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Cognitive Benefits of Doodling, Steven Heller

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Cognitive Benefits of Doodling, Steven Heller

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“You can use doodling as a tool ... to change your physical and neurological experience, in that moment.”

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Some new books tout the benefits of informal drawing and freehand scribbling-even for the unartistic.

When computers entered the mainstream, some art schools abandoned drawing classes to make time for the new software they had to teach. The arrival of state-of-the-art programs prompted backlash among those who'd argued for years that drawing is integral to literacy. "When you draw an object, the mind becomes deeply, intensely attentive," says the designer Milton Glaser, an author of a 2008 monograph titled Drawing Is Thinking. "And it's that act of attention that allows you to really grasp something, to become fully conscious of it." Anyone who has put pen or pencil to paper knows exactly what Glaser is talking about.

Two new books tout the benefits of drawing, sketching, and doodling as tools to facilitate thinking. While a spate of branded and bespoke blank sketchbooks, journals, and pads meant for drawing are also sparking something of a renewed interest in the practice. Perhaps it's a kind of artistic rebellion over the supremacy of computers and digital media. Or, maybe the need to draw is simply hardwired into human brains. Arguably, making graphic marks predates verbal language, so whether as a simple doodle or a more deliberate free-hand drawing, the act is essential to expressing spontaneous concepts and emotions.

Drawing with pencil, pen, or brush on paper isn't just for artists. For anyone who actively exercises the brain, doodling and drawing are ideal for making ideas tangible. What's more, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodlers find it easier to recall dull information (even 29 percent more) than non-doodlers, because the latter are more likely to daydream.

While drawing is definitely the artist's stock and trade, everyone can make doodles, bypassing the kind of refinement demanded of the artist. Drawing, even in a primitive way, often triggers insights and discoveries that aren't possible through words alone. Just think of all those napkins (or Post-Its) on which million-dollar ideas were sketched out.

"I give no points for the aesthetic quality of a doodle," says Sunni Brown, author of the recently published The Doodle Revolution, about developing concepts through pictures, "because the perceived skill has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the learning experience for the doodler." A picture that's utterly hideous may still have taught the creator something significant. Learning, not aesthetic sophistication, is the goal. Brown isn't keen on "highly skillful doodlers" because she thinks visual language should be open to those who lack the talent or ability. In her role as doodle advocate, Brown believes that to make the practice into something that requires savvy would be as dangerous as suggesting that only people who excel at writing should ever compose sentences.
"You can use doodling as a tool ... to change your physical and neurological experience, in that moment."
Brown's own relationship with doodling came later in life. Growing up, her doodles showed up mostly in the margins of notebooks. But while working at a consultancy firm called The Grove, in San Francisco, she "was re-introduced to simple, applied visual language as a form of thought." After launching her own creative consultancy in 2008, she used the term doodling for this form of applied visual language and referred to it as an "act of cognition." And she's right-doodling actually changes one's state of mind. It's a calming activity that can help people go from a frazzled state to a more focused one. "You can use doodling as a tool ... to change your physical and neurological experience, in that moment," she says.

If lay people can experience nirvana from doodling, artists who make a living drawing every day must naturally be in heaven. But as the award-winning children's book illustrator John Hendrix, who wrote the recently published Drawing is Magic, told me, a weird thing happens when artists grow older: "We stop having fun. As a kid you draw without any thought to enjoying it. Enjoying it is assumed! Then we get to art school and learn there is a right way and wrong way to make images. We must all learn how to craft light, space, composition, form, line and shape. But, then after that, we have to be trained to learn to play again." For Hendrix, finding enjoyment is an essential first step to finding good ideas.

For most people, the big question isn't "when did you start drawing?" but "when did you stop drawing?" Virtually everyone drew and doodled at one point in their lives. For artists and non-artists alike, drawing is about more than art-it's about the very art of thinking.

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Some new books tout the benefits of informal drawing and freehand scribbling-even for the unartistic.

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Pam Smy's work draws heavily on the observational studies that are contained within her sketchbooks usually of places and people.

