A pocket for keeping all those little bits of inspiration and notes.
My Nature book, mixed media book (with a project from Yao Cheng's class) and my jewellery sketchbook.
As I mentioned a couple of posts ago on A List Of Goals I Am Working On, one of my goals for the year has been to 'Make Marks Daily' (inspired by @pinkyandmaurice 's hash tag on Instsgram #makemarksdaily). As part of this challenge, I decided to get more organised in my approach to my sketchbook and supplies.
Firstly I realised one sketchbook for everything wasn't really cutting it. Watercolours were seeping through to my jewellery sketches and I could never find the things I was looking for. So now I have three - my spiral bound Nature Book, just like Cohen's, for when we draw our found treasures like shells and leave together; a mixed media sketchbook, where I can do everything from sketching, to line draw in pen or ink, painting with water colour or experimenting with collage; while my third sketchbook is dedicated to my jewellery sketches.
I discovered these gorgeous sketchbooks - Dylusions Creative Journal (I brought mine here). They are a little on the expensive side for a sketchbook, but I loved my first one so much that I ordered another one. I also ordered this set of Micron pens. They are archival and waterproof once they are dry, so they are great for drawing and even painting over with water colours - a trick I learned from Lisa Congdon's Creativebug class.
I find this separation and having these defined spaces in the three books has offered me greater clarity with the direction of my work. Having a book dedicated to jewellery means I'm less likely to be distracted by other drawing tasks - a little like closing down all your tabs and leaving just the one open. It also means that when we go to the park, Cohen and I just bring our Nature Books with us, and I am no longer lugging along my jewellery and experimental sketches at the same time.
I'm fascinated by the ways creatives work. A behind the scenes look in to a studio, a peek at an artists collection of sketchbooks, or a look in to their selection of materials will garner my attention every time. Sketchbooks are a way of collecting thoughts, processes, experiments, designs and the sparks of greater work to come.
