A requirement of Illustration 1: Sketchbooks is to join a sketchbook circle. As you can see, this isn’t my first sketchbook circle, as I joined a student-run one last year. I really enjoyed participating, so I’m more than happy to be doing one again. Last year my theme diverted from ‘the everyday’ as I chose to focus on the concept of time in my sketchbook pages. This year I stuck to the everyday theme as I had a slightly different challenge I wanted to fulfil.
I began getting a Scrawlrbox subscription last year. I paid for 6 months off the bat so I could really get a feel for the box and whether I liked it. I found that I wasn’t actually using the products sent to me as I was struggling to find ways to add them to other pieces of work. You typically only get one or two colours of product, leaving it difficult to use them independently. I decided to cancel my subscription as I wasn’t getting my money’s worth.
Those art materials have just been lying around in my studio ever since, waiting to be used. I keep planning to use them and procrastinating it. I decided that for my sketchbook I would use these materials and nothing else, limiting myself to experiment with them, think outside the box, and figure out how (or if) they work for me.
This was a really fun challenge and I definitely want to continue setting myself similar ones. The limited range of colours mixed with the random collection of materials pushed me into a playful and fun headspace. My sketchbook pages flowed naturally and seemed effortless, which was a huge change compared to last year’s perfected pieces. I have loved filling in this sketchbook and I’m excited to see how it turns out! I decided to film a sketchbook tour of the 10 pages I filled for the first book, which you can find below. I will also include images of the pages beneath that.
Learning Log 