Art School Sketchbooks: Scenarium
26 Mar 2010
I figure the best way to begin generating content might be to take a look back at stuff I did in the past. Revisiting old ideas, seeing how i worked not but a few short years ago and musing on the processes that took place. I surely doodled and sketched more back then and like any good art student i kept numerous sketchbooks that I filled between boring lectures. I decided to go through a handful of them and scan some of my old favorite pages.
I had a habit of naming each volume and decorating the cover. I guess it gave me a kick start to use it rather than let a pristine book sit in limbo in my bag forever. I found the best way to get a sketchbook going was to fuck it up the first day, pardon my French. I stopped thinking that every page was precious and needed to be a masterpiece and just went for it. It made the creative process less forced. I gleamed most of my sketchbook and doodling habits from one of my idols and professors, Barron Storey, who is the undisputed king of sketchbookery. He was also the one who began my unnatural love affair with the process gouache resist.
No art student is going to argue the importance of the sketchbook, but even after the fact I find these old archives useful and inspiring. Not all my ideas back then were used, and indeed not all the ideas were that good or useful. It's the added benefit of letting them simmer in these pages for a while that gives them time to mature. And then one day when I turn back to that page I can say "Huh! That could be cool!" and an old idea gets reexamined and perhaps the chance to be given new life.
Anyway, that's why I decided to re-post some of the old stuff. Though I can't recall when exactly most of this was drawn, or what on earth I was thinking when I made most of it, it's safe to assume most was done during my time at CCA.
This first book was called Scenarium. This was an earlier sketchbook where I really started to get into brush inking. In fact, though, most brush "ink" in this is actually gouache.
I had a habit of naming each volume and decorating the cover. I guess it gave me a kick start to use it rather than let a pristine book sit in limbo in my bag forever. I found the best way to get a sketchbook going was to fuck it up the first day, pardon my French. I stopped thinking that every page was precious and needed to be a masterpiece and just went for it. It made the creative process less forced. I gleamed most of my sketchbook and doodling habits from one of my idols and professors, Barron Storey, who is the undisputed king of sketchbookery. He was also the one who began my unnatural love affair with the process gouache resist.
No art student is going to argue the importance of the sketchbook, but even after the fact I find these old archives useful and inspiring. Not all my ideas back then were used, and indeed not all the ideas were that good or useful. It's the added benefit of letting them simmer in these pages for a while that gives them time to mature. And then one day when I turn back to that page I can say "Huh! That could be cool!" and an old idea gets reexamined and perhaps the chance to be given new life.
Anyway, that's why I decided to re-post some of the old stuff. Though I can't recall when exactly most of this was drawn, or what on earth I was thinking when I made most of it, it's safe to assume most was done during my time at CCA.
This first book was called Scenarium. This was an earlier sketchbook where I really started to get into brush inking. In fact, though, most brush "ink" in this is actually gouache.