Sketchbooks are crucial to how I work. I use them as ‘safe places’ to draw out ideas and roughs repeatedly, often then scanning my favourite to use as final artwork. I rarely work in colour, preferring to work with a dip pen and ink, and layers of tone with ink washes, emulsion paint or, and in the case of the banner art above, soft pencil.
Pam Smy Words and Pictures (the journal for SCWBI)

I love using my sketchbooks to construct what these spaces and places look and feel like, and working out how the characters relate to those spaces.

See article by Pam Smy, Searching for the Green man: a sketchbook quest.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jill/2014/00000001/00000001/art00009?crawler=true
HOW DO I ACCESS THIS for free????

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Works in styles varying for hyperrealistic (based on photographs?) to Clear Line (drawing with a water brush and then pouring on ink to follow the water.

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Emmanuel Guibert is an innovative French comic artist, who works in styles varying for hyperrealistic to Clear Line. Born in Paris, Guibert briefly attended art school, and did his first professional work in the storyboard and illustration field. He made his comics debut in 1992 with 'Brune', a painted comic story about the rise of fascism in Germany during the 1930s. He then did several comics for Lapin, the magazine of the renewing publishing house l'Association. One of Guibert's most impressive comics works of this period, 'La Guerre d'Alan', recounted the war experiences of Guibert's friend Alan Ingram Cope, who served as an American soldier in World War II, and later retreated to France.
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/guibert_emman.htm

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Emmanuel Guibert is an innovative French comic artist, who works in styles varying for hyperrealistic to Clear Line. Born in Paris, Guibert briefly attended art school, and did his first professional work in the storyboard and illustration field. He made his comics debut in 1992 with 'Brune', a painted comic story about the rise of fascism in Germany during the 1930s.

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http://reportager.uwe.ac.uk/projects18/lrogers/index.htm

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Lucinda Rogers: On Gentrification
Drawings from Ridley Road Market
At House of Illustration

An exhibition documenting the changing landscape of London, by illustrator Lucinda Rogers, has opened at House of Illustration. A series of large-scale drawings capture the gentrification of Dalston, exploring the tension between local communities and property developers driving up land value.

Over four months Rogers drew on location at Ridley Road Market - in operation since the 1880s and one of London's oldest east-end institutions - capturing Its unique residents, shops and stalls. Simultaneously she has drawn the luxury apartment block being built next door.

Rogers draws straight from eye to paper in the tradition of artist-as-reporter, and has captured the changing state of cities around the world. Her previous work includes an extraordinary series at New York's Ground Zero in 2001, providing an insight into the recovery operation at a time when photography was barely permitted .
She is also a campaigner on development in London, with particular concern for shared spaces. Markets like Ridley Road often provide the only way for small businesses to start up and become a unique reflection of the diverse communities they serve.

In this exhibition Rogers combines the drawing and campaigning aspects of her work for the first time.
House of Illustration director Colin McKenzie said:
"Illustration has a wonderful tradition of bold social commentary. We are delighted to commission a body of work from Lucinda Rogers that champions drawing as a critical medium for debate around the most pressing issue affecting London today."

Lucinda Rogers said: " My drawings are about recording things that happen around the edges of everyday life and how our surroundings are changing. They are observations on a particular day, what I saw and discovered, my feelings about the market and its surroundings. What I choose to leave out or leave in makes the picture."

House of Illustration,
2 Granary Square,
King's Cross,
London N 1C 4BH
Open Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 6 pm (closed Monday)
Admission (one ticket gives admission to all three galleries) £8.25 inc gift aid
020 3696 2020,
houseofillustration.org.uk", facebook.com/houseofillustration, @illustrationHQ

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'Reportager' : Projects : Lucinda Rogers: On Gentrification.

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Lucinda Rogers: On Gentrification Drawings from Ridley Road Market At House of Illustration An exhibition documenting the changing landscape of London, by illustrator Lucinda Rogers, has opened at House of Illustration. A series of large-scale drawings capture the gentrification of Dalston, exploring the tension between local communities and property developers driving up land value.

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reportager: www.reportager.org

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I looked also at the following, but found them less interesting in terms of energy of line and impact.

Laura Carlin
Paul Hogarth
David Gentleman
Louis Netter
Chloe Regan
Agnes Dechourchelle
Maurice Sasek

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English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books. Works in dark ink and wash, with hatched strokes.

