Observational drawing
A flip through my 2022 sketchbook and low-key starting a YouTube channel!
It has been a hectic month for me, working on a commission which I can’t show just yet but about which I’m very excited! I’ve been so busy that haven’t had time to cultivate a festive mood, so to catch up I have been making gingerbread and mulled wine and sitting by the fire.
Last month I reached the end of a little sketchbook which I started in April. It has accompanied me on my move to Normandy and on two trips to Dorset.
I would usually just share a few spreads on Instagram, but this time I decided to make a VIDEO on YOUTUBE flipping through the whole sketchbook! Here it is, I hope you like it!
I’ve been thinking about making videos ever since I released my Skillshare class this time last year. I enjoyed the process of filming and editing and all the possibilities it could open up. I was hesitant to start a YouTube channel, though, because I didn’t want it to become a distraction. I struggle enough with Instagram! So I plan to be positively inconsistent and make videos only occasionally when I have something good to share. Let me know if you have any feedback or ideas for future videos you’d like to see!
I always have a sketchbook on the go which is entirely dedicated to observational drawing. I enjoy looking back on them as a sort of visual diary. Drawing from life is a big part of my practice. In fact, I rarely work from my imagination without some kind of reference. However remotely, everything has to be grounded in the real world. This has sometimes been source of frustration and shame, as I thought I lacked imagination, but I have come to accept it. I can react to things and places, and I think that is what my work is about, for now at least.
As it happens, I have been reading Van Gogh’s letters, and found an interesting passage on this point. This is part of a letter he wrote to Émile Bernard in 1888:
I can’t work without a model. I’m not saying that I don’t flatly turn my back on reality to turn a study into a painting — by arranging the colour, by enlarging, by simplifying — but I have such a fear of separating myself from what’s possible and what’s right as far as form is concerned.
[…] I exaggerate, I sometimes make changes to the subject, but still I don’t invent the whole of the painting; on the contrary, I find it ready-made — but to be untangled — in the real world.
So, I tell myself, there is no shame in drawing from nature, reacting to the real world. If you haven't read his letters, by the way, they are well worth reading. This website has them all, I believe, with notes and facsimiles.
I have consistently kept observational sketchbooks for about 6 years now. I have spoken about it in previous posts, but they are incredible time capsules, and they have helped me to find and hone my visual language. I am a big fan of these Royal Talens sketchbooks. They are cheap, have lovely paper and come in nice colours.
Finally, I just wanted to let you know that there are a couple of days left of the Artist Advent show run by Two Artists at Home, where I have two original paintings for sale. Do take a look if you’re interested! They are nature studies inspired by the kinds of illustrated field guides which I love to collect.
That’s all from me. Wishing you a happy Christmas and see you in 2023!
Saw the YouTube channel, subscribed without reading anything else 😂