Idea Generation: Revisiting Old Sketchbooks

A few weeks ago, while looking through a pile of sketchbooks for one to use, I came across a sketchbook that I had started a project in. It mostly had ideas in it and not a lot of work as I’d abandoned the project before it has progressed very far, but the ideas it did have got me thinking again. It also made me think about the other sketchbooks I had lying around and I wondered if they contained any old ideas that I’d forgotten about.

It took a bit of searching, but I managed to unearth some books from when I was back at school that I hadn’t looked at in a few years. A lot of the ideas in them weren’t particularly interesting (as, back then, I was mostly working to complete marking criteria) but there were some pages that I still liked.

Looking through my old sketchbooks made me realise that I’ve adopted a personal style in my work (which I can see the beginnings of in some of these sketchbooks) but it does mean that my work is now very similar to itself and I’m less creatively adventurous which is a shame. Hopefully this will inspire me to take a few more risks, step out of my comfort zone and be re-inspired by these old ideas.

Summer Journal

This was a sketchbook that I had to fill up over the course of a summer. Most of what is in it, is terrible! But there are a couple of images I still like. They are collages of landscapes I made from cutting up pictures from magazines. I remember really enjoying doing these (although cutting out the images was quite time consuming) and I think I did them on another occasion more recently.

Barriers

Most of this project I did on the computer, but there were a few drawings that I made in this sketchbook. I am definitely not a skilled sketcher, but I liked how I used materials to cover that up that fact a little! I also haven't been inspired by old architecture and the Gothic period in a while, even though that was something I used to be fascinated by, and looking through this sketchbook has made me want to revisit it.

Layers

I remember when I had to start this project I had no idea what to do and my teacher suggested painting in the page of a book to start me off. It ended up taking on a life of its own and I think it was this project that started my love of painting abstract, colourful images and where I developed a lot of the techniques that I still use today. I had forgotten though that I used to use text in my work much more than I do now, as I was heavily inspired by Tom Phillips's A Humument.

Berlin

I went on a college trip to Berlin for a few days and we were asked to fill a sketchbook that we would then use as inspiration for a project. This sketchbook is not very good as I didn't put a lot of effort into it at all, but I like this page below that has a quote I got from a Joseph Beuys exhibition in one of the art museums we went to: 'Every human being is an artist'. Like I said above, I'd really like to use more text in my work and I think this quote might be a good place to start.

Escapism
I've been obsessed with the idea of escapism for a while. There are a couple of quotes from two of my favourite books Catcher in the Rye and Into the Wild that I really like and that inspired this project. It also linked in with my love of nature. In this project I explored the idea of escaping through the back of a wardrobe like in The Chronicles of Narnia. Although I really liked the idea, I abandoned the project because I found it too difficult to translate such an abstract concept into a physical thing.

Nine Patch

I was encouraged (read: made!) to do this project by my mum, who thought it would be a good way to get us to start doing something creative every day. It was started, I believe, over at nuvofelt. I was a little skeptical at first, but found it really fun and really got into it as the month progressed. I really like the minimalism and simplicity of it. It also left me with a few squares that I didn't end up using, which I then turned into cards (you can see an example over one on my instagram).