“Ardizzone’s strength was in capturing moments of human action, often slightly comical ones.” http://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/ardizzone-at-peace-and-in-conflict

even in his most commercial illustrations, his work is incredibly well observed, drawn simply but always capturing the life and vitality of what he’s seeing. Ardizzone’s work always looks loose and sketchy. But that masks the cleverness of his technique. His careful use of shading, and the occasional looseness of line, adds depth. He never tries to draw a face in detail, but his people are always alive.
https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/edward-ardizzone/

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-ardizzone-659

https://www.lewisboughen.co.uk/coursework/part-1/exercise-1/edward-ardizzone-exploring-the-hatching-technique/

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The Photographer: Emmanuel Guibert with photographer Lefevre and graphic designer Frédéric Lemercier

https://eyemagazine.com/opinion/article/framing-the-evidence-of-war

!!review to do. on order.

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By incorporating reportage of Russia's Afghan war, this hybrid takes the graphic novel and photojournalism to new levels. Critique by Rick Poynor

If a book like The Photographer already exists, I have certainly never seen it. This three-way collaboration between the late French photographer Didier Lefèvre, graphic novelist Emmanuel Guibert and graphic designer Frédéric Lemercier is a breathtakingly original piece of work that reveals new possibilities for a medium, the graphic novel, that still divides readers into two camps. There are those who enjoy them, and those - especially in the UK - who can't shake the feeling that to be caught with your head in a comic book would mark you forever as an emotionally stunted post-adolescent, no matter how often we are told that the graphic novel came of age years ago.

I'm a selective enthusiast, a dabbler in the rarer comic book pleasures rather than a full-time convert, but I'm still happy to throw in my lot with the first group. If you are concerned with graphic communication, how could you not be interested in a medium that unites writing, illustration and page design in the service of a continuous narrative? The Photographer supplies a new level of aesthetic complication and a new argument for the vitality of comics by adding a fourth strand to this mongrel medium: photography.

The book was first published in French in 2003 and it has sold 250,000 copies in the French-speaking world. Now it arrives in an English translation (by Alexis Siegel) published by First Second in New York.

In 1986, Lefèvre undertook a gruelling assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), travelling overland from Pakistan with a group of medics into Afghanistan, where the mujahideen were then at war with the Soviet Union. It was his first project as a photojournalist and he took pictures at almost every stage of the journey. Six of the photos were published in the French newspaper Libération later that year. Several thousand remained in storage, unseen, until Guibert, who had heard stories about the trip, suggested to his friend that they collaborate on a book about it.

'After an arduous night of walking, Lefèvre compels himself to take pictures of the early morning campsite.'
Top: cover ofThe Photographer, English language edition, 2009.

Guibert's masterstroke is to present the photos as panels in the narrative. Where even a generous photo-essay in a magazine would need to be highly selective, this allows incidents caught on camera to be presented sequentially from multiple perspectives, building a much fuller sense of a scene than would ordinarily be possible. Guibert then supplies linking moments: sometimes just a panel or two, where an incident has been photographed in detail; sometimes much lengthier sequences, where no pictures exist. He never attempts to upstage the photographs with over-elaborate drawings - they are sensitively coloured by Lemercier - and it is a measure of the shared understanding between the collaborators that the links never seem artificial or forced. One can move seamlessly from photographic evidence, in which all the characters and occasionally Lefèvre appear, to fictional reconstruction (in scale with the photos) with no sense that 'reality' has been violated. The feat is all the more remarkable because Lefèvre lost the notebook in which he had recorded his observations throughout the journey.

The Photographer 's narrative density is highly involving. The journey on foot through difficult terrain is long, arduous and sometimes brutal. One of the horse grooms goes missing in the dark, while crossing a pass, and is presumed lost. He reappears in the morning against the odds, and Lefèvre captures the look of terror on his face. The pages devoted to the doctors' labours at the makeshift 'hospital' at Zaragandara, with the booms of battle alarmingly close, are extremely moving. Lefèvre, aided by Guibert, shows us the doctors, who are able to cope with the most trying conditions, emptying out the socket of a man's shattered eye and treating the burned hand of a small girl - an incident recorded with a sequence of twenty photos.

