Going back to basics..
Taking a step back and embracing the simple graphite pencil and my sketchbook
Over Christmas I got sucked into the many videos of youtube that focus on planning for the new year and how to change your life with creating habits etc. Its something that in general I find really interesting and I have tried many methods!
This year I decided to embrace the use of a notebook to write all to do lists, notes, ideas, silly musings etc. It is the tried and tested method of my Mum and she is the most organised person I have ever met in my life as she is an ex-secretary! It’s not a full blown bullet journal/planner with monthly calendars etc, as I live with a man who is friends with the world and its wife, so reliance on our shared digital calendar app is essential. Otherwise I wouldn’t know where I need to be and what I’m doing. However it does encompass I guess all the other things a bullet journal in essence is trying to tackle i.e a place where all information is stored in a way it can be referred back to and actioned upon.
After much deliberation I picked a simple pocket notebook, nothing overly fancy. It now follows me wherever I go whether thats in my handbag, coat pocket etc and I like the fact it’s smaller than my phone.
So far my little experiment of having a pocket notebook has been a success. It’s been a month and I haven’t stopped using it yet. I like the back to basics mentality of it as it reminds of of when I was little writing everything in one of my many glitzy notebooks with some form of scented gel pen. Also it means I am using my phone less as I am not doomscrolling or trying to find screenshots or notes I have taken throughout the day. Overall I am feeling at the moment more productive which is ultimately what I wanted to get out of this.
Due to the relative success I have had so far, I am now looking to see if I can bring that back to basics mentality with my art a little bit. I know, like many, I very easily get sucked into feeling good enough and overwhelmed as an artist when I spend too long focusing on the following things:
What is my style?
Why can’t the emotion or image I can see my head actually end up on the paper in front of me?
Why do I have such a fear over sketchbooks? - This one manifests itself in many ways:
Starting new sketchbooks constantly due to bad art or pivots in mediums and subject
Why do my sketchbooks not look as pristine and full of finished work as others.
Is my sketchbook meant to be shared or not?
I want to experiment with different subjects and mediums more than I do today but sometimes I still get the fear of actually trying in case of bad art or making an investment and then not actually liking it
Should I be mainly drawing traditionally or digitally with the rise of AI?
How can I produce enough work to share etc but also keep up with all the other tasks I need to do to be an illustrator?
Therefore to try and combat this overwhelming feeling I am going to try and strip back my daily art practice back and then gradually add more things as the year progresses. That means for now at least I am only going to use my sketchbook and graphite pencil only.
I can already hear the questions as my own brain has already asked them:
Emily, are you going to use one sketchbook or multiple?
Emily, why pencil?
Emily, don’t you feel limited by only using one material?
Emily, you love colour! how are you going to colour your images?
Emily, this doesn’t fit with the wanting to experiment attitude, you should be using all the art supplies!
Don’t get me wrong, I hear you! I have been thinking long and hard the potentially answers to these questions. So far I have the following:
Sketchbooks - At the moment I am planning to have a maximum of 2 sketchbooks, one for observations and drawing for life, the other for projects, ideas and drawing from imagination. I know I struggle to context switch sometimes, but I think these ‘topics’ are broad enough that I can fill a sketchbook with them, while also being rigid enough that I wont be worrying about having different subjects or styles on each page vs another.
Why Pencil? - When I look back to my childhood, although I had a lot of art supplies around me I would almost always gravitate towards a pencil. It is the medium I most comfortable with. Outside of pencil, my next most comfortable mediums are coloured pencil and pastel. To me soft material mark making is a chef’s kiss! Plus a lot of the illustrators and artists that inspire me use a lot of graphite in their work as as other mediums, whether than is Raymond Briggs, Degas or Christian Birmingham.
Don’t you feel limited? - Sometimes limitation is a good thing I think to get started. I am still going to add more mediums to my work. Plus it means with focusing on one that I can make sure that I relearn some of the rules around shape, value, tone, line etc again so that I know how to break those rules to get the look and feel that I want to convey.
How are you going to colour your images? what about experimentation? - My aim is to still colour my images if I want to and I get to experiment in how I colour them. If I want to be strict and stick to pencil only then I can get out my coloured pencils. If I want to be bolder then I can try to colour my images digitally or use other materials on other pieces of paper, scan it all in and pull it together on my laptop. Plus I am only limiting that my sketchbook for now is pencil. If I want a day of throwing paint around then I won’t stop myself and I am hoping to add in more materials as I go.
A recent ‘Draw this in your style’ I did where all the line work is pencil but it’s coloured digitally.
Hopefully like my little pocket notebook, my going back to basics with my art will help me be more productive, as I wont be worrying so much on these questions that overwhelm me. I can clearly focus on creating a sketchbook habit and what I am drawing rather than if I am using the right medium. It also allows me to embrace that my sketchbook is more of a place to plan, sketch and explore than just a place of finished artwork.
I would be so interested to know if any of you have also done an exercise similar to this where you have only focused on one medium for a while! Let me know in the comments.
I love this. I felt like I was reading my own diary—especially the questions you get stuck on! Thank you for sharing your mind and process. I look forward to following you on your journey!