the drumcroon gallery

A sketchbook may be called by many names, for example:

• Journal
• Visual Diary
• Drawings file
• Work diary
• Work mate

In the past some people kept what they called a commonplace book. In it they put all sorts of things which interested them: drawings, pieces of fabric, flowers and other natural things, cuttings from magazines, pictures of places they had visited and even copies of poems which they enjoyed.
What you choose to call your book is not important.
It is what is in your book that matters.

Your sketchbook can be:

• A running commentary on your visual experiences, so it can include all sorts of visual information.
• Autobiographical – it is about you, your work, responses, feelings.
• Autobiographical – it is about you, your work, responses, feelings.

Your sketchbook can provide:

• Two-dimensional representations of ideas
• An information library on many topics
• Something to refer back to
• A place for you to work out ideas
• Support for other curriculum areas
• Somewhere to record personal evaluations

Things to include in your sketchbook:

• Drawings from observation, imagination and memory
• Colour notes and experiments
• Cuttings and photographs
• Found objects – leaves, fabrics, textures…
• Experiments with different media and combinations of media
• Written notes as you draw and collect

Be proud of your sketchbook and discuss it with other people.
Sharing your sketchbook is a good way of sharing and developing your ideas.
Compare your sketchbook with those by other artists. When you visit art galleries, look at the way different artists develop their sketchbooks. Every artist’s sketchbook is different. When you look inside a sketchbook, you are looking inside the artist’s mind.
“The sketchbook is the window to the soul”

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