One might argue, as some have, that photojournalism of this kind is intrusive and voyeuristic, though such scenes are taken for granted in TV documentaries. But MSF's work continues in war zones around the world and The Photographer provides a brilliantly revealing document of its desperately needed efforts. The book's international success is a welcome sign that there is an audience hungry for photographs that tell us something we urgently need to know about the world (see feature, ' One Week in Pictures ').

With his film running out, Lefèvre chose to try to find his way back to Pakistan on his own. Exhausted and malnourished, he was lucky to get out alive. He made seven more photographic trips to Afghanistan before he died of heart failure in 2007 at the age of 49.

A donkey rests during the crossing of a shallow but fast-flowing river.

Rick Poynor, writer, Eye founder, research fellow, Royal College of Art

First published in Eye no. 73 vol. 19 2009

Eye is the world's most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue.

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By incorporating reportage of Russia's Afghan war, this hybrid takes the graphic novel and photojournalism to new levels. Critique by Rick Poynor If a book like The Photographer already exists, I have certainly never seen it.

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George Butler specialises in travel and current affairs, particularly about war and migration linked to activism. He draws in situ in pen, ink and watercolour. What he leaves out and implies is as important as what is actually shown.
https://www.georgebutler.org

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Evan Turk's illustrations are very colourful and dramatic, dealing with environmental and cultural issues. He uses pastel on coloured paper, experimental media and creates animations from his illustrations.

https://evanturk.squarespace.com

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Evan Turk is an illustrator, animator, and designer working in New York City. He specializes in travel illustration, on-location event reportage, cultural children’s books, and concept illust…

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Olivier Kugler's work focuses on graphic documentary of war and migration. Because he and his subjects rarely have time for sketching, he uses digital photography and interview recordings that he then uses as a basis for drawing with a 2B pencil followed by digital colouring and addition of recorded text, often about war and migration.
http://www.olivierkugler.com

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Sketchbook Inspiration

The below are only a small selection of sources of inspiration that I will cover in detail on this blog in connection with my SYP work. I have done a lot more reading and thinking than I have had time to present here.

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The below are only a small selection of sources of inspiration that I will cover in detail on this blog in connection with my SYP work. I have done a lot more reading and thinking than I have had time to present here.

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“It’s not like photography. You have to be present- You can’t just grab it and go. You become involved in a way that maybe other people don’t and you capture moments.”
Veronica Lawlor, in Understanding Illustration , Brazell D and Davies, J. 2014

Although my own location work will take years to develop, her work is an important new source of insipration for my work because of:

her choice of subjects and types of events and the ways she interpretes these

her fluid, dynamic and flexible drawing style in media adapted to her subject

her ability to replicate this style in the studio.

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Veronica Lawlor is a freelance illustrator based in New York. Most of her work is urban sketching and reportage. Her illustrations often include a combination of buildings and landmarks, street furniture, figures, crowds, and transport and convey a sense of place. She is known for her ability to do many fast sketches as well as drawing quickly for larger and more sustained drawings. She adapts the media she uses and aesthetic choices such as the use of colour and mark making, the selection of scene, content and focus, the illustrator to communicate a distinct personal interpretation of the event or scene. As Lawlor explains, "you're touching the paper so your emotions come through the tactility." (Brazell and Davies, 2014).

She creates artwork both directly on location, and also developed from sketches, collecting visual information, to capture fleeting moments in busy public events such as parades and festivals. Many of her illustrations give the impression of being drawn on location because of the fluidity of line, splashes of colour, sense of editing and compressing the content of a scene. But they were actually created within the more controlled environment of her studio.

Major works:

the only illustrator who stopped to draw in New York as the Twin Towers were being destroyed on 9/11.

Black Lives Matter

She is the president of Studio 1482. She also teaches drawing and illustration at Pratt Institute, Parsons, The New School for Design, and Dalvero Academy. http://www.veronicalawlor.com

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Veronica Lawlor is a freelance illustrator based in New York. Most of her work is urban sketching and reportage. Her illustrations often include a combination of buildings and landmarks, street furniture, figures, crowds, and transport and convey a sense of place.

