Assignment One: You Are Now..

For this assignment I was given a very open brief with the words 'You Are Now!', the are plenty of directions I could go down with this simple brief and I can do it in many ways- such as a fanzine, an artist's books, a comic, a series of posters, an animation, the choices are endless...

Considering how much there is I could explore I wanted to remember what my last two exercises taught me. I understand now that I find narrative/story in art extremely appealing and works best with my style.

'You Are Now' assignment bounces off of a previous assignment that I worked on with the title 'You Are Here', and for that piece of work I went towards the move spiritual route with a tattoo design.

The design itself was simple enough, which makes me want to divulge into something with a lot more substance. I had many ideas for the brief, and a lot drew from what I'm currently doing in this moment-- writing, procrastinating, listening to music.

The brief is limitless but an idea has been stuck with me since I saw it a few months ago, an artist (who I've forgotten) created a sketchbook from wallpaper. It gave the sketchbook flow from one piece to the next, and it could be a really interesting surface to draw on.

My Brief

My take on 'You Are Now' is to show life through a continuous drawing, I'm going to take a Concertina sketchbook and draw/paint throughout a few days; with the Concertina sketchbook it'll feel like one long piece of artwork. It'll be a mixture of observational life drawings and references online; capturing people, places, wildlife, events...

I wanted to capture the beauty that is the moment we live and breathe. The turmoil and the joy, and the bits in-between those moments. There are aspects that I won't be able to capture like people's day-to-day jobs, hence when I'll use references. But I want to have a really crack at doing observational drawing too, so I'll go out in public and capture life as it is in front of me.

Inspiration Board

Research

The best way to approach a unique sketchbook was to see how others utilized their sketchbook, I came across Peter Han who used the negative space to enhance his drawings- the white of the page makes his work stand out from the page. The way his work was laid out across the pages, by having them appear off the page onto the next fold, it creates a really interesting flow that makes the piece feel as one, especially the flying transportation coming away from the building.

He talks a lot about how this "sketchbook" works, that it's not really for undeveloped pieces; and I agree since the way the sketchbook feels so open and there is a lot of surface space for a drawing to go on you'll feel the need to make the piece complete. Rather than a stereotypical sketchbook that has a lot of work for the artist's practice.

This artist Danny Hawk, uses it as if it's a traditional sketchbook, concentrating on one-to-two pages at a time; he also uses both side (back and front) of the accordion sketchbook-- just like Peter Han. His images are isolated to a few pages and so there is less flow from all the pages but his work is very vibrant and illustrative which drew me to his work.

Thoughts, Feelings and Approaches

To tackle this assignment, once I got the sketchbook in my hand I drew; I intended not to think too deeply at the start in case I got stressed and started to overthink. I started with what I saw around me, then went into thinking of the flow of the page and incorporated what I was experiencing into what I wanted to illustrate.

From there, I drew my Dad which then went into drawing into people-- ultimately flowing from one subject to the next; Doing so with ink, watercolour and occasionally coloured pencil and pens.

As I was going through the sketchbook I started to lose a bit of flow, I would occasionally pick it back up, however especially towards the end I would lose it a lot. Despite the fact that I really REALLY wanted to capture from life as much as possible, I didn't (more of that in my reflection), and because of that I wasn't able to capture the natural flow of life that I intended to.

I wanted to draw people working, capture people experiencing their own lives, I wanted this piece to really inspire people to see that they're living life no matter what they're doing or what they're going through.

I included a few quotes in there that got me through the week and it felt like an anchor in the piece, a narrative peak into what I was trying to convey.

Final Piece

Evaluation

This assignment was extremely fun, yet challenging. Throughout this week of completing this assignment, I was going through some mental hurdles and I feel that this assignment came at the right time and the wrong time. I was able to use this as a reminder that life is as we experience it, good or bad. But I was very recluse at home which downgraded my work since I was struggling to get out the house and actually draw from life.

The drawing themselves have shown my personal style and with the inclusion of watercolour, I observe that my work is slowly adapting to how I would personally like to work. The weaker parts of the assignment such as the intended "galaxy" scene at the end, my materials didn't seem to lay right and I wasn't able to represent the wonder and beauty. Again, the composition lost it a few times, and some of the illustrations are lack-luster, and looking at it again, maybe I should've drawn more and have less negative space.

What I would do next time is 100% observational drawings. No excuses.

I asked friends about this assignment, the most common thing said was that the paper quotes bring down the piece; something I'll will work on next time.

Revisited

I wanted to add a few small pieces and redo the back page since I wasn't happy with that, and as requested by feedback I made the video more interesting. After reworking the few pieces, I am a little more happy with it, it still doesn't have the flow but I'm okay with that. I feel much better about the space ending, thankfully.

1 Kazone Art, Youtube 'Sketchbook Tour By Peter Han', Mar 15, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4hgu24xaCo Accessed Nov 28, 2025.

2 Danny Hawk, Youtube 'SKETCHING IN THE ALPS: Accordion Sketchbook from Berchtesgaden', Nov 22, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M4lokgsWpw Accessed Nov 28, 2025.