Happy New Year!
I want to open the New Year by sharing a second sketchbook I have started. I am still committed to my all-in-one-place, journal-sketchbook-scrapbook concept that keeps things organized chronologically. As I type this, I realize this all-in-one book needs an official name. I am going to start calling it my Studio Notebook. I have started a new sketchbook that will exist in parallel to my Studio Notebook. I am calling it my Book of Intention, because I am a little bit of a drama queen.
Let me tell you about the Book of Intention. I have been thinking a lot about the development of my next series. It has to do with trees - specifically the beauty of looking up through branches and leaves to patches of sky and glimmers of sun; all the colors that are present, and the depth and texture, and the sense of the wind.
As I work through sketchbook experiments with color and texture that I think have special potential to help me deliver this new idea to a canvas, I will be pulling my favorite bits. These selections will go into a beautiful fabric covered book with watercolor pages. It will be a collection of color studies, and mark-making experiments: all of them chosen for their expression of some aspect of the trees. When I finally begin work on the paintings, I would like to have this book available near the easel for me to refer to and to remind me of my intention.
It is true that my Studio Notebook could be used this way. But it will be filled with other things - free expression paintings, contour sketches, magazine collages - that will be interspersed with pre-work for the painting series. It would be annoying to have to page through the chronology to find the series pre-work. The beautiful fabric covered book, on the other hand, will only have carefully selected reminders of my intention.
The Book of Intention will have a use outside the studio as well. I imagine that as I have some finished works in the series, it would be lovely to share this little book with potential buyers. It would be a window into my process that would help buyers form a connection to the work in this new series.
In the video below, you can see the first few pages:
Prompts for the Week:
People have a lot of feelings about January. What does January mean to you, and how does it affect your studio time?
Find a sunny spot to sit and sketch the outlines of afternoon shadows.
How many different sketchbooks do you have? What are their different purposes? I would love to hear about them in the comments.
I love your Book of Intention! What a great idea to curate your handmade inspiration in this way.