Sketchbook Ideas and Concepts Final Drawing
A Sketchbook and Drawing
by William E Young
Sketching, for me, is a means to spark my imagination. A sketchbook allows me to keep the ideas that come off the end of my pencil in an organized journal format. When an idea presents itself, I grab my sketchbook and start drawing until the right thumbnail sketch emerges. The next step is to flesh out the idea, making changes until I am satisfied with the result, and then I create a drawing of the final image that I paint from. All the work and the various ideas involved in the conceptual sketches are recorded for future reference in the sketchbook. Sketching is now a form of note taking for my imagination as well as a means of working out detail studies and final compositions.
I also open a sketchbook to spur my imagination. To spark an idea or prime the pump, I will grab a pencil and just draw a line. From the line I might add some shading or anther set of lines. These drawings are exercises that get my mind out of the everyday chores into a creative state where my imagination engages a thinking pattern that allows abstract associations to manifest and mature into visual images. These ideas and images come from a subconscious source and drawing is the means by which dreams become visible and recordable. After all, an idea is well and good, but it has little potential for reaching anyone else's eyes for examination and contemplation if it only dwells in the artist's thoughts.
Sketching and drawing make the un-manifest manifest. Dreams begin their journey to reality on the surface of a page. Sketching is like taking notes, but instead of words, the artist uses images. Some of the earliest known drawings made by man are on the walls of caves, such as those near Lascaux in France. Considering their origin, they are some of the most incredible images you will ever see. Petroglyphs drawn on igneous rock in the New Mexico desert are also amazing to behold. Both sites record drawings of dreams or explanations of the world these early artists lived in.
Drawing today has the same purpose as the ancient works. They are the visual language of the imagination to be shared with whoever finds them and wants to experience the images of someone's dream. With my art, the journey from my imagination begins when my pencil leaves its first mark on a page in a sketchbook.