» sketchbook

Craig Bowers’s sketchbook

brwnpaperbag — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:32:48 +0000

I keep a pretty poor excuse for a sketchbook — it is a disjointed combination of notes, bad thumbnail sketches and assorted loose papers. That’s why, when I look at Craig Bowers’s sketchbook, I can’t help but feel pangs of jealousy:

There is an amount of beauty and restraint to these pages that I love. Graphite is beautiful.

All images via his blog/website.

Astrid Florentinus

brwnpaperbag — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:24:44 +0000

Astrid Florentinus is an almost-to-be (her words!) illustrator from the Netherlands. She makes use of pen and pencil, really working with the media to create depth to each piece. Astrid introduced me to her latest project, as she is on the cusp of graduation:

It’s about three different people, three different object makers who dedicated their lives into making their specific objects.

One girl is fixed into making and transforming bikes, another girl spends her days knitting all the time, and there is a boy who has been making electronic instruments since his teens.

I made three different journals about each of them, with drawings on original paper about their lives in making these objects. And I made one big drawing (1m x 1,5m) that summarizes the journals somewhat together into one landscape.

From that series (all images via her blog):

Other images I enjoy:

Stella Lee

brwnpaperbag — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:10:09 +0000

I used to have hair that was pretty long. You could do all the fun things with it, like braid it, putting a bun on the top of your head, brush it a satisfying 100 strokes…but then I decided to chop eight inches (maybe more!) off. While I don’t often regret my decision, it’s looking at work like Stella Lee’s that makes me miss having longer locks.

The graphite against the soft tone of the paper is entrancing and soothing. Stella’s drawing style has a gentle motion to it, and does a wonderful job of rendering hair. Hair can be drawn many different ways, but often times it can be hard to get the shading just right to make it seem that it is simultaneously one body but many individual strands as well.

All images via her website.

Also, I love the die cut that Stella has done to her sketchbook! Leaves me wishing I was a bit more thoughtful with mine.

thursday round up: sketchbooks

brwnpaperbag — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:06:12 +0000

For the record, I don’t use sketchbooks effectively as I should. Mine tend to be filled with scribbles, non sequiturs, and aren’t very experimental. The best sketchbooks help artists to refine their style, and make it a safe place to “mess up” and try new things. For this Thursday’s round up, I’ve included some sketchbooks that I really enjoy. I can only image what the rest of these books look like.

The Sketchbook Project is like “a concert tour but with sketchbooks”, and available to everyone. Participants sign up and choose a theme to their book and use it as a basis for imagery. From there, each individual fills the book with drawings, collages, painting, writing, etc. until the project deadline. After it’s been sent it to the good folks at the Art House Co-op, all of the sketchbooks tour the United States until they are put in permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. If you are interested, you have until October 31st of this year to sign up and choose your theme!

From top to bottom, in order: Andrea Posada // Jesse Draxler // Lizzy Stewart // Lili Scratchy // Tyler Parker

lore smolders

brwnpaperbag — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:46:15 +0000

I really enjoy the work of Lore Smolders, but I had the hardest time finding any work by her outside of seeing her contribution to a Rotopol Press show.

Lore uses graphite and her style has a heavy hand to it. There is a lot of certainty to her lines, and they’ve made the work very expressive. In addition to conventional drawings and sketching, she’s also experimented with cut outs and projections, and installation that I would have loved to see in person.

Lore’s style, rather choppy at times, makes for an interesting reflection on nature — a prominent subject matter. I tend to romanticize natural things as having a certain amount of beauty and grace, which is not really indicative of what Lore has presented. I enjoy the skew on my conventions!

All images via his blog. The last image is from the Rotopol Press Flickr.