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Favorite Sketch Tools of 16 San Diego Urban Sketchers

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urban sketchers urban sketching on-location drawing sketching

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Favorite Sketch Tools of 16 San Diego Urban Sketchers

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From water containers to pencils this video shows the favorite sketch tools of 16 Urban Sketchers. Thank you to the San Diego Urban Sketchers who shared thei...

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USkTalks S2E7 - Visual Storytelling: Practical Tips

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USkTalks S2E7 - Visual Storytelling: Practical Tips

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Melissa Castrillon is an illustrator living in Cambridge, UK where she is working on an MA in children’s book illustration at the Cambridge School of Art.

Melissa’s sketchbook drawings are stylised representations of narratives using pattern and mark making. She works in pencil, crayon and watercolour and ink washes. This stylisation gives her  characters a feeling of melancholy and are often full of emotion, and seem to have strong bonds with each other. Her use of directional shading and wash puddles in the sketchbooks I find much more interesting and expressive than her more static and somewhat saccharine final book illustrations.

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Alison Worman degree stop motion animation

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Alison Worman degree stop motion animation

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This draws on her collage explorations with bold compositions, colours and ideas.

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Sketchbook: Alison Worman - Book By Its Cover

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Alison Worman’s response to figures and environments is playful, colourful with bold shape-based compositions that she develops in her sketchbook work. The drawings she does are simple line or shape work, but well-observed and not necessarily rapid. All the images stylised simplified representations of what she sees. But they evolve in collaged layers rather than through editing - though probably there is a lot of experimentation before things are glued down. They appear finishe because she follows the evolution through to a well-balanced composition.

I am interested in the way that collage, fabric and sewing techniques can be applied to the form of the book. I explore these relationships frequently in my sketchbooks.” Her books are exploding with fabric, stitching, collage and drawings.

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Today I am excited to share a beautiful bunch of sketchbooks by a talented student of Maryland Institute College of Art (aka MICA). Alison Worman is only a junior majoring in Fibers and Book Arts, but her work is already so well developed. She says " I am interested in the way that collage, fabric and sewing techniques can be applied to the form of the book. I explore these relationships frequently in my sketchbooks." Her books are exploding with fabric, stitching, collage and drawings. Each spread is a new interesting composition made from so many different layers of materials. The mixtures of techniques are exciting: a series of stitches fills in the head area of a collaged magazine photo, a circular cutting of tracing paper sits over a collage and ink drawing. I am intrigued to see what Alison will do next. I would love to see an enormous version similar to her sketchbook work. A giant drawing/collage/stitched piece. You can keep up with Alison's work on her blog here. She is working on a lot of cool projects.

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Sketchbook: Alison Worman - Book By Its Cover

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Today I am excited to share a beautiful bunch of sketchbooks by a talented student of Maryland Institute College of Art (aka MICA). Alison Worman is only a junior majoring in Fibers and Book Arts, but her work is already so well developed.

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Sketchbooks Archives - Book By Its Cover

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Sketchbook archives: Approaches and questions

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Sketchbook archives: Approaches and questions

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Questions
Look through as many different illustrators’ sketchbooks that you find interesting. Consider the various ways that other illustrators respond to figures and environments.

What materials do they use?

Do they sketch quickly or are the drawings more sustained?

If they draw fast how is this achieved- how is the content edited ?

Which subjects or parts of the images are edited or stylised?

How does the stylisation affect the communication process and the sense of documentary?

Are there any parts of the images that are unfinished and what impact does this have on the overall image?

Are there some images that you think communicate better when drawn slowly?

Approaches

Minimalist doodles on random paper just to record ideas and have fun, making things up and drawing faces - Scott Campbell

Minimalist, pared down drawings in colour and different media

Drawing and adding words - Andrea Tsurumi

Layering ideas in different media as intricate detailed works

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Sketchbooks Archives - Book By Its Cover

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Julia Rothman Book By Its Cover 566 7th Street #10 Brooklyn NY 11215

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Andrea Tsurumi's Sketchbook - Book By Its Cover

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Uses a lot of words.

