Research Task: Visual Diaries (4:0) & Top Ten Visual Diaries (4:1)

For this section of my coursework, I will be approaching my sketchbook as a visual diary and to approach illustrations with the visual diary; firstly though, I will look into some artists and how they approach their sketchbook differently from on another.

Myfanwy Tristram

Myfanwy Tristram is an artist who pushes the limits with her sketchbook, taking her sketchbook as she travels everywhere she goes. Tristram uses a variety of different mediums from inks, coloured pens, pencils collaging and watercolour; and they way she applies all of the together makes it feel very cohesive, making it a part of a story.

Tristram also has a way of creating her sketchbook travels as a graphic novel, showing us what went on and what was said by her and those around her. Something I really love more so since my last elective being the graphic novel, exploring story-telling in that way is fun and lets you look back and what you experience.

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Her sketchbook is very literal a visual diary, documenting her holidays with words and imagery, bright colours and a fun use of watercolour and inks. She explores her surroundings and takes in what intrigues her the most, displaying it in a way that we can feel and be a part of that moment with her.

Leonardo Da Vinci

If there is one person that I know that uses their sketchbook, it's Da Vinci. What I know him for is his detailed and intricate sketches, showing his learning of human anatomy and architecture as well as a lot of personal notes. A little more interesting to note, Da Vinci wrote his personal notes back to front as it is rumoured to stop others from taking a peek into his notes.

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An inventor, Da Vinci's notebooks were filled with sketches and note-takings of engineering, and is a real insight on Da Vinci's mind. The notebook is done ink and pencil, and the style of drawings is simple line work with cross-hatching for shading. With Da Vinci's notebook, I like his secret note-taking, it feels intimate when you look at it since you can't help but think about what he was thinking, what plans he was making, and what was happening around him for his notes to be written in such a way that makes it difficult to read.

Frida Kahlo

An artist known for her powerful artwork kept a sketchbook with all her personal writings, sketches, dreams, artworks-- anything that inspired her; the sketchbook is a burst of colour, mark-making and a variety of different subjects. The sketchbook is filled with so much imagery that it could be overwhelming to some, there is so much to unpack in each page and has so much experimental moments with different mediums.

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A true artist, Frida Kahlo is a visionary in her artistic skills, making every page an exploration of her mind; not being afraid to be mess or make mistakes, to accept every mark as it is but allowing herself to question what she's created- it's something aspiring as an artist. Frida Kahlo being an inspiration and something to take with me as I explore the rest of this illustration sketchbooks course.

Janice Lowry

Not something I've explored looking into before, it Janice Lowry's work, the reason for this is her technique of her sketchbooks having a lot of collages- Lowry treats her book as a diary, and has done since she was younger, documenting every moment, even the darkest of times like seeing 9/11 as it occured. Lowry books are filled with her writings and collages, collages of loose parts, scrap or cut outs of magazines and such.

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Seeing Lowry's collaging makes me rethink the way collaging could work, it could help tell a story and not just creating an overall illustration, taking some things with me everywhere I go could be a great way of using my sketchbook to its fullest potential. The collaboration of paint, collaging and writing is truly inspiring and fun; it could really help with coming up with ideas from places you've been to-- and having something to remind you is a good point for creating.

Rembert Montald

Slightly different from these other artists, I wanted to take a look a little more to a concept artist's sketchbook and I came across Rembert Montald's work on Proko's Youtube video; the reason for choosing this artist is because I have been exploring character design more so recently, and I wanted a little insight to what the sketchbooks could look like.

""In my head that said "Rembert, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I said "I want to be an artist". "So, why aren't you drawing?"", this quote was what made me stay on this video, with seeing his sketchbook and listen to his advice, I can see that his approach to his sketchbook was a way of learning and gathering ideas; his sketches are detailed and vary with anatomy and perspective practice to practicing different mediums like gouache.

Learning and sketching this way enforces his character design, creating elaborate and proportionate characters that are interesting in every way; drawing anatomy, exploring different creatures enables Montald to work his magic in character design.

Screenshot from Video 5

The takeaway I want from Montald is to explore different types of characters, learning anatomy in every moment I have and to take inspiration from everything around me.

Beatrix Potter

I've covered Beatrix Potter before but I wasn't able to express how amazing and dedicated Beatrix Potter was. Beatrix started drawing at a very young age of 8, from there her sketchbooks were filled with nature and animals. She created detailed watercolour studies of her rabbit, insects, plants, landscapes- everything that inspired her, nature.

