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Outer World, Inner World and Practice- Approaches to Sketchbooking (Patreon)

Published:
2024-02-09 00:00:04
Imported:
2024-05
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Content

There are three main approaches to sketch booking. Obviously there can be other goals and the boundaries can sometimes be blurred. But in general the three main approaches are studying and drawing from observation, drawing from imagination, and practice. 

I like to think of these in terms of Max Ernst's ideas about the outer world, the inner world and the synthesis between the two. 

The Outer World

Sketching from observation helps you study and understand the outer world. Plain air painting, urban sketching, figure drawing, still life drawing, drawing from reference. These help you develop your visual library and understand the world around you. The Outer world.

Doing Plein air sketches out in the wild are good because they help you notice details that you might not think about if you are going from imagination. They also help you study light, shadow and colors as the actually appear in the real world (when working from photo references these nuances get lost. Shadows become blacker, colors become more saturated etc.)

It can be easier to just bring a little bag of pencils, charcoal and pens around than carrying a painting set up. 

Figure drawing (in person or from photo or video reference) Is super useful because it makes you think about the figure from different angles. One of the problems of going purely from imagination with figures is that you can tend to do the same pose over and over.

The Inner World

Drawing from imagination is the most obvious expression of exploring the inner world. But this can also cover doodling, experimenting with mediums. These can all help generate ideas. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

on the surface practice may seem like practice belongs on the outer world side of things. But practicing also helps with drawing from imagination. Practice can involve taking notes and doing copies from different books or videos about drawing, or just filling up pages practicing those ideas, doing exercises in perspective or line work. Here I was trying understand drawing figures in perspective better and constructing the anatomy.

Blurring the Lines

But the lines between these approaches don't need to be rigid.

For this sketch of the Sans Regency Casino in Reno, I was experimenting with mixing mod podge with vine charcoal. 

This page started out as exercises drawing boxes and cylinders in perspective and turned into a meditative doodle thing.

This started as a straight up figure study, but the head kept looking horrendous to me, so I just went along with that. 

The painting at the top of this post is a study of a Gustav Klimt painting on the right and a painting from my imagination on the left.

I think it's best to use your sketchbook in all these ways. Observation, imagination and practice. It should be said a million times: It doesn't matter what you are filling sketchbooks with as long as you are filling them.


Happy Febuary 8th Everybody

I feel like I'm starting to slip on these. Like most things: I don't think anyone cares except me.

But whatever. I like doing it anyways.

The sun has finally come back to LA. As David Lynch used to say when he would report the weather here, were back to "Blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way."

When it rains here, the local news just covers the rain the entire time. It's really funny to watch.

Part of it is because it's LA and we're all weak when it comes to any weather.

But it's also that LA is built is if the people who built it thought it would never rain here ever. The drainage system sucks. Everywhere floods. 

We get landslides. I think there were like over 300 landslides over the past few days.

This one guy's dog jumped into the LA river. The guy jumped in to save him. Then they had to send a helicopter to go get him out. The dog made his way to the shore of the river and they were reunited. 

The news had a 5 minute segment on this one pothole on the 210 freeway that caused like 20 flat tires. And in this massive city there's probably a thousand potholes that are doing the same thing. 

It gets really gets chaotic. And the News loves it. And I love watching the news for it.

I gotta go. I'm late for work.

Have fun

Goodnight Sweeties



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Comments

Mallory Roseman

Long post warning- sorry in advance: I care! I'm terrible about keeping a sketchbook/maintaining a drawing habit, and I feel like these couple posts have come at just the right time. I was actually just talking to my husband last night about my art. We're walking the dog, and I say: I've been practicing and prioritizing art for maybe 8 months now, and I feel like I'm just screwing around alone in my office for no reason. I kind of want to hang it up. It seems like the stupid art world doesn't have identifiable milestones- I can train to draw a perfect scene for a decade, or I can go out on a stage and shit on a canvas, and both things seem like they have equal chance of "success" (he says "I don't think that's really how that works..." obviously not a perfect example but you get what I'm saying). Even if I render things perfectly, okay I can mimic a photograph- do I care about anything enough to birth it into a whole series? Would I gladly donate years of my life to it, even if it would never make me money or get me into a museum? The internal struggle is SO REAL every step of the way! So I'm ranting at this point, ok. And then my husband says: "It's funny how a person can say 'I'm making a lot of headway on my goals and I'm getting there and doing really well' and also 'I'm screwing around alone in my office working on art that maybe no one will care about' and both of those statements can be technically correct." Lol. It kind of kills me how smart he is, the bastard. Anyway, I think as long as you're getting something from this community, and your art is benefiting from the process of documenting it and posting for us, cool. If not, that's worth looking into and maybe re-prioritizing. But that voice that's telling you no one cares and you should just quit- i def hear it, too. I think it just comes with the territory.

Scum Choir
>>129219263

I appreciate a good long comment lol. But that struggle can be what a sketchbook is for. It's like a miniature, low stakes, trial version of those ideas. seeing if there's potential for a series. You can do it all really quickly so there's no obligation to follow through. You can just burn through ideas searching for what you really want to be screwing around with. It's just a screw around and find out type of place. I love what your husband said about how you can be making progress and simply screwing around alone in your office on stuff no one will ever see. That's actually very very very true. Also, for transparency and maybe consolation: as I was going through all my sketchbooks for these posts, most of the sketches never led to anything. There's stretches of years where I basically only screwed around in the sketchbooks. I feel like I'm just barely starting to figure out the type of work I really want to make and I've been at this for 10 years. It's corny as hell but you have to enjoy that process more than finding the final product.