Feeling Sketchy: Sketchbooks part 1

Who's feeling sketchy? 

Hello Audience! 

This week's assignment for my art education class is to blog about two sketchbooks we made in class and include a few photos. I've split it up into 2 posts because this one is rather lengthy. 

First, I'll tell you what I do with my sketchbooks. Second, the people (my social media friends and a few students) tell me what they would do or have done in or with sketchbooks. Third, I'm going to show you how to make A FANCY SKETCHBOOK! Oh La LA! We did this in class together and I did stab myself in the leg with an upholstery needle. Don't worry, I'm fine. I have very callused hands at this point. Hah. 

How to Use Sketchbooks

My Sketchbook Practice

Why should you have a sketchbook? Are you a doodler? Do you constantly need to jot things down? I know I do! There are a lot of good, bad, and ugly pages in my sketchbooks. I've included a little bit of everything. If you use a sketchbook for personal use, you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT. And there is no grade. I use my personal sketchbook for:

 

Entertainment

Kermit Ruffins at the Blue Nile in New Orleans 2015? He signed it!

I love to draw on the plane when I'm waiting or just for fun. Clouds are great! It's like gesture drawing but no one can tell if you mess up because they're clouds. What would they say? That's wrong?

When I go to a restaurant by myself or when I'm with Trevor, my lovely fiance, and he's watching a sporting event on his iPhone, I entertain myself by drawing what I see in my sketchbook. I like to pull up to the bar or a table with a view and creepily draw everyone. Or, I usually draw a wine rack or stacks of bottles on shelves. I even like to watercolor with coffee. Mixed media baby. 

Art Therapy

Draw. It. Out. It's like writing it out or talking it out but with a lot more scribbling. There is plenty of art therapy prompts available like numerology or spirit animals online. 

Marketing

I would go to where my target buying market would be with my sketchbook and draw until someone noticed. That's how I got my start with public art commissions. I would be at the Classic Cup by 7am and I would be sketching random things. I would spend my last $5 on a cup of coffee and hopefully would make a few connections. It really works if you give yourself the confidence. 

Improving my Skills

I love blind contour. It helps me draw things I see and NOT what's in my head. Sketch anything! Especially if it's something I'm not good at drawing, yet! THE POWER OF YET! 

Journaling

Honestly, my writing is usually a list of some sort or a design element. Next to my blind contours, I usually fill up some space with written gibberish. It is a great trick to fill up a page but it looks pretty cool. 

Illustrated Grocery lists and meal plans

VERY Inefficient but very fun. I like to cook and this is a fun way to cook up ideas. 

Designing my Space

I absolutely love redecorating but I have to have a plan. Floor plans, garden plans, closet redesigns, that bazillion-dollar second floor that would be absolutely out of the question. But I have plans. This one is a plan for my backyard. It's fairly accurate. 

Vacation and OUTFIT planning

I love to plan out all my fabulous outfits. If I don't, I pack WAY too much.

To-do lists and lesson planning 

I plan out my day with scribbles and doodles and I make grids for class units to plan out lesson pacing. It works for me.

Sketching Thumbnails and Ideas for Bigger Pieces

I have to plan my ideas out before I start. I plan a lot on Photoshop when a client wants an image. Then I plan my colors and plan of attack in the sketchbook. Often, these don't mean anything to anyone but myself. They're often incomprehensible to anyone but myself but sometimes they reflect the end product.

Your Sketchbook Ideas

My professor said she used sketchbooks while she was teaching. Her main rules were to fill up the entire page and no stick people. She only took a participation grade. I agree with the participation grade but I don't know. I've seen some pretty amazing stick people but in general, that's a pretty solid rule. You can start with a stick person but we add detail! What do you think? 

