2023 was the year that I dug into the idea of a sketchbook practice. And this idea is much bigger than a sketchbook. It is the idea that time spent in my studio must include time for exploration and experimentation. I cannot spend all my studio time focused on paintings in progress, or I will quickly run the creative well dry. It is also the idea that my creative development is about much more than output; it is also input: ideas sparked by things I read, other art I see, the natural world, and comments by friends. And finally, it is the idea that self-reflection is an important part of my creative process.
This means my sketchbook is a sketchbook (a book in which I create art for planning or skill development), but it is also a scrapbook for collecting snippets of my own work and photos of work I love, and a journal for reflecting on my work and my studio habits.
My 2023 sketchbook includes:
Free expression painting (painting done just for the joy of moving paint around - no plan, intention or composition thoughts) done directly in the book
Cropped details from free expression painting sessions on paper ranging from 8x12 watercolor paper to 12 foot long rolls of kraft paper
Practice of and reflections on my favorite lines and shapes
Explorations of different color schemes (monochromatic, analogous, complementary and triatic)
Explorations with colors I tend to avoid
Color swatching - organized and unorganized
Experiments with tools I don’t often use
Experiments with black gesso
Printing with daffodils
Collections of doodles made while watching training videos
Quotes that inspire me
Photos of paintings I have seen in museums along with analysis of why I am drawn to them
Charcoal sketches
Sections of my palette paper in which I particularly like the color combinations
Experiments with different mediums
Photos of my own finished work at different stages, with a record of the changes I made at each stage and why
Pages torn from magazines, in which I challenge myself to mix the colors in the photo
Photos of paintings in progress, manipulated in photoshop, with notes about what I like about each photo-shopped version
Colored pencil composition sketches
Mark-making experiments with new tools
Black and white collage composition studies
Photos of cropped details of my own finished paintings to reflect on as composition studies for future paintings
Freeform collages from magazine pages as color inspiration and also as composition studies
Explorations with using a mother color to create color harmony
20 minute mark-making exercises
In the short video below, I flip through parts of my most recent sketchbook, started in April. I am not showing everything, because I think it is very important that sketchbook work be done freely, with no audience in mind. But I thought you might like a peek at some of the variety.
As I prepare to plan my next series, which I will likely begin working on in late February, I have some thoughts about a special sketchbook that I will use for planning. I will share more about it when I return from a holiday break in mid-January.
Prompts for the Week:
How do you balance experimental time with work on “official” paintings? Are you getting the balance right?
Go back through your sketchbook from the past year. Find the work you created that you think is most useful to your process or development. Plan to do more of that in 2024!
I am taking a short break from my sketchbook (and this newsletter) until the second week of January. Our adult kids will be home and family is coming in and I am trying to be realistic in my expectations for myself. I am looking forward to a fire in the fireplace, stacks of new books, and my family all around me reading. Do you have a favorite tradition in the weeks between the Winter Solstice and the New Year? I would love to hear about it!
Do you know a painter who would love to receive this newsletter?
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