Assignment One 

The Everyday...

What sort of sketchbook will you use? 

I will start by working as I have always worked, on separate sheets of paper that I will then pull together to create a sketchbook. I will start like this to gain confidence with this first assignment. 

Will your sketchbook be physical or digital? Or a mixture of the two? 

I want to create a natural response to this assignment. I plan to take a very normal "everyday" and record something about the day. Over a seven day period I will collect these notes and drawings together and see what story they have to tell. A seven day visual diary perhaps. 

How personal you want your work to be? 

Working across seven days, I think it will be an incredibly emotional response and I like the idea of being transparent and honest. The seven days are lockdown days. Life has been incredibly testing and the future is unknown. I won't know how personal this snapshot of my seven days will be until the end of the sketchbook. Let's see. I like the thought of being open to whatever happens. 

Your visual journey – what are you going to show us and how will it develop from start to finish?  Will there even be a finish? Or will the work ask more visual questions than it answers?

I will start by making a note of the word that I am feeling that day. I will then look for a visual response to this word, which may be a physical thing, feeling or emotion and work from there. I may or may not share the actual word, perhaps only the visual response to it. I'll start from here and let it flow naturally. 

On this occasion, as I'm creating the sketchbook over a limited period, there will be an end. This comforts me at the moment as I tiptoe into this module. 


Day One: 

Word or feeling today - "Trapped"
Black ink on brown paper. Small sketch, approximately A5. 

This is me in crisis mode. It's lockdown and there's no way out of it. The lines act like bars. 


Trapped revisited: 

Using a different medium, white acrylic. 
The addition of white in the background does brings the figure to life. It creates more of a definite background and foreground. 

The white paint appears rather transparent on the page though, it isn't quite thick enough, something to consider moving forward.  





Day Two: 

Word or feeling today - "Life on the inside" 
Felt tip pens and white acrylic on brown paper. Small sketch approximately A5. 

The view from my living room window, looking out into the street. A view that I am very familiar with now. As I homeschool my children, this is where my eyes drift too. 

I like the life of colour in this sketch. It's lively and energetic. Messy but interesting. 


Day Three: 

Word or feeling today - "Dreams of Freedom".
Pastel on brown paper. Ink and watercolour cut out illustration on white paper. A5. 

I like the collage effect. The dandelion in the breeze, so free out in the wild. The background is weak though. I have difficulty in creating colour on the brown paper, especially applying pale blue. Something to consider. A darker colour would have been a better choice. 


Day Four: 

Word or feeling today - "Too much"
Coloured pencil on brown paper. Ink and watercolour on white paper. A5. 

A collage effect again. My children eat apples and always leave the core, for me too tidy away. Eaten away. 


Day Five: 

Word or feeling today -  "Homeschool". 
Pencil and crayon on white paper. A5. 

The endless learning. Piles of books and sheets of paper. Everyday is the same. 






Day six: 

Word or feeling today - "Walks". 
Black fine line and watercolour on white paper. A5. 

The hills I walk later on in the day. Homeschool is finished for the day. Just green and open space. 

Ink and watercolour are so vibrant on white paper. Fluid and pleasing. 





Day seven: 
Word or feeling today - "Self Reflection".
Pencil crayon on white paper. A4. 

Here I've glued a white envelope to the paper and drawn over it. This will act as a secret compartment to conceal my feelings. Perhaps this will be where I hide all of my words and thoughts. 


My Sketchbook

I added each sketch to a large A1 sheet of white paper. This acts as an open sketchbook which I find satisfying. An open diary. 


Concealed compartments 

A hidden pocket in the centre of the A1 sheet:

A white envelope glued onto a  white sketch page: 




Reflections:

This was a natural journey. I didn't want to stifle myself by constructing a plan before I started. I rather took my research of Frida Kahlo and her diary entries in a way to move myself forward with this assignment. 

Frida Kahlo used drawings to help express her feelings. Here I see her diary entry in words, but more strikingly I see her secret, uninhibited drawings. The faces are large and powerful and also small but mighty in their numbers. The colours she has chosen are different but work in tune, the reds, yellows, oranges and pinks have a harmony about them. Meant only for her eyes, they are beautiful and add such life to the dairies. 






Each day led to many thoughts naturally, but it was a good journey to take just one of those thoughts in a day and create a sketch. Perhaps as a progression, a diary of pages could be kept each day, rather than just one documentation. Seven mini sketchbooks for seven days. A thought. 

The open layout is satisfying. An open diary, in contrast to how a diary is, discreet and secret. Visually, I like how the sketchbook appears, all as one. Perhaps as a progression a cover could be created to explain my thought processes. However this would hinder it's overt nature. 

Of course there are secrets which are concealed in the pockets. To conceal elements in a sketchbook is a completely new concept to me. It's exciting and feels rather adventurous. I look forward to continuing with this line of thought. The white envelope on a white page worked well. Less obvious though is the opening in the middle of the page, where further pages can be hidden. 

I used a variety of different media to create each sketch. This was intentional. I want to be as experimental as I can to learn what mediums work best on what material. Which element expresses can express an emotion the most powerfully, accurately. This sketchbook has been an expression of emotion. This has worked well in that. However, what I need to do now is work out the mediums I should use to express each emotion. This was a first go. 

How did your interpretation of ‘the everyday’ change as you have carried out the work for this assignment? 

I used different media for each page of the sketchbook. This has been experimental, I thought about what media would best interpret the emotion I wanted to communicate. 

The think ink lines communicate the feeling of being trapped. The lines are rough and stark and are a good way of expressing despair. 

It would be really interesting to see how the sketchbook would have been if I'd used the same media throughout but applied it differently. Like a watered down ink could have been a subtle, moody sketch for "walks". 

Are there any aspects of the everyday that you think you would like to focus on in more depth in future assignments? 

I have touched on expressing emotions here, but I really would like to work on this. Does an emotion have to take a physical form in a sketch? Or could it be a series of line and marks? 

What will you take forward from your understanding of how other artists and illustrators use sketchbooks?

There is no set pattern. There is no rulebook. There is a visual language that runs through an artists sketchbook. This is the magic. I hope to develop my own visual narrative. 

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