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In her illustrations you can see that her sketchbook helps her, creating beautiful illustrations that are characteristically fun and colourful. it wasn't until I attended the exhibition of Beatrix Potter that I found that out that because of her studies in her sketchbooks of nature, that she contributed to the studies of fungi. Of course, her love with nature and constant drawings of the nature around her, we talk about her books, Peter Rabbit, perfectly showing her love for nature with beautiful watercolour illustration combined with her storytelling

Beatrix Potter used her sketchbook for studying and learning (much like the Leonardo Da Vinci), finding her inspiration around her and simply taking it in and drawing, observing and sketching.

Jeff Watts

Jeff Watts sketchbook is filled with anatomy work and sketches of animals, people, and sometimes landscapes. Watts concentrates on drawing from life as much as possible, spending his time at the zoo to produce anatomically correct animals; using pencil, charcoal and white charcoal (for highlight) to create these studies. Although he has featured some gouache and ink into other sketchbooks, he isn't afraid to experiment.

The studies have lots of movement and helps Watts retain the anatomy in his head so he can draw from memory later on; Watts' classes reflect in his sketchbook as he creates shapes and grids to draw these studies-- he will always find distinct attributes of those studies to show the character through the study.

Watts expresses that sketchbook should be the wanderings of your mind, and as you look into his oldest sketchbook you can see how dedicated he was to creating art- copying (like an artist) from Frazetta. Hearing how Frazetta is such an inspiration to Jeff Watts, and how Watts learnt from him makes me think about what artist I admire to influence my sketchbook and artwork.

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Cynthia Sheppard

A beautiful painter, Cynthia Sheppard shows her sketchbook in the most raw way that it reassures me that I'm not doing so badly at art. Sheppard expresses to us that even though she has one sketchbook filled with beautiful anatomy drawings and another being a travel sketchbook, one sketchbook that stuck out to me was what she called "the junk sketchbook".

This so-called sketchbook was filled with a mixture of weird drawings, anatomy studies and sketches of whatever she wanted; it sticks with me because I was so hung up on making every page look as beautiful as 'Jeff Watts' sketchbook or as detailed as Leonardo Da Vinci's.

Sheppard uses primary pencil and sketches a variety of different things, but like to create thumbnails of what she wants to paint or studies from life. Sheppard uses her sketchbook to create confident mark-making and something that I aspire to do; there is a lot more smoothness and contrast than Jeff Watts' sketchbook, but maintains that accurate anatomy studies.

As you look at Sheppard's paintings you can see the understanding of human anatomy and the tonal values, creating a beautiful and dramatic portrait. Creating some beautiful paintings/artworks from the "junk" sketches that she had in her sketchbook-- which with time helped her.

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Minnie Small

A British Illustrator who loves to experiment with different mediums with a variety of different subjects, she incorporates collaging, paints with watercolours gouache plays with inks and sketching with pen and pencil. Studying from concept arts, videos, pinterest-- everything and anything!

Her sketchbook is so inspiring with the amount of love that has gone into every page, she studies everything and you can tell she will study a variety of subjects to improve her art skills. She blends her love for movies, tv shows and even books to help her create art. Small utilizes her sketchbook for her learning and her journey, when she's down you'll know and when she's bored she'll pick up a medium and do whatever comes to her mind.

For Minnie her artwork is her sketchbook, she displays her learnings as an art-- which is very poetic and true. Creating prints of her studies and refining them to be a little cleaner for a pleasing aesthetic.

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Audra Auclair

Audra Auclair's sketchbook is quite similar to that of Minnie Small and Frida Kahlo in a way that she will just have so much fun with her sketchbook-- using a mixture of pencil, pen, ink and collaging (but will uses everything at least once in her sketchbook).

She draws from life, going to museums and drawing her partner/friends/family, using her sketchbook as a journal of where she goes and what she does. To me, it looks like a piece of art on every page, blending her life with art is so beautiful. She incorporates her studies and her own imagination on the same page, studies of animals, landscapes, people-- anything that's around her.

Her style is a mixture of realism and cartoon, just creating the style in whatever mood she was in; she uses her sketchbook to create inspiration for illustrations/merch with her big imagination. Her style isn't one strict way, its fluid and fun-- but deep with meaning in moments, reflecting on her memories.

