Where Imagination and Observation Meet: The Sketchbook

To me, a sketchbook is far better than an empty canvas or blank piece of paper.

The first spread of a sketchbook is an intersection for imagination and observation as documentation. The sketchbook is where illustrators and designers record their lives with few words and more drawings.

I’ve kept every sketchbook I’ve used since October of 2001, so when I moved in with my now husband and half my boxes were sketchbooks, I was worried he was having second thoughts. Inside all those black covers were melodramatic teenage musings, drawings of pets, drawings of friends, doodles, hand-lettering, pieces of ephemera and plenty of mistakes. Those mistakes are part of a landscape of process that sometimes leads to realization. While most of my sketchbooks have been kept private, some designers and illustrators choose to publish their pages in blogs or books in formats like the site Issuu.

Looking through a sketchbook from your past or the sketchbook of a fellow design or illustrator is inspiring, voyeuristic and delightful.

Participatory sketching:

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject and http://www.drsketchy.com

Great sketchbooks for you to explore: