The Sketchbook Habit
If you don't already, this is a habit you may want to start!
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Sketchbooks serve many purposes for artists, and others who enjoy it. You can quickly get certain points of importance down, recording a moment. That moment that you record will then trigger the memory when you look back at it. You get points down for a piece of art you’re making from the sketch. Sketchbooks can be gestural, notans, figuring out your greyscale with shadows and highlights, figuring out the best composition, color combos, and even complete pieces in their own right. You can use any art materials. You can bring one along with you everywhere, and that makes then indispensable once you get started in a sketchbook habit. You really can see your progress when you look back at the finished book.
I’ve been trying to take advantage of every nice day that our family is home to plein air sketch in our yard. We have woods behind us, and the yard keeps surprising us with different flowers and interesting leaved plants from the previous owner’s plantings that got overgrown and left to their own devices. We cleared everything when we bought our house two years ago, but surprises keep popping up, I’m sure with the help of all the species of birds around here. From Hummingbirds to Owls, and everything in between, we have them. I live in Wisconsin, so September can bring any kind of weather, any day. That’s why I am out there as much as I can be with many sketchbooks in tow. I work in one while the others dry and rotate.
I work so fast and furiously in the plethora of sketchbooks and art supplies I drag in and out with me. I mostly have to finish them at a later date in my art studio. This brings us back to how sketches trigger the memories. And pictures on my phone don’t hurt.
I thought I’d share some works in progress in my sketchbooks from this past week. They are raw and unfinished, telling me exactly what I need to know to go back to them, or make regular artwork from referring back to them.
Here are my examples:
The Woods
Plant Studies
And finally, a sketch at sundown from my spot on the deck, along with a picture of my view.
Here’s a short below that I posted on Youtube, while I was about to start sketching yesterday.
Well, here’s to more Plein Air weather days in September. And could we hope for a mild October to do the same? I’ve got sketchbooks to fill!
If you have any tips, comments, or questions, drop them in the comments and we can start a conversation.
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