One suggestion would be to take the word sketchbook and treat is as an ipad, you can do what you wish in there you can have a shopping list, a sketch, a masterpiece, a picture, anything.
For example (in my humble opinion)
Some use their sketchbook as their Canvas like Mattias Adolffson
Some use it as their workplace like Kevin Cornell @bearskinrug
Some use it to share with us their progress like @MeaghanMcIssac (who drew 100 days of hands)
As a second career artist trying to find my way, this was the best reminder to receive today. Such a relief to hear actually. As much as I admire all those beautiful "sketchbooks" I see posted all over, it highly discourages me to post my own work. I totally had to pass this one on to my peer group/friends. Good stuff. Thanks Kyle.
This might be more about ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’. Social media incentivizes performance. But, I take your point about how we describe things. I find the word doodle insulting to visual people, it sounds like something a 3 year old does as they twirl their hands in a toilet bowl. I have multiple sketchbooks, and maybe the one where I create a specific visual idea is a drawing book. Sharing the sweat and tears of drawing/thinking with students is critical. You are so right, this is the most pernicious aspect of perfect sketchbooks—-creating performance anxiety.
Definitely. The unreal expectations makes them avoid process. I show my students how I develop visual ideas with really crappy, unedited messes, but the siren song of social is deafening.
I agree with you about these "perfect" sketchbook pages and find them tempting my self-doubt to blossom. My shared pages truly are spontaneous black-line doodles, and this is why I decided to share them. I want to inspire the viewer to get a pen to scribble for fun and use their imaginations.
The world needs your book about "Walking The Cat." It's a brilliant idea, and I see more people walking cats than ever on my daily walks.
Thank you for writing such wonderful and thoughtful newsletters!
I still have my sketch book from when I was in grammar school and junior high. They were where I experimented with ideas and character design and environments. But somewhere in mid teens I began to judge my sketchbook drawings and I haven’t drawn in one since - even though my career has been professional illustration. I’ve got several blank sketchbooks on the shelf that were bought with the intention of filling them. But I’m afraid to mess them up with imperfect sketches. I’m mostly retired now and my days and art are my own. I find I have to learn how to play again … experiment. I don’t have deadlines to hit or clients to please. I can toss art and redo it if I think I can do better. I didn’t always have the time to do that mid career. I appreciate your post. It is a good reminder of the importance of playing with pencil, pen and pastels… to explore and let go of that host of judgmental critics in my head. Putting pencil to the page is a low stakes adventure of exploration. They shouldn’t all be perfect if you are truly exploring. Exploring requires risk. Jumping. Falling. Interesting little sidepaths. Seeds to explore later. Thanks for the great post.
Low stakes - yes! This is how it should feel but social media can make us feel like this isn't the case (even though nobody is forcing us to share everything we create!). Interesting times.
Great topic, great post. Years ago I took a class from an artist who went into quite a useful monologue about what a "sketch" really is -- and at what point it becomes a drawing. As you did, he pointed out the very good reasons for not calling a drawing a "sketch." And his examples jibed with what a normal person would consider true sketches and true drawings. It's useful to remember that and spread that corrective.
Also: Another artist I know has two sketchbooks. One she calls a sketchbook (for working things out) and one she calls an artbook, and she treats it as an art piece into itself, where beautiful little paintings appear on each page. That sort of honesty is clarifying, and it's also a fun idea if one likes the idea of having part of their practice be the creation of beautiful one of a kind books.
I see the sketchbook as a gym, almost like a place.
It’s about showing up and seeing what happens, I think one thing people need to know is that for every pretty piece you see on social media there are so many others that helped get it there, and these are rarely seen.
Either in the form of undos or sketchbooks
And I think it’s great that platforms like these help demystify the process :)
Reading this finally gave me the oomph to put a first sketch down in my sketchbook. I have had it for years. It’s chewed on one corner from a puppy. Not sure which of my puppies did it.
Didn’t know what to sketch, so I sketched my eyeglasses sitting on the table.
Thank you, Martin. I hope the students feel less pressure to deliver volumes and volumes of perfect work and can feel perfectly comfortable just playing around and learning in their sketchbooks.
I’m glad you posted this. It’s so defeating to see these “sketchbooks” looking pristine when I was always taught that sketchbooks should be messy because it’s a safe place to practice. If those have to look perfect, then where is the place to fail and learn?
Alongside the performative nature of social media, I think the preciousness of the books themselves has a lot to answer for. The Moleskinification of drawing; every page demanding something BEAUTIFUL or PRODUCTIVE. Sod that. I’ve recently switched to budget notebooks (similar to the exercise books I used to obsessively/distractedly doodle in at school), and have really noticed the difference in how I’m using them. More thinking straight onto the page without that split second hesitation.
