While I keep intending to make my sketchbooks just for drawing and keep other notes separate, it never works out that way. In no time it's full of scribbled quotes from the whatever book I'm reading (currently, How Philosophy Can Save Your Life by Marietta McCarty), notes about art history, postcards from the art gallery and various newspaper clippings.
For me creativity is very much a holistic process. Reading from all sorts of sources, as well as viewing art, and indeed life experiences, are inspiring, and find expression in text as well as images. So this approach works pretty well for me, even if my sketchbook does end up looking like a porcupine, with all the bits of paper sticking out of it. I guess it's kind of like an analogue Tumblr or Evernote account, only with infinite bandwidth.
So what's really in your sketchbook? Pristine pencil, or porcupine? Own up in the comments!
Related Reading:
Thumbnail Sketching in your sketchbook
Inspirational Quotations on Drawing
Adhesives for scrapbooks (and sketchbooks)
Comments
Porcupine! Bits ‘n pieces get stuck in, making for rather a mystery tour at times…
Another reason to love a Moleskine, that pocket at the back is useful for storing things like feathers…
my sketchbooks used to look like porcupines… and as they got more and more spines and feathers and what not sticking out and started to look more like a notebook… I realized that I am wasting not only expensive paper (compared to a notepad)… but also using my good pencils for writting…
so now I always have a notepad/folder and pen with all my sketchpads for stuff that does not need to be in there…
My Sketchbook does have the odd jotted note, or phone message, but for the most part, its filled with my drawings.
Yes, it has the newspaper clippings, coffee stain, phone number, and that’s not truly artistic, but it records you artistically from day one, to the last page. It’s an autobiography for artists if you think about it.
I also use my sketchbook to keep any inspirational things I come across. People always ask artists what their inspiration is, so why not? It’s nice to be able to flip back a few pages to see something that fuels my creativity, rather than pull out a separate notebook for that.
To each their own and I’m owning it! I am proud of my quilled artistic holistic autobiography/journey!
I like trying new pencils, pens, oil pastels, etc. so I like to note what I used on each page. Then as I look back through the pages I can zero in on the art products I really like best. Or not! I also add funny titles, locations, date and time, etc., to add a bit of journal interest to the sketches.
Drawings and paintings at the front, notes at the back.
My sketchbook is an illustrated journal with words paintings and collage.
Awesome comments here.
Notes, ideas, things I want to look up or research later. Phrases, notes on dreams, anything’s good. Pieces of plants… stuff cut or ripped out of magazines, interesting articles or phrases from newspapers n shiz. Lots of gestures and reference