Her sketchbook (like everyone on this list) is so inspiring, the way she isn't afraid to make mistakes, or she turns mistakes into something funny. Using her sketchbook as her journal while she learns/develops her artistic skills, showing an intimate part of herself with her mental health and chronic pain reminds me so much of Frida Kahlo.

As I think back to my own sketchbook, I would love to use it this way, as a journal as well as a learning tool to make art even more fun. I feel like with my sketchbook and using it in a similar way as Audra I could potentially generate more ideas and think and feel like an artist, not just using the sketchbook as a tool for learning.

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Eugene Delacroix: Notes from a Journey to Morocco

Slightly different from the last few artists, I stumbled upon a painter who kept a sketchbook with them as they travelled and what the Delacroix created were these beautiful sketches of the people around him, he was fascinated with this new world that he travelled to. Sketching beautiful women with beautiful clothing-- even annotating the drawings for when--of if he wanted to paint them.

The way that Delacroix would sketch would be with precise lines, hard shadows and soft (smudged) shading for tonal sketches, a lot more contrast was used when it came to the landscape studies as he kept the sketches of the women very lift and soft to reflect their beauty.

There are some experiments of watercolour in the sketchbooks, capturing the colour of the landscape and details of the women he saw when he had time to stay and study.

The sketches and watercolours studies reflect in his paintings with the vibrancy of colour and the attention to detail of the people in the paintings, focusing on the beauty of the moment.

Screenshot from website 11

Reflection

After a lot of researching, finding artists/illustrators sketchbooks that jumped out to me the most, I find myself inspired and excited to get to my sketchbook. Each artist uses their sketchbook as a learning tool, some purley just that- while others use it to maximise their artist skills with imagination, and some as a beautiful journey (a documentation of their life).

It's very poetic that these artists were inspired by their situations, their travels, hobbies, or passion for art; as I take inspiration from them and their origins of art (in their sketchbook), their only thought for their sketchbook was to motivate themselves, rant and rave, study art, plan for bigger projects-- creating for themselves, in the process of inspiring others.

1 Myfanwy Tristram, Myfanwy Tristram 'Florence Sketch Diary', Nov 22, 2017. https://myfanwytristram.com/2017/11/22/florence-sketch-diary-day-5-the-holy-grail/ Accessed July 13, 2023.

2 V&A, Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks, U/A. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/leonardo-da-vincis-notebooks Accessed July 13, 2023.

3 H. A Rozanes, The art of creativity 'Frida Kahlo's Art Journal', Feb 24, 2018. https://www.hagitaz.com/en/frida-kahlos-art-journal/ Accessed July 13, 2023.

4 Smithsonian, Archives of American Art 'Janice Lowry Journal 93', 2001 July 12-December 3. https://www.si.edu/object/janice-lowry-journal-93%3AAAADCD_item_14735 Accessed July 13, 2023.

5 Proko, Youtube 'These Drawings Got This Artist Hired at Riot', Jan 27, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbmVKmAA2XU&t=119s Accessed July 13, 2023.

6 V&A, V&A 'Beatrix Potter's first sketchbook, aged 8', U/A. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/beatrix-potters-first-sketchbook-aged-8#?c=&m=&s=&cv=27&xywh=-1%2C-601%2C13726%2C9456 Accessed July 13, 2023.

7 Proko, Youtube '3 Epic Sketchbook Tours with Jeff Watts', Dec 10, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcXULV7G9ZU Accessed July 14, 2023.

8 Cynthia Sheppard, Youtube 'Quick Sketchbook Tour + Chat', Jan 8, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb1XjH_eXOw Accessed July 13, 2023.

9 Minnie Small, Youtube 'Moleskine Sketchbook Tour · Nov '16 - Apr 17 · semiskimmedmin', May 17, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoQgSc7q5qc Accessed July 14, 2023.

10 Audra Auclair, Youtube 'Mega Sketchbook Tour!!! (2018-2020). Feb 3, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6VpxZW1X_M&list=PLmtjvfb8_v_2lsp8vsn5kIdi7Kq_dNG3A&index=6 Accessed July 14, 2023.

11 Google, Arts & Culture 'Delacroix's Moroccan Travel Diaries', U/A. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/delacroix-s-moroccan-travel-diaries-chateau-de-chantilly/8wWxRHM4S4Go9w?hl=en Accessed July 14, 2023.