149. The blank page
The daunt of getting st-[art]-ed.
In which Rebecca explores her relationship with art and seeks to at last develop a regular sketchbook practice.
🖌️
This is the fifth post of 2024 in my monthly ‘Art & Treasures’ series. Many of these posts see me honouring precious memories in my altered-book art journal, but in a break from the usual programme I have chosen this time to focus on scratching my itch to sketch instead.
Dear Reader,
Getting started in any field is daunting, and for some of us that is particularly true for our art.
The altered-book art journal which has featured in my ‘Art & Treasures’ posts to date is nearly full, and the fear of starting a new one has pitched me straight back across the border into Can-I-even-do-this? Land.
So what’s my problem? Well, it’s the thought of an empty page.
I’ve seen various pieces of advice on how to peel back the daunting shadow cast by a blank sketchbook:
Make art on a page which is already occupied
Start a new sketchbook in the middle, and to then work through in a random order, rather than chronologically
Buy a lovely sketchbook
Buy a cheap sketchbook
Buy a very cheap sketchbook
Don’t buy a sketchbook
Use any old thing – no, I want a treat; I want a nice one, an expensive one – no you don’t, you’ll never dare to use it; the daunt of those precious pages will stifle and overwhelm you – okay, use scrap paper – no, don’t use scrap paper: that’s a piece of rubbish even before you make it worse by putting your ‘art’ onto it – arrrrrrrrgh
#Igiveup 🫣
I am convinced that whoever it was who had first conjured up the phrase ‘struggling artist’ had been agonising over their selection of substrate and sketching stuff rather than over any money-earning potential offered by the craft.
It is the use of a simple surface on which to make art which appeals to me about the ICAD project; something I’d read about last week in a post by
of .
The idea of using an index card for arting on1 is an inspired one. As Amy says, ‘The spirit of ICAD, the guiding principle, has always been that the challenge is to accept and use the simple substrate and go with it. The beauty of this approach is that the material (the index card) is not ‘precious’.
You can find out even more about the Index Card-A-Day Challenge, founded by Tammy G in 2011, on Tammy’s website Daisy Yellow. The challenge begins on June 1.
I’ll admit it: in my own arting activities ‘preciousness’ has been an enduring problem, and in fact the altered-book art journal which regular readers will recognise came into being as my own act of defiance against preciousness in my art. That the printed and illustrated pages of that volume – a children’s nature book bought from a vintage bookshop – were already filled before I started arting on them gave me, I felt, far less responsibility for what appeared on them than if I were filling the pages of a blank sketchbook from scratch.
I had joined Jim recently on a road trip to an Aladdin’s cave of art materials: the factory showroom at Seawhite of Brighton. He was there for work; I was there to browse.
#perkofthejob
The UK’s leading sketchbook supplier, Seawhite of Brighton manufacture and supply art & design materials to education and retail worldwide.
As well as supplying sketchbooks, notebooks and journals to art shops and stationers, Seawhite provides a personalisation and branding service of its products to schools and businesses, adding the finishing touch of a foil-blocked logo, for instance, to large orders of sketchbooks for named college’s art departments.
As any keen artist will know, there’s really nothing like a new sketchbook or journal, is there? A blank ‘canvas’ in bound book format – one that’s pristine and full of implied promise – has long been a standing item on my Christmas wishlist.
Huh. Well, how about one that’s not new – well, not not new, but not pristine; perhaps one which has been through the wars with that foil-blocking machine at Seawhite, for example?
These books in the ‘Seconds’ section of the factory showroom are unattractive and don’t promise anything. But they’re unapologetic: they are what they are, and even if they were to be filled with the most beautiful, most technically-accomplished, most artistic of arty arting, well, these books still won’t be pretty. And they’re fine with that.
So am I.
Why is this sort of thing important? Well, I have a long-standing desire to be able to capture a moment; to have the confidence to whip out a sketchbook from my back pocket, throw caution to the wind and just draw.
The risk of exposing myself to myself – never mind anyone else! – on the sketchbook page has always felt far more perilous than writing down words. Writing down words is something I’ve always done a lot of: it’s part of my routine, and hey, my routine could include my sketchbook practice.
Artist
of begins her day creating art at her breakfast table, without fail. In the picture at the top of her post A snail, a bus, a bug, drawn while she was enjoying an English muffin, she has colour-matched her winsome snail with the muffin. Awesome!
And, like Sue,
from has built art into her daily routine.As well as enjoying creative projects at home Mary has a routine of arting at work, and I’m sure it won’t be long before her BrewTime™️ art catches on in office spaces across the world. Staff need to know how long that pot of coffee’s been out there in order that they can look forward to enjoying a cup, or as fair warning to brace themselves that this pot of coffee might be past its peak. How will they do that? Well, with the clever use of some BrewTime™️ art, of course!
