Loved, Inspired, Transformed 8/21

Sketchbook art that inspires me lately

Maybe you’re a sketchbooker, too. There are a lot of us out there. Or maybe you might want to get into sketchbooking? There are many ways to fill a sketchbook. So. Many. Ways!

· Urban sketching

· Illustrated Journaling

· Travel Sketching

· Art Journaling

· Studio Notekeeping

· Practice and Drafting

· Themed Sketchbooking

· Creative Planning

And more!

I think I’ve tried all of the ways.

Filling sketchbooks is one of my creative passions. I started years ago as a time-tested practice to develop my craft, and that’s still true. but what keeps me going is that I get to draw and paint, cut and paste, journal, imagine and plug into that mysterious force we call Creativity.

I also love to geek out with other sketchbook artists, play with art supplies, try new ways to use those materials—the list goes on. I’m a little obsessed.

Lately, I’ve discovered several new-to-me sketchbook artists and I’ve been re-inspired by some of the OGs I’ve been following for years. So I thought I’d dedicate this week to sharing the work of some Sketchbookers I admire.

First the OGers:

I am always and forever enamored with Austin Kleon’s visual diary and the way he generously shares his practice and process. I think he’s said that all of his creative work begins in his sketchbooking practice.

Kleon introduced me to Lynda Barry. I first turned the pages of her What It Is in complete awe, a story told in sketchbook pages filled with drawings, comics, and collage.

Mike Lowery’s work, especially his absolutely delightfully illustrated journal pages,m always inspire me to illustrate my own stories in a comic style.

I love Kate Sutton’s sketchbook style so much. She was probably the first sketchbook artist to inspire me to want to draw with less realism and more joy in shape and texture.

I couldn’t leave out Danny Gregory of Sketchbook Skool. I first learned to draw by going through his first book Creative License cover to cover. As a true sketchbook artist, Danny shares all he knows and learns in his classes, on YouTube videos , in weekly newsletter posts and books.

Finally –I can never get enough of Jessica Swift, her color and her intuitive process. Her work makes my heart sing.

Lately, I’ve been inspired by a few newer-to-me sketchbook artists in very particular ways.

Lettie Jane Rennekamp of Lettie Jane Makes has a visual journaling style that has inspired me for years. In this August post for her newsletter, Intuitive Drawing, Lettie shared some of her sketchbook pages and reminded me that sketchbooks can and maybe should be messy, that this is “the process behind the finished product.”

Haley Weaver shares cute and thoughtful comics in her newsletter, Haley Wrote This, and she also shares pages in her sketchbook, which of course reflect a similar whimsical drawing style. This latest post featuring conflict with her inner Task List is so good. Haley reminds me that, like Mike Lowery, storytelling can be visual and simple and true. And I want to do travel journaling in comic style!

Florencia Ornelas of apartamento 710 seems to create all her work—newsletter posts, zines, manifestos—as if they are collaged photography sketchbook pages (maybe they are). I aspire to be as free and expressive. I also really love her ideas about “living a creative life outside of the walls of the internet.” Yes!

Tiphanie Marie is currently drawing one fox a day for 30 days and sharing it on Substack Notes. I love Tiphanie’s simple but emotive illustrative style, both in this project and in her sketchbook pages, which she shares each month. Tiphanie shows me that symbolic drawing (lines/shapes that represent an image, but do not attempt to recreate the image realistically) can be full of life.

Finally, I need to include Amanda Domagala of Amandaworks, who I’ve mentioned before. There’s so much value to Amanda’s sketchbooking practice of daily creating with a quantity over quality mindset. I have taken her process to heart lately, filling pages nearly every day.

So where am I taking all this inspiration?

You might notice if you click through some of my links above that the artists I resonate with differ in styles, methods and materials. Some sketch from life, some more from imagination. There’s collage, drawing, painting, photography, writing…those who combine materials and those who don’t.

I do seek out a diversity of inspiration as I geek out on sketchbooking online. First, because I like different art and I enjoy creating with different mediums and in different forms, and second because the more inspiration I pull from diverse sources, the less likely I will even subconsciously copy any artist’s work.*

What I really benefit from, I’m finding, are the creative sparks that ignite my own work—and by sharing them, I hope they might spark other ideas for you. And here’s the interesting part (at least to me):

There are a few common threads in what inspires me. The artists who inspire me almost all:

• Express freely

• In abstractified drawing styles

• And tell stories visually

And oh, of course, these qualities are what I really desire for my own work. These are in fact my own creative ambitions—which I don’t think I’ve articulated for myself with such clarity before.

I don’t know how close I am to reaching those ambitions, but it feels right to at least know where exactly I want to go.

May you want to consider your own sketchbook practice: What in these or other artists’ work inspires you? What do they have in common? Do they point you to your own creative ambitions?

Until next time—

Denise

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*As Austin Kleon makes the point in his famous book, Steal Like an Artist, it’s a natural part of the creative practice to share ideas with one another and to“steal” ideas from each other to create something entirely new (which is really not stealing at all). But artists never steal other artist’s art.

Just had to make that clear as I share all these artists’ wonderful work! it’s easy to think when we’re inspired by another artist’s work that we want to create art exactly in their style, exactly what they create. But copying is not creativity. Copying can be an effective learning exercise one does in a sketchbook for private practice (a tried and true instructional method), but you’re not creating anything of your own. And if you pretend to others that you created something that you actually copied, well, that’s stealing.