About three weeks ago, a fellow professor approached me and demonstrated several sketchbook pages from a student who was taking notes with little doodles. He gave a painting demo and the student was illustrating individual paint tubes, labeling them with the recommended colors, and sketching out any other suggested materials. Several days later, during an in-class lecture, I noticed another student using small iconic exemplifications of the material I was discussing.

Consequently, I kept remembering a quote from the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland: ‘The difference between art and craft lies not in the tools you hold in your hands, but in the mental set that guides them. For the artisan, craft is an end in itself. For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art.’

Several days ago, as I found myself piercing though the clustered isles of Wal Mart, I noticed a customer’s grocery shopping list that was made out of little doodles. Drawings of vegetables, fruits, drinks, it went on and on.

Observing the visual nature of our mind just never ceases to amaze, regardless of our profession or general understanding of the art field. We urge to draw since the days we crawl out of our crib, so why do we forget it?

Next year, I will have a very small solo show showcasing my sketchbook work here in Richmond, VA and it is my goal to bring back those childhood desires amongst everyday people to start expressing themselves through images as they once did many years ago.

To motivate the viewers, I will have pages of my sketchbooks, framed, accompanied by small journal entries, and a written proposal upon entering the gallery to create a series of 5-10 sketchbook drawings accompanied by writing, which, if chosen, will be exhibited in the next part of the exhibition.

The viewers will have the opportunity to not only show off some of their drawings, but to also write about their experience doing visual journaling, which will be a very interesting social experiment to observe once the many individual persona are portrayed on the walls.

The post A collaborative, interactive gallery show appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Richie Pope was born in Newport News, VA, and grew up drawing anything he could, always with paper in hand. He moved to Richmond and majored in Communication Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received a BFA in 2009. His work has been seen at the 2009 Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Competition, CMYK magazine and a handful of other magazines and websites. We checked in with him and asked him how important the constant drawing in his sketchbook is for the more commercial work he does: ‘To me, it’s extremely important to constantly draw in my sketchbook. I see it the same way a bodybuilder would see the gym. You have to constantly work at it to get better. The more you draw, especially from life, the more will stick and you’ll start to draw things more naturally. At first, my sketchbook work didn’t really connect with my commercial work because I had just started really sketching seriously. Now, I find that the gap is getting smaller and smaller’.

Do you feel that you have developed a style or personal voice through constant sketchbooking or that you have gone back to sketchbooking in order to break away from your typical style?
‘I do feel that I have a personal voice that is finally starting to develop. I owe it to the past two to three years of constant sketching. I think the more you just sketch, without any reservations or caution, the more your personal voice will start to come out. A sketchbook is personal, so it makes sense that it would help to develop a personal voice’.

Tell us a little bit about your commercial process. How you go through your sketches, do you shoot references or draw from your head. And how your sketchbook work contributes to the more finished projects, if it does?
‘First, if I have a theme or a subject, I jot down keywords and start to look for things that connect conceptually. A lot of times I’ll research, whether it be history, music, movies or literature, to find a reference to use. Once I get the concept down, I start on small pencil thumbnails, focusing mainly on value and working out the composition. Once I get a final sketch approved, I take the reference photos I need and then I get to work on the final. As I’m working on a final piece, I rely on the photo reference less and less. This is probably the point where the “personal voice” steps in to really make the artwork its own’.

Now tell us something about your sketchbook process, the kind of tools you use, the subjects you draw, and how long it takes you to finish an elaborate sketch page.
I mainly use ballpoint pen, gel pen, or any type of pen. I also like to use a brush pen and white acrylic ink from time to time. I like to draw people from life because I find them the most interesting subjects to draw. You can read so much from someone by capturing them in image. I also like to draw cars, for the sleek design and curves, and buildings for their complex geometric shapes. For an elaborate sketch page, it would probably take me around thirty minutes. That’s not including revisiting a page if I feel like I want to add even more to it’.

The post Richie Pope appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

I never fully believed in such things as talent. Many see it as some sort of ‘gift’, or special natural ability to do things without much effort. But many are not aware of the history of hard work most artists carry behind their art. Creativity and great conceptual thinking are not the result of having talent. They are the result of all the artist’s studies and pieces of their visual library in their head forming new images and ideas.

People are always searching for the best way to develop their own personal style or voice in art. The best way to do this is to constantly record images in your sketchbook, draw everything in front of you, keep a visual diary. Draw so much it becomes intuitive, natural, like your handwriting: ‘Get all the dirty laundry sorted out on the page, so when they go to paint on a canvas, all that hard work pays off and the imagery becomes fresh and clean’, says illustrator and painter Josh Jeorge. Drawing in our sketchbook everyday, everywhere you go, developing it into a daily habit will really help develop your style, as this image above by Sungkyung Park shows.

The post The art of drawing often appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

I still remember when I was introduced to Conceptart as a student and started devoting countless hours to the sketchbook threads, desperately trying to measure up to the most prestigious drawers around the world. I felt like I was part of an isolated underground club in which battles were fought on paper, using your drawing skills and creativity as a weapon. As the popularity of the site grew, so did my love and dedication to sketchbooks. [illustration above by Guy Parkhomenko]

Drawing in my sketchbook was not a simple exercise routine anymore. Each page was a reflection of my surroundings, my daily activities, and even my attitude. It was a visual journal of my life.

Unfortunately, as I graduated and started working as a commercial illustrator, my focus shifted towards fine tuning my portfolio and my sketchbooks started gathering dust.

Slowly, as artist’s blogs started becoming a new trend and I was seeking out artistic inspiration each week, I started developing friendships with various sketch artists around the world and my passion for my daily visual journaling revived again.

In November of 2008, I received an e-mail invitation from Seattle journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario to join a new website called Urban Sketchers, where illustrators from around the world would contribute life drawings of cities they live in, or travel through.

Quickly, the site became a huge success. With hundreds of members from all over the world, people’s interest in the art field started gradually shifting towards this new phenomenon called Sketchbooking.

A year later, a book titled An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers by Danny Gregory was released. The popularity of sketchbooks was broadening quickly.

Illustrators are releasing more and more of their sketchbook work now and new hope is given to visual journalism in the more commercial industry as well.

Locally, sketchbook pages are exhibited in galleries. Art buyers and art hobbyists are seeking out sketchbooks and life drawings of artists far more frequently than before.

As a faculty in the Communication Arts department at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), I am enforcing the use of daily sketchbooking as a general rule and it has given me fascinating results amongst dedicated students.

The community of sketchbook artists is developing rapidly and it is becoming an extremely accessible area for illustrators, designers, painters, artists in various categories, to come together as one in a less competitive division of the art industry.

Definition of Sketchbooking
Part of Speech: Adjective
Definition: To draw regularly,on a daily basis in your sketchbook-preferably from life
Synonyms: Journaling visually, sketching, drawing
Antonym: Being lazy

[Illustration by Vikki Chu]

[Illustration by Sungkyung Park]

The post Sketchbooking appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.