I've seen some of your sketchbooks now and we're off to a cracking start! Some of you are a bit unsure about what to put in your sketchbooks so here follows work from my sample sketchbook which contains my responses to a particular rural walk. Your ideas may be completely different, you may be more focused on human/animal activity or perhaps your walk is in an urban setting which would be fascinating.
A Case Study
My 'Winter Walk' study focuses on my daily dog walk 'The Crooked Mile'. It runs along the edge of woodland which flanks the river Yvel. There are small lakes and wild areas so it is a varied route. I've often found interesting things along this path but never really studied it properly – now is my chance!
I thought I'd start by looking at the shape of my walk with a vague notion of putting something semi-abstract together from it but I got distracted..
The farmers make little piles of stones to mark the boundaries of their fields. I noticed that the two farmers either side of this marker used different spacings. I'm now interested in the geometry in crop lines and tractor tracks in the landscape – an idea I'd like to explore further.
So, already I have two ideas to develop!
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Then it rained, and rained heavily for days so
I looked at reflections of sky and trees in tractor ruts – noting how much red there is in the winter landscape. Then I looked at the jagged bare trees and noted that when there is strong light behind them, (low inter sun or sunrise/set) the angular shapes become rounded. Then I looked at the 'negative' shapes between branches.
A few experiments with textures – some drawings made on site some indoors from reference along with some phone references images with written notes to support them.
There is a lot of mistletoe in the woodland and at one location there is a big ball of it quite low in a tree and draped around it there is a vine of bright red berries. It is almost as though someone has arranged it, but of course its just a random placement which I have named 'The Shrine'. This has given me an idea for a more focused work using a fox skull (found elsewhere) that I will develop later.
I often have ideas for pieces of work but find I forget them if I can't action them right away. My sketch book will record ideas that I can return to later.
Clearly, there is nothing tidy or finished here – just visual notes. It's fine to write, paste or make scribbled drawings – it's a place for creativity to be conceived! Don't get bogged down in trying to conform in any way, do try new processes and above all, have fun.