In the past I thought that when I planned stories or projects I had to write them down or that I could only write through them. For some silly reason it never occurred to me that I could draw them, or describe the stories through drawing. I had to learn that. Now my process changes a lot, I’ve done drawings when I’ve had everything in my head and I can produce images immediately.  But then there are times when my ideas come slower. I have to circle them, write, and think and then the images come. A lot of it is just peeling away, thinking by drawing and spending the time doodling.

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Today's sketchbooks belongs to Andrea Tsurumi. She's one of those across the board genius women and I've been looking forward to the to peeking inside her densely packed sketchbooks for some time. For those not familiar with Andrea, a quick synopsis: after graduating from Harvard with an English B.A., she moved to New York to work in publishing for a few years before getting an Illustration MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Since then she's been raking in the comics awards (ahem MOCCA Award of Excellence) and has worked with such illustration clients as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Penguin Books, and Tablet Magazine. While thumbing through her books were talked a bit about her sketching and image making processes.
Hi Andrea, you've got so many books! It appears you love sketching. Is keeping a sketchbook important to you?
It is important to me, but not in the dream fantasy kind of way, like, you know, the painting on a cliff with the wind in your hair kind of way people think art should be. I sketch to literally catch the thoughts as they come to me. That is why there are there is so much writing in my books. A lot of the time I'll be on the subway or at my job and or seeing something and I'll be like 'God, I gotta write this down'. Usually it's something stupid, but the thoughts just accumulate and I need a place to put them. I need a place where I can think by drawing. Sometimes you have to draw out your thoughts so my sketchbooks become the home of my errant ideas.
I do see a fair amount of words in your sketchbooks. You were an English major in the past, so I wonder: do you prefer to think visually or narratively?
In the past I thought that when I planned stories or projects I had to write them down or that I could only write through them. For some silly reason it never occurred to me that I could draw them, or describe the stories through drawing. I had to learn that. Now my process changes a lot, I've done drawings when I've had everything in my head and I can produce images immediately. But then there are times when my ideas come slower. I have to circle them, write, and think and then the images come. A lot of it is just peeling away, thinking by drawing and spending the time doodling.
So just doodling is important to you?
It is. I always miss it when I'm not doing it. But sometimes I try to carve out a block of time to focus on doodling and it's horrible because nothing comes out. It's like, this should be magical. Why isn't it magical!?
Gah. Totally.
There's a John Cleese interview about creativity which is totally right-he says you should set aside three hours for creativity. The first half and hour is a complete struggle and after your purge yourself of all internal junk, then the good stuff comes. I have a job, so it's hard to commit to a straight three hours of creative time, but I keep John in my heart and strive to follow his words.
And I shall leave it here with this sage advice. Thank you Andrea for sharing your thoughts and books with us! If you'd like to see more of Andrea's work, please visit her Tumblr or her website.

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Andrea Tsurumi's Sketchbook - Book By Its Cover

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Today's sketchbooks belongs to Andrea Tsurumi. She's one of those across the board genius women and I've been looking forward to the to peeking inside her densely packed sketchbooks for some time.

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Sketchbook: John Garcia - Book By Its Cover

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He works in every scale and medium – from watercolor to woodcuts, scraps of paper to murals. His sketchbooks are layered explorations for finished pieces, and often become finished work themselves. In a sketchbook class we took at Parsons, John’s book was always the most interesting and unexpected. On one page there’s a loose marker drawing, and the next, a rendered painting and textural collage.

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John Garcia is a artist and illustrator, born in Los Angeles and currently living in New York City. John's work is greatly influenced by his roots in Southern California, something we've bonded over for the past couple years. While I've been painting California wildflowers, he's been drawing surfers, bikes, and composing crazy street art inspired pieces. He works in every scale and medium - from watercolor to woodcuts, scraps of paper to murals. His sketchbooks are layered explorations for finished pieces, and often become finished work themselves. In a sketchbook class we took at Parsons, John's book was always the most interesting and unexpected. On one page there's a loose marker drawing, and the next, a rendered painting and textural collage. John and I are currently working on a printed tote together that should be out soon - think, a jumbled pattern of puppies and kitties in Lisa Frank colors. You can see more of John's work and sketchbooks on his website here.

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Sketchbook: John Garcia - Book By Its Cover

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John Garcia is a artist and illustrator, born in Los Angeles and currently living in New York City. John's work is greatly influenced by his roots in Southern California, something we've bonded over for the past couple years. While I've been painting California wildflowers, he's been drawing surfers, bikes, and composing crazy street art inspired pieces.