I agree, I have a 25.00 blank sketchbook and a 6.00 target sketchbook that is tattered, falling apart and the drawings inside are not coherent or pretty. I love it. Use it everyday at lunch.
Isn't bringing a piece closer to the finish line its own kind of experiment? Trying mediums, colour, lines, shading, etc? Also, I quite enjoy the "pretty sketchbooks" I see from artists on instagram. They have shown me new mediums and have been aspirational for me. I didn't go to art school. I am entirely self taught. Without "pretty sketchbooks" I wouldn't have known what a person could achieve with things like markers. I just wouldn't have been exposed. As for messing up the page, I think young artists across a lot of creative industries struggle with this - look at writers! A lot of them are afraid to start a notebook because they'll mess it up with imperfect words. But at some point - you gotta learn to just go for it!
I love the pretty sketchbooks. Nothing against the artists creating/sharing them - they are lovely. I just think the trend towards *not* showing what the average artist's sketchbooks look like, warts and all, has a misleading and often intimidating effect for students and aspiring artists.
I love sharing a drawing gone wrong! Why post the best stuff and set the bar too high? 😜 It is sad that social media can make us to romanticize a thing that’s meant for practicing and self discovery.
I agree, this is dangerous. My father, the painter Lennart Anderson, didn't want anything left behind "to embarrass" him. My mother, the painter Mimi Weisbord, kept everything... including many sketchbooks, some with very little in them, others with notes, dreams, fragments, finished work, false starts, you name it. My father also spent years on paintings, working to get them right. He suffered under his own perfectionism. I think his students did too. I'm writing about my parents at twohouses.substack.com and this sketchbook topic is something I've been thinking a lot about. Thanks for your honesty.
One suggestion would be to take the word sketchbook and treat is as an ipad, you can do what you wish in there you can have a shopping list, a sketch, a masterpiece, a picture, anything.
For example (in my humble opinion)
Some use their sketchbook as their Canvas like Mattias Adolffson
Some use it as their workplace like Kevin Cornell @bearskinrug
Some use it to share with us their progress like @MeaghanMcIssac (who drew 100 days of hands)
Excellent observations.
As a second career artist trying to find my way, this was the best reminder to receive today. Such a relief to hear actually. As much as I admire all those beautiful "sketchbooks" I see posted all over, it highly discourages me to post my own work. I totally had to pass this one on to my peer group/friends. Good stuff. Thanks Kyle.
This might be more about ‘don’t hate the player, hate the game’. Social media incentivizes performance. But, I take your point about how we describe things. I find the word doodle insulting to visual people, it sounds like something a 3 year old does as they twirl their hands in a toilet bowl. I have multiple sketchbooks, and maybe the one where I create a specific visual idea is a drawing book. Sharing the sweat and tears of drawing/thinking with students is critical. You are so right, this is the most pernicious aspect of perfect sketchbooks—-creating performance anxiety.
I definitely have nothing against the artists - heck, I love their work and am amazed by their posts. I worry about students, though.
Definitely. The unreal expectations makes them avoid process. I show my students how I develop visual ideas with really crappy, unedited messes, but the siren song of social is deafening.
"The siren song of social is deafening." Wow - this is some true stuff!!!
Kyle,
I agree with you about these "perfect" sketchbook pages and find them tempting my self-doubt to blossom. My shared pages truly are spontaneous black-line doodles, and this is why I decided to share them. I want to inspire the viewer to get a pen to scribble for fun and use their imaginations.
The world needs your book about "Walking The Cat." It's a brilliant idea, and I see more people walking cats than ever on my daily walks.
Thank you for writing such wonderful and thoughtful newsletters!
I still have my sketch book from when I was in grammar school and junior high. They were where I experimented with ideas and character design and environments. But somewhere in mid teens I began to judge my sketchbook drawings and I haven’t drawn in one since - even though my career has been professional illustration. I’ve got several blank sketchbooks on the shelf that were bought with the intention of filling them. But I’m afraid to mess them up with imperfect sketches. I’m mostly retired now and my days and art are my own. I find I have to learn how to play again … experiment. I don’t have deadlines to hit or clients to please. I can toss art and redo it if I think I can do better. I didn’t always have the time to do that mid career. I appreciate your post. It is a good reminder of the importance of playing with pencil, pen and pastels… to explore and let go of that host of judgmental critics in my head. Putting pencil to the page is a low stakes adventure of exploration. They shouldn’t all be perfect if you are truly exploring. Exploring requires risk. Jumping. Falling. Interesting little sidepaths. Seeds to explore later. Thanks for the great post.
