Getting Back into Using Sketchbooks for Development

Recently I’ve been working on new things for my Etsy shop. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but have struggled to get started. I find that instead of trying out ideas and experimenting, I think things through in my head and discard ideas as I go without ever exploring them. It means that I either don’t ever get started on a project or I jump right into things, without any preparation, and then get disappointed and disheartened, and often end up rejecting the idea all together, when things don’t go to plan. Two really great examples of this is either my Melting Plastic Bags or Burnt Book project, neither of which I have revisited since I did them.

When I was in school, development of ideas was very important, because it what you got most of your marks from. It was often quite tedious the lengths you had to go to, to prove you’d fully developed an idea, but after a few years of it, I ended up really loving that way of working.

Now, going back to that way of working with my Etsy product sketchbook, I’m re-loving it!

Lately I have been doing a lot of sketchbook work, like my Lake District Sketchbook, Mark Making Art Sketchbook, and most recently Nature Sketchbook, but these projects have only really been to practice mark making and as a way of collecting ideas while I’m ‘on the go’. I haven’t developed any of these ideas any further.

What I like about keeping a development sketchbook, rather than a ‘regular’ sketchbook, is that you don’t come up with one idea and that’s it. It is a series of ideas that slowly evolve over time. I can refer back to previous ideas and try to find new outcomes, I can reuse processes I have previously experimented with, and I know what does and doesn’t work for any future work I plan on doing.

I find the process of development very relaxing. I think it is because it is low pressure. Nothing that I put in the sketchbook is meant to be perfect; it is just there to keep track of ideas. It is also a way of clearing my mind. Getting my thoughts down onto paper helps me to focus on exactly how I want to move forward.

Whilst I do think spontaneity is great when coming up with ideas, but I’ve always found that I reach a road block. A great example of this is my ‘The’ Project, which I haven’t progressed beyond the book I made (I talked a bit more about it in my Works in Progress post). I have some idea of what I want to do, but not a clear enough idea to feel confident enough to move forward with it. Recently, I posted a couple of pictures of something I’d been working on, on Instagram. I had no plan for what I would do with them, but it was a combination of a few things I wanted to try for a while. What I ended up with reminded me of a project I’d done a while ago, about layers/decay, and (since I had kept a sketchbook on it) I will be able to go back through all that research and development of ideas to develop a new idea from it. If I hadn’t have kept that sketchbook, I would have been starting from scratch.

Sometimes I think development work is just a way of procrastinating/time wasting, but I’ve found that it really helps in the long run! I’ve found it has also made me feel much more confident in the decisions I make and, therefore, the work I make, because I know I have fully explored all other options and settled on that one.