Journals & Sketchbooks - how do you use them?
Thinking about Lawrence Halprin and his 100 sketchbooks got me thinking about sketchbooks and journals in general ... and about the ones I've kept since I was 16. I wanted to find out how other artists and creative professionals have used sketchbooks and journals. The Smithsonian Museum has an online exhibit called Visual Thinking: Sketchbooks from the Archives of American Art. The collection is diverse and inspiring, with artists such as Oscar Bluemner, Rosina Emmet Sherwood, William Harnett,
For a more contemporary point of view on the value of keeping a visual journal, Larry Seiler has a demonstration/article on wetcanvas
Here is a set of sketches and doodles I have made over the years ... there is no rhyme or reason to the order of these drawings, nor to the choice of which ones to scan and post online. Just a random sampling. You can click the button to go directly to the slideshow: 
2 Comments:
must be there's just a certain type of person who feels the need to collect all the information they stumble across in a day. others can see it, hear it, learn it, then leave it and be satisfied in the experience, but I'm with you, one of those people who feels a need to translate it and put it down for later. It took me a long time to realize that was why I kept a journal: so I could go back and read it. Maybe like buying a cd of an artist instead of just going to concerts.
And I like drawing from science, drawing from understanding. that larry guy was doing this too, looking at the logic behind structure, the systems that plants use to distribute nutrients translate to physical form of plants, and the way nature strives for maximum effeciency, meaning any task that could be carried out by a lesser part is never done by a greater, and the largest bubble that can fill a space on a coffee mug will always appear, up to the point where surface tensions is not strong enough to hold its weight. this means that when you draw the bubbles on the edge of a coffee cup, the biggest bubbles are all the exact same size and fill all the space they can before smaller bubbles start moving in. I draw power lines to understand the systems that connect our homes, trying to figure out which wire is which by the thickness, delivery point, type of hardware used to secure it, what type of transformer it runs through, etc.
what are you ever going to do when all the power & utility lines are underground gabe? (grin)
which larry guy are you referring to in your comment?
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