I put up a few prompts on my social media and I asked my elementary students for some ideas of what we would put in a sketchbook or do with a sketchbook. Here are 40 ideas my friends and students came up with for using sketchbooks:

1. Futuristic Fashion Design 
2. Sturdy up a wobbly desk
3. Sledding? Go with it. 
4. Hand turkeys that look like terrifying REAL HANDS
5. WRiting your crush's name as your last name over and over with hearts
6. Practicing that cool "S" Celtic knot
7. Playing M.A.S.H.
8. Drawing your friends as the Spice Girls
9. Rearranging your room (interior design plans)
10. Messy Mat
11. Fan for when it's hot
12. Draw magical unicorns in space 
13. Portraits of random made-up people
14. New School sketches and signage (we're building a new school across the street)
15. Practicing facial features especially eyes
16. Fashion design sketching for designing doll dress
17. Drawing trees in the backyard with animals and birds
18. "I draw what I'm thinking so I don't forget what to say"
19. Backyard architecture like playground stuff and pools and roller coasters
20. Write notes to friends
21. Sketching [inanimate] things so they don't move and color with colored pencils and crayons
22. Paper airplane hanger
23. Inventing new stuff and drawing ideas
24. Logos for companies
25. Electronics real and imagined 
26. Pokemon
27. Foxes
28. Sharks
29. Redraw/color famous paintings
30. Practice REALLY naturalistic detail
31. Poinsettias 
32. Sports logos and players
33. Elephants with hats
34. Comic books 
35. Orcas jumping out of the water
36. Weeping willows weeping 
37. Golden Retrievers playing with balls
38.  Coasters to put your drink on
39. Spanish assignments
40. Calligraphy

Thanks for your input everyone! Who wants to try those ideas out? We can in our new sketchbooks! 

How to make a FANCY Sewn Sketchbook

My theme here is orange. We were supposed to use black paper but mine was TOO flimsy for a cover.

Supplies:

Cardstock

Sketchbook Paper- 10 pages will make a 20 page sketchbook. I used copy paper but i would use mixed media paper next time. You could recycle old maps or use fancy watercolor paper.

WAXED thread- You can wax your own embroidery floss with beeswax but regular sewing thread wouldn't be strong enough. 

Big needle- Large enough to accommodate the large thread. I used an upholstery needle.  

Awl- Or something to stab through all the paper. I used a sturdy ceramic needle tool. 

Extra piece of sketchbook sized paper and a pencil or pen. 

Optional, binder clips.

First, fold all of your sketchbook paper in half. Hot dog or hamburger style. 

Fold your cover the same way and stack it so the folds line up. This part is tricky because the paper will want to move when you stab it.

So where do you put the holes? 

Fold your extra paper into quarters. Mark the middle.

Fold the lower and upper halves of the page so they meets in the middle like a cabinet or double doors. 

Mark the spots on your center line.

Then you'll do it again marking the 8ths in the upper and lower quadrants.

Next, THE STABBING. Use the awl to stab through the guide, all the pages, and the cover on the fold line. I felt like mine was trying to move so you could use binder clips to hold the pages still. But there are products that would hold it open for you on etsy for this. My profesor had a handy-dandy tool that held your paper and helped guide the holes. If I did this with a class, I would need a bookbinding signature punching guide. This is just under $50 from Walmart. 

So, I'll need to have this guide if I want to do it with students. I held mine off the edge of my desk. I would have definitely stabbed myself and messed up the lined up papers.

See that stray hole? Yeah. I messed this part up a few times.

The next part was the hardest bit! I messed it up twice. Thread your needle and FIRST GO THROUGH the INSIDE. YOU don't want the knot on the outside.  Leave a tail at the start to the it at the end.

These are the magical sewing directions. Look at them closely before you try it.

Start from the INSIDE 

Down through C

Up through B

Down through A

UP THROUGH E. Yes, all the way.

Down through D

Up through C

Tie a double knot and trim the excess.

Now, your sketchbook is together. Use a papercutter to trim each half of the book and round your corners with a scrapbook tool if that tickles your fancy. 

This is a pic of me sewing my FIRST sketchbook ever. It's blurry because I broke rule number one in the art room, "No stabbing!" 😂😂😂

Apparently, when my professor was in school, they had to make a sketchbook for every single person that visited the art department. How thoughtful but also ughhh. Parent's weekend? Tours? Deliveries?! Yikes. 

Here's the finished product of sketchbook number one. AND LOOK AT THAT MESSY DESK! Time for some DISCO CLEANUP!!

#blessthismess

See you in a few for Sketchbooks Part Deux

With Enthusiasm,

Ms Crosswhite