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Sketchbook: Ben Finer - Book By Its Cover

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Pages have gotten thick from his pasting and painting. There are layers upon layers of drawings, stamping, collaged images, paper scraps, and much much more.

You can look at these pages for hours, there’s so much going on. Most pages seem like a psychedelic nightmare with technicolor attacking hippos or angry cartoon characters. A couple are more quiet and peaceful, full of interesting detailed architecture or a polite bathroom. Either way the drawings always have a ton of details. Little tiny patterns cover over any one color surface giving it more dimension. Comic book parts are embellished with hypercolor designs.

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Sketchbook: Ben Finer - Book By Its Cover

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These insane pages are the sketchbooks of Ben Finer. These pages have gotten thick from his pasting and painting. There are layers upon layers of ... read more

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Sketchbook: Mia Christopher - Book By Its Cover

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Much more minimalist, colourful and quirky.

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Big thanks to Sian Keegan for introducing me to the sweet and quirky work of Mia Christopher. Mia's drawings and paintings are so simple but there is such nice humor to them. Plus her color taste is very sophisticated making what could look like drawings for children, much more mature. I asked Mia to tell me a little about what she's been up to with her work. Here's what she had to say: " As far as what I've been up to, I've been keeping busy finishing pieces for two upcoming group shows. I have ten pieces in Anno Domini's Fresh Produce show in San Jose on December 4th, and two pieces in Together Gallery's upcoming group show Family Quilt on December 5th. I am also going to be a part of a yet to be titled exhibition at Flatcolor Gallery in Seattle that is opening February 4th, 2010. I went back to school this semester to finish my BFA. I'm at California College of the Arts majoring in painting and drawing, I have about a year and a half left. I really love it and it's been pushing me and my work which is something I really treasure. I have lots of plans for the coming year- print editions, a book, maybe two, many more group shows, collaborations with other artists, etc." Thanks so much to Mia for sharing I hope to feature more of her work in the future.

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Sketchbook: Mia Christopher - Book By Its Cover

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Big thanks to Sian Keegan for introducing me to the sweet and quirky work of Mia Christopher. Mia's drawings and paintings are so simple but there is such nice humor to them. Plus her color taste is very sophisticated making what could look like drawings for children, much more mature.

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Scott Campbell's Sketchbooks - Book By Its Cover

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He sketches quickly to get down and generate ideas with minimal line, often just doodling with random ideas and without any specific attempt at stylisation. He uses pen or pencil with occasional colour on xerox paper. The drawings do not try to be documentary, but communicate a sort of ‘visceral truth’. The drawings are all unfinished and he does not edit the sketchbook drawings, the drawings provide a repository of general ideas that he stores in boxes as a reference of oast thoughts and ideas to underpin his much more intricate illustrations. I find the spontaneous nature of these quick drawings more interesting than his finished work.

I like to doodle.

I actually use Xerox paper a lot to note my ideas. The only reason for that is that sketchbooks stress me out. I mean, they totally stress me out. They can be so performative. I have many unfinished ones. Like these. I want my ideas to be disposable. I don’t want my books to be perceived as “art” you know? I don’t want my books to make me look at my work in that way. You sketch because you’re exercising ideas. There’s no reason why people need to see my books. But I do collect my old Xerox paper. I have crates and crates of Xerox paper.

It’s interesting for me to have for nostalgic reasons. Sometimes I see particularly enlightening times for me in my old paper crates. Or I try to use the old ideas to help me return to past mindsets. I always like to date my sketchbooks and paper, in that way these sketchbooks function a little bit more like a diary.

I like to draw some random things or make lists so that I relax my mind and I’ll naturally start creating images and ideas. I like to have it be a space where I can do anything, not just draw.

I draw a lot of faces, lots of eyes and noses and mouths. You know, the things that we all see in everything. I see faces everywhere. Maybe it’s a narcissistic to draw the human faces over and over again, but that’s helpful for me. It’s calming.

https://www.scottc.com/
https://mobile.twitter.com/scottlava

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With MoCCA having just passed this weekend, I though it would be appropriate to take a look at the sketchbooks of Scott Campbell (Scott C.). He was at MoCCA, perhaps you saw him? He would have been at table D32 and had all kinds of books and prints in tow.

