Five Takeaways from My 100 Day Sketchbook Project
My 100 Day Sketchbook Project began back on January 31st with the aim of developing a sketchbook practice that would inform my art practice going forward. Now here we are on May 10th, 100 days later, and what I know for sure is that I learned a few things along the way.
Setting the scene
My sketchbook project was divided into two phases from the beginning.
In the first 50 days my goal was one sketch per page per day, allowing myself only 15 minutes each day to work intuitively with materials that were readily on hand. As a mixed media artist this meant drawing materials, paint and collage papers were all part of the process.
The second part, the next 50 days, was all about refining one sketch each day. On average about an hour was spent on each sketchbook page in phase two.
A sampling of completed sketchbook pages.
So what was learned doing the 100 day project:
A project with well defined parameters is a must.
I never struggled with what to do each day because the guidelines set for the project were well defined. The project was loose enough in intent to allow for plenty of exploration with materials and narrow enough to spur the creative process.
Creativity flows from doing.
Making many things is really good for the creative process.
I’m reminded of a conversation with an art teacher had during my final year of art school. I had defined my project well enough but found it difficult to begin. At the time, I thought I had to have a clear vision of how each piece of the project would look when completed.
This thought made doing the work almost impossible because I didn't have all of the answers.
My teacher said to me “just make 50 of them”. It sounds like a flippant remark but on the contrary it was just what I needed to hear.
I began making many pieces, for the project being less concerned about the quality of each one knowing that in amongst the many there would be both good and bad work. With each new piece, I gained more confidence and insight and the project was a pleasure to complete.
It was the same with this 100 day project. The idea of doing essentially two sets of 50 was liberating.
Experience taught me each sketch would inform the next and that is exactly what happened. Sure there were some missteps and hesitations but each of the sketches taught me a valuable lesson: This can be done and I won’t run out of ideas if I just keep forging ahead.
Having more in the beginning is better than having less.
In the beginning it's fun to be generous and loose with materials, not thinking too much about design and value contrast but just laying down lots of marks in whatever way pleases me. This approach gave so much more information to work with later in the process.
The subsequent pass on each sketch is about deciding what resonates and what should be kept. It’s much harder to edit if there isn’t a lot of material with which to work.
Refinement comes from paring down, not from limiting oneself in the beginning.
More samples of completed sketchbook pages.
What resonates?
This project has shown me, in a way that couldn’t have been expressed before beginning, what it is that I enjoy doing and seeing in my own work. At this moment in my creative journey my interest is captured by:
Pure abstraction...in fact there isn’t a hint of representation in the sketchbook work at all.
The division of space in a painting and the proportion of shapes, one to another.
Lines, both sinuous and angular, especially how lines are created by edges of shapes bumping up against one another.
The interplay between bright colour and desaturated colour in the same painting and how the two create a pleasing tension in the work.
Subtlety in the work: Seeing some element of line or texture that wasn’t obvious on first reading of the painting.
Over the past 100 days a few choices and techniques kept reappearing.
Drawing into wet paint to reveal the layer beneath is really satisfying. It’s like digging for buried treasure!
Collage doesn’t just mean found paper elements. Using hand painted collage papers resonates with both my process and aesthetic.
I’m lazy about mixing paint colours while painting. It’s better to have a larger quantity mixed before beginning.
Some final thoughts...
A friend asked whether I plan to pull individual pages out of my sketchbook and frame them or sell them.
The answer is a definitive “no”. I decided at the beginning of this process that this sketchbook was for me and me alone.
I’m happy to share images from the sketchbook with others but I don’t want to let go of the actual sketchbook just yet.
It was a place to experiment and discover new things that will inform my work. My sketchbook is a collection of my ideas and a witness to my progress in my creative journey.
So no I won’t be pulling out the best pages and framing them. At least not now!
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