Sketchbooks: A bit of this, and that

  

I store many of my sketchbooks in a lidded basket by my front door. Occasionally I open the lid, pull out the books and take a look. I'm always surprised by my findings. I'll have forgotten a page that I had wanted to explore further, or a particular combination of colors or patterns that would be just right for a project I'm working on now. Like journals, sketchbooks are a wonderful guide to where I've been, and where I want to go next.  

  

A master

I mentioned Anne Bagby in my first entry of this journal. She's a dynamo of a woman, small and slender, but with the kind of creative energy that fills a room. When I took a workshop from her a few years ago in Mexico, she really worked us hard, demanding that we would push the boundaries of our art past the limits we had placed on ourselves. I learned so much from her during those five days.

Anne Bagby, Mexico, 2004

Now, whenever I see Anne's name on the cover of a magazine, I'll always buy it, because I know there will be more to discover. Her article "Experimental Sketches" in the January/February 2009 issue of Somerset Studio offers advice about using pen & ink on sketchbook pages, as well as the kind of paper and additional mediums to make the pages the best they can be. 

"To eliminate too much busy-ness I paint over some drawings with white or spray paint with black. The goal is to make the best drawings look as good as possible," writes Anne. "Even so, when finished, it's often easy to think, 'I wish I had done better. Someone else could have done better.' But that is not the point. This is the very best possible work you can do at this moment in time. It is a benchmark for all the improvements possible in the future and a journal that documents the journey."

Such a wise woman, and a wonderful quote to remember on those days that I/we impatiently expect perfection of ourselves, setting the bar so high we can only fail.

Sketchbooks

Let me say up front that keeping traditional sketchbooks is not a regular practice for me. Yet, I'm fascinated by them. They are a very personal look into the creative mind of the artist. Often used as starting points for larger or more finished pieces, to me they are works of art that stand alone. 

The self-published booklets of textile artists Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn often show examples of the sketchbooks taken with them on travels to other countries, or even down the street, while photos exhibit the finished stitched pieces that expand on those ideas.

So convinced of the value of keeping sketchbooks, the authors published "A Sketch in Time" (Book 12) that guides the reader through subjects such as the type of book to buy or make, and how to use paints, crayons, ink and collage. Unusual tools for mark making, such as twigs and feathers, provide an immediacy when on location, and ways to strengthening our observational skills and developing ideas are encouraged. 

 "Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers & Textile Artists" by Kay Greenlees is a favorite book for inspiration. Turn a page, and your response may be similar to mine: "wow" or "yum" comes up a lot. Topics like 'researching and collecting', 'working in a museum', and 'preparing pages' have answered many questions that I have had about developing sketchbooks.

In "Creative Quilts: Inspiration, Texture and Stitch," author Sandra Meech has included a chapter titled "Sketch and Stitch Books" that is an eye-opening venture into the possibilities of working in this way. And take a peak at "The Painted Quilt" by Linda and Laura Kemshall. The sketchbooks used to develop their fantastic quilts are equally fascinating.

While I may not develop traditional sketchbooks--my own tend to be loose scratches on scrap paper and tossed into folders--what I have collected are always fun to go back to and often trigger a need to get to work. 

I may, or instance, begin working on a theme. Tree bark, for which I have an obsession, continues to draw me in. The textures, shapes and colors offer all sorts of possibilities for all kinds of work in mixed media, collage, painted paper and fiber pieces. My "sketchbook" is a large plastic envelope stuffed with photos of bark, articles on trees, and magazine tear sheets. My "pages" developed for this theme are individual 3-by-5-inch pieces of sturdy watercolor paper that have been painted with acrylics, collaged, stitched, embroidered and beaded. These studies would be great jump off points for larger textile pieces. 

I have books dedicated to topics such as color schemes that I like, and one wonderous book from a round-robin group begun after a workshop in Mexico.

 Looking at the book takes me right back to the sights, sounds and tastes of that fabulous week at Hacienda Mosaico in Puerto Vallarta. Two terrific artists, Lynne Perrella and Anne Bagby, guided us through the stages of making painted paper and layering all kinds of media onto paper. 

The round-robin project took over a year to complete. While working on the books from other classmates, I discovered the joy of creating within a very confined space. Mexico is so rich with texture, adding yarns and beads to the pages seemed like a natural fit. Working in this way changed the way I thought about my art, and the influence of those books remains even four years later.