Low stakes - yes! This is how it should feel but social media can make us feel like this isn't the case (even though nobody is forcing us to share everything we create!). Interesting times.
Great topic, great post. Years ago I took a class from an artist who went into quite a useful monologue about what a "sketch" really is -- and at what point it becomes a drawing. As you did, he pointed out the very good reasons for not calling a drawing a "sketch." And his examples jibed with what a normal person would consider true sketches and true drawings. It's useful to remember that and spread that corrective.
Also: Another artist I know has two sketchbooks. One she calls a sketchbook (for working things out) and one she calls an artbook, and she treats it as an art piece into itself, where beautiful little paintings appear on each page. That sort of honesty is clarifying, and it's also a fun idea if one likes the idea of having part of their practice be the creation of beautiful one of a kind books.
I like this idea of keeping separate books!
I suspect these artists actually keep two sketchbooks, one to scribble in to work out ideas and the other strictly for show.
The late Kim Jung Gi could produce high-quality art on demand. He was one-in-a-million.
Kyle!!! Yes!!! Omg yes! My sketchbook looks like shit and I love it that way.
I see the sketchbook as a gym, almost like a place.
It’s about showing up and seeing what happens, I think one thing people need to know is that for every pretty piece you see on social media there are so many others that helped get it there, and these are rarely seen.
Either in the form of undos or sketchbooks
And I think it’s great that platforms like these help demystify the process :)
The gym - yes! 💯
Reading this finally gave me the oomph to put a first sketch down in my sketchbook. I have had it for years. It’s chewed on one corner from a puppy. Not sure which of my puppies did it.
Didn’t know what to sketch, so I sketched my eyeglasses sitting on the table.
They are far from perfect and that is okay.
Thank you for your words. 💛
It doesn’t have to be perfect !!!
Hooray! Jodi, I hope the glasses are the first of many little drawings in that book. ✨👍
Thank you! That’s my intention!!
Your words ring true, Kyle. I´ll share them today with my students.
Thank you, Martin. I hope the students feel less pressure to deliver volumes and volumes of perfect work and can feel perfectly comfortable just playing around and learning in their sketchbooks.
That´s my aim :) Slow, but steady progress, lots of experiments and lucky accidents.
I’m glad you posted this. It’s so defeating to see these “sketchbooks” looking pristine when I was always taught that sketchbooks should be messy because it’s a safe place to practice. If those have to look perfect, then where is the place to fail and learn?
Alongside the performative nature of social media, I think the preciousness of the books themselves has a lot to answer for. The Moleskinification of drawing; every page demanding something BEAUTIFUL or PRODUCTIVE. Sod that. I’ve recently switched to budget notebooks (similar to the exercise books I used to obsessively/distractedly doodle in at school), and have really noticed the difference in how I’m using them. More thinking straight onto the page without that split second hesitation.
I had not thought about the preciousness of the books, themselves - you're absolutely right!!
I agree, I have a 25.00 blank sketchbook and a 6.00 target sketchbook that is tattered, falling apart and the drawings inside are not coherent or pretty. I love it. Use it everyday at lunch.
Isn't bringing a piece closer to the finish line its own kind of experiment? Trying mediums, colour, lines, shading, etc? Also, I quite enjoy the "pretty sketchbooks" I see from artists on instagram. They have shown me new mediums and have been aspirational for me. I didn't go to art school. I am entirely self taught. Without "pretty sketchbooks" I wouldn't have known what a person could achieve with things like markers. I just wouldn't have been exposed. As for messing up the page, I think young artists across a lot of creative industries struggle with this - look at writers! A lot of them are afraid to start a notebook because they'll mess it up with imperfect words. But at some point - you gotta learn to just go for it!
I love the pretty sketchbooks. Nothing against the artists creating/sharing them - they are lovely. I just think the trend towards *not* showing what the average artist's sketchbooks look like, warts and all, has a misleading and often intimidating effect for students and aspiring artists.
I love sharing a drawing gone wrong! Why post the best stuff and set the bar too high? 😜 It is sad that social media can make us to romanticize a thing that’s meant for practicing and self discovery.
I agree, this is dangerous. My father, the painter Lennart Anderson, didn't want anything left behind "to embarrass" him. My mother, the painter Mimi Weisbord, kept everything... including many sketchbooks, some with very little in them, others with notes, dreams, fragments, finished work, false starts, you name it. My father also spent years on paintings, working to get them right. He suffered under his own perfectionism. I think his students did too. I'm writing about my parents at twohouses.substack.com and this sketchbook topic is something I've been thinking a lot about. Thanks for your honesty.