For those unfamiliar with Scott, he is a maker of paintings, illustrations, comics, kid's books and video games. In the past he worked at Double Fine productions as Art Director on such games as the critically acclaimed Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. Alongside this career in games, he has published numerous comics and created paintings that have appeared in galleries and publications around the world. Some of his most notable projects include The Great Showdowns series, Igloo Head and Tree Head series, Double Fine Action Comics, Hickee Comics, and the children's books Zombie In Love and East Dragon, West Dragon. The book Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C. collects many of his paintings over the past few years. Scott lives in New York City. Find new work and more information at his website.

Hi Scott. Hi Sarah.
Scott. I love your sketchbooks, you seem like you enjoy keeping them. Do you sketch for fun? Doodle perhaps?
I like to doodle but I don't do it as much as I used to. A lot of friends around here enjoy getting together to have drinks and draw. I do that occasionally but sometimes I feel like I just want to have a beer, which probably isn't that interesting to mention, but, you know, that's just the way it is. Sometimes I look at other people's sketchbooks and it seems like people use them to make contained art pieces in a way. It's amazing. I'm a little less high maintenance.
I agree that sketchbook treatment is so interesting-I've noticed people doing such different things. You seem to use your books in an organic way.
It's funny, I actually use Xerox paper a lot to note my ideas. The only reason for that is that sketchbooks stress me out. I mean, they totally stress me out. They can be so performative. I have many unfinished ones. Like these. I want my ideas to be disposable. I don't want my books to be perceived as "art" you know? I don't want my books to make me look at my work in that way. You sketch because you're exercising ideas. There's no reason why people need to see my books. But I do collect my old Xerox paper. I have crates and crates of Xerox paper.
Wow, what are you going to do with all that? Bind it? Do you ever look through the old stuff?
I've thought about doing that, but haven't gotten around to it. It's interesting for me to have for nostalgic reasons. Sometimes I see particularly enlightening times for me in my old paper crates. Or I try to use the old ideas to help me return to past mindsets. I always like to date my sketchbooks and paper, in that way these sketchbooks function a little bit more like a diary.
Yeah, I see you have lists and little personal bits in your books too, recipes and such, right?
Yeah, I like to draw some random things or make lists so that I relax my mind and I'll naturally start creating images and ideas. I like to have it be a space where I can do anything, not just draw. It's easier for me.
I wonder how you work Scott. Like, when you think of ideas do you think you're more of a visual person or do you write words and free associate and go from there? Or both?
I think a bit of both. Sometimes I'll draw visual gags, but sometimes I can write faster than I draw. I go back and forth. The lists are just ways for me to remember stuff. Sometimes I think faster than I can draw and process. I dance between the two methods. I pirouette between the two.
Pirouette, eh? Well, do you have a favorite thing you like to draw to get into your practice?
Yes. I like to draw heads and mummies. I used to draw dragons, but now I draw a lot of faces, lots of eyes and noses and mouths. You know, the things that we all see in everything. I see faces everywhere. Maybe it's a narcissistic to draw the human faces over and over again, but that's helpful for me. It's calming.
Final question. Do think you'd be devastated if you lost your sketchbooks?
Even though I think of my sketchbooks as disposable, I think I would be sad if I lost them. I like to keep things. I don't know what my plan is for the future, but even just to have them...maybe I will bind all of my Xerox papers. I think it's good to have them...what's the word I'm looking for..nostalgia? I've been saying that a lot, huh? Well it is. It is nostalgic for me. I like remembering things and moments. Maybe it's a bit pack-ratty, but I do like to have the books. I like to consider them disposable, but to never get rid of them.

Thank you so much Scott! Keep up with Scott's blog, or follow him on Twitter .

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Scott Campbell's Sketchbooks - Book By Its Cover

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With MoCCA having just passed this weekend, I though it would be appropriate to take a look at the sketchbooks of Scott Campbell (Scott C.). He was at MoCCA, perhaps you saw him? He would have been at table D32 and had all kinds of books and prints in tow.