's where you can meet yourself as an artist and let your own vocabulary of marks unfurl and evolve.” - Helen Wells
Recently I finished working in one of my mixed media sketchbooks and decided to share a video here, because I wanted to illustrate the idea of permitting yourself to let go and play. I also believe sharing various parts your creative process, not only your best work.
It is a handmade journal made of a variety of papers and it’s just basically a hot mess of everything from colour swatches and contour sketches to abstract compositions and random blobs of paint. I made the sketchbook during the live version of the online class “Gathered and Bound” hosted by Jeanne Oliver (I also highly recommend this free video where Jeanne teaches a similar technique).
The sketchbook is as handmade and mixed media as it can get, I had to cut out some pages and reinforce other with tape to make it more workable. There is definitely a learning curve, but it has been such a joy to work in it. I plan to create more of these sketchbooks, because they feel as works of art in themselves, but at the same don’t feel precious at all and I have been very relaxed and free exploring various techniques in this book.
It is sort of a “anything goes” sketchbook, I didn’t have a specific theme or project and I didn’t impose any limitations. I created anything that I felt like at any particular moment. I generally tend to believe that limitations are useful to figure out your creative process, create a cohesive body of work or improve a specific set of skills, but the importance of play cannot be overlooked. It is through play and experiments that we learn the most. Permitting yourself to play and create something that isn’t precious is essential for artistic growth.
For me working in this book was all about experimentation and finding answers to numerous questions:
What will happen if I mix these supplies? How watercolour behaves on a page primed with clear gesso? How acrylics work with watercolour? Do oils work on paper?
I may not have a cohesive collection of work in this sketchbook, but I sure do have answers to all these (and many more) questions.
Additional thoughts
I document colour mixes, shapes, marks, mixed media techniques, drawing and painting experiments - all of which I may want to repeat in future work. That is why I tend to glue over something I don’t like or even tear out some of the pages from my sketchbooks (not always but it happens). For example, if I ended up with complete mess on the page, I’d probably paint over, but be careful about your mindset. I don’t tear pages away thinking that it was a failure, I just don’t see how such pages will serve me later. I use my sketchbooks in a very practical way - as reference, source of inspiration and collection of ideas I can reuse and explore further.
It’s definitely not about finished or beautiful artwork, but I feel that each of the pages sort of answers a specific question or serves a specific goal. It is completely a matter of preference and you don’t have to curate your sketchbooks, if you don’t want to! Just go on to the next page and continue exploring!
Creative prompts
Here are some ideas you can try in your sketchbooks:
Explore supplies that you didn’t use for a long time (or try working with new supplies).
Explore new subject matter (e.g., if you usually create something representational, play with abstract compositions).
Give yourself a time limit - e.g. 10, 20, 30 minutes to finish a page.
Create compositional thumbnails (e.g. abstract compositions, still life arrangements, or landscapes).
Mix and swatch colours from a reference (e.g. a magazine page or artwork by our favourite artist).
If you found something useful or inspirational, feel free to share this post with a creative friend:
Thank you for being here!
Until next time!
Lisa
Credits
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/tropicana
Sketchbook Tour 3