And speaking of coffee, Peter at
actually paints with it – in fact, his project The Coffee and Red Wine Chronicles also even sees him making art with the likes of something which I like to enjoy from a glass, not from the tip of my paintbrush. 🍷His latest post, signposting his absolutely beautiful website, was published a couple of days ago. As I told him yesterday: ‘….your website has got me itching to sketch! I’m going to call that feeling ‘skitching’! 😊😊😊’
A few years ago I was given My Year in Small Drawings, a delightful little book by Matilda Tristram designed to encourage a daily art practice. Its subtitle NOTICE. DRAW. APPRECIATE represented precisely what I had sought in what I hoped would be a new regular sketching habit.
Over the months of completing the book my confidence in drawing grew.
Soon I was experimenting filling entire pages, not just the thumbnail boxes.
Arting outside, of course, adds another dimension to the experience.
of can be found sketching outside in all weathers, and I love her use of different materials. Like Melanie I’m a huge fan of Neocolor II watercolour crayons – I can scribble and paint with them, they’re super used both wet and dry, and they’re extremely convenient both to carry and to work with.
That’s important, as I carry only modest art materials with me.
Right now I have a tiny passport-sized blank notebook, not even a sketchbook. I don’t mind that the pages crinkle or that I get ghosting from drawings on previous pages, because those things take the pressure off. In his book Dare to Sketch: A Guide to Drawing on the Go Felix Scheinberger reminds the reader that ‘…the sketchbook [is] something intimate and personal. It [is[ a field of experimentation and of trial and error. It [is] a notebook and a diary.’2
I can use the Neocolors either to draw with directly, or as paint. Rather than mixing colours on a palette I simply pick up some pigment from the crayons with the tip of my waterbrush, deposit it on the back of my right hand (I’m left-handed) and mix my colours right there on my skin. Working on the small scale I do means that I don’t need much of this ‘paint’ at all.
On a recent trip to Cornwall in our campervan for work we had a terrific view from our campsite across Boscinny Bay.
It had been a long day, but the clearing rain clouds revealed a beautiful view across to two tiny islands. I pulled open a folding chair, popped my mug of tea onto the front nearside wheel of the van and opened my notebook.
Such a small area of paper didn’t feel daunting. And with nobody else around – Jim was inside the van editing pictures from the day’s shoot – I felt empowered just to have a play at capturing that beautiful view.
Responding to my itch to sketch – or to ‘skitch’ – by actually drawing something felt like such an accomplishment that I claimed this view of the sunset as my reward.
Will I get that sort of payoff next time? Well, I don’t mind if I don’t. Felix Scheinberger says:
‘In your sketchbook you bring back something from a journey without taking anything away from the place. Actually, you are giving something back to it: you are giving yourself… a page of memories.’
Thanks, Felix. That’s plenty.
Love,
Rebecca
📚 Regular readers of ‘Dear Reader, I’m Lost' will be no strangers to my ongoing light-hearted correspondence with fellow Brit
of . It’s my turn to reply to him next Wednesday, and I can’t wait!If you’ve enjoyed reading this post,please let me know by clicking the heart. Thank you! You’ll find all the posts in this ‘Art & Treasures’ series here.
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I’ve made this phrase up, but ‘arting on’ is what I do to a surface: I ‘art’ on things. I enjoy arting.
Taken from ‘Dare to Sketch: A Guide to Drawing on the Go’ by Felix Scheinberger, published by Watson-Guptill, 2017.
I find that some are better at starting and some are better at finishing. I have trouble getting started but then feel almost driven to finish a project. Last December I took up the challenge to do a month long study of the color blue. For me, having a start and finish date, as well as a finite yet infinite challenge set me on a path of finding it easier to keep going, playing with color, texture,light,shadow. I bought a small packet of lovely raw edge papers. If I like my piece ,I put it in my journal. If not, I put it in the pile to be reviewed or altered or discarded later.
Bravo!!!!! What a wonderful newsletter!!! Hooray!!!! I'm honored to have my own sketchbook work mentioned in your post. And I'm delighted to read that the Dare To Sketch book is helpful to your own arting!!!! Yippee!!!! I use the word "arting" too... during my breakfast sketchbook sessions I'm arting and eating as in my wife says "are you at a place in arting that you're ready for eating?" 🤣🤣 Hugs of solidarity with you my brave soul sister of the blank page!!! 💚💚💚💚💚💚