Some Good Sketchbook Examples

Since we'll be reviewing grades and sketchbook progress next Wednesday (9/16/09) and since so many of you have been asking what should be included in the sketchbook, I thought I'd post a few good examples. Now, you are your own, individual, creative human being, and I shouldn't see you mimicking what you see here in these examples. Rather, these images will allow you to see how others have made good use of their sketchbooks, and from that you can perhaps glean ideas of your own. (For whatever reason, Blogger isn't letting me shrink down these images, so some of them are cut-off. Just click on them to see the full image.)

Here's an excellent example of a student making notes on an artist he/she researched accompanied by a second page in which the student drilled him/herself on 2-point perspective.

This student designed something like a "title page" to introduce the section of the sketchbook that would explore perspective. On this page, you can see where the student pasted in a small article on the subject as well as wrote down definitions of key terms.

Here is an example of a student using a two-page spread of the sketchbook to drill him/herself by practicing drawing ellipses--particularly ellipses on several different types of cylinders viewed from different vantage points.

Here we have a student who took an article on 1-point perspective, photocopied it, and pasted it into the sketchbook. The student also added some visual motifs as a design element to unify the 2-page spread.

Here's another student dealing with ellipses and foreshortening. In addition to the student's own drawing and notes, illustrations and sections of an article have been pasted onto the page.

An interesting way of exploring 1-point perspective: a piece of tracing paper showing all of the orthogonal lines that fits over the finished drawing.

Pure experimentation that has nothing to do with the class. It's OK to do this.

Here's an example of a student using his/her writing in a creative way that becomes a design element in and of itself.

This student practiced drawing the interior in the sketchbook before executing it on the full-sized paper. Notice the article pasted into the book as well.

Again, pure experimentation.

And more experimentation.