My Summer Sketchbook

This summer I have been working really hard to open up my creativity, make bolder decisions and be more experimental with a wide range of media. This all came about because I attended an amazing workshop for Art Teachers at the Russell Cotes Art Gallery and Museum (just one of my favorite places to be in the world, and where I learnt to draw with my Art School as a teenager).
The workshop was run by Dave Hulson, and on the day I noticed he had the most beautiful little book with him that he used to record drawings, words, feedback we gave him...anything. I really liked this idea of having a book for EVERYTHING. I have sooo many sketchbooks and I always try and keep one for proper pencil drawing, one for printmaking, one for collages and one for notes and ideas.

So I challenged myself this summer to break out of the sketchbook rut, and get into some of what Dave was discovering. Here are some of the pages I have created this Summer. Sometimes they link together as the pages are cut through.

This is the first page I worked on this method of using it for EVERYTHING, so you can see me making notes about meetings and financial stuff. I remember this day so clearly. It was sooo hot and we were in my friend Anna's garden, testing out her new swing seat. We were trying to work out my pay for next year, and not doing very well with the Maths, but it was fun! We ended up staying for lunch, which her boyfriend cooked and was delicious.
Anna always grows the most beautiful sunflowers, and she is my gardening-guru. I always come away from her house with a new plant to love...

If you look at the left and right sides of this one you can see where it links in on the previous picture. On this day my Mum took us out to lunch at Banana Wharf on Poole Quay. Again, it was scorchingly hot and we felt like we were on holiday in our own town! Such a gorgeous view, and atmosphere there. We are saving it for special treats. In this page as well, you can see my notes on this crazy game I was playing at the start of the Summer. I have been a long time fan of the Myst series of games. I love to get lost in them sometimes. I played the Revelation game at the start of the Summer and it involved lots of codes and sequences, lots of them were visual so I used my book to record them. I really miss the Myst world now.

I will post more pages soon.
Me x
p.s if you check out Dave's blog and have a root around you will find some amazing examples of the books her makes with classes.