Sunday 30 November 2014

Sketchbooks and working process

                           Fig (1,2 Above and Below) cover from sketchbook, Hazel Terry

This is a little Red Riding Hood Sketchbook that I made in September. I made the cover from a mono-printed piece of plastic and then pulled the wolves from the darkness.

Unfortunately it is empty, I have a terrible confession, I don't use sketchbooks, I don't find that they help me in my creative process. When I have made/ used sketchbooks they are an entity in themselves and not a map or path in the development of finished pieces of work.
My thoughts come in sentences, poems and hastily scribbled sketches or doodles on scraps of paper, receipts, envelopes.
                                               Fig 3 ( Above) sketch for Folk Wolf, Hazel Terry

This 'litter' then percolates in my head for a while until I get the opportunity to commit it to paper. Then my ideas will evolve through several pale incarnations until I am happy.
Or sometimes it is as with a plastic bag monoprint, I make some sort of mess on the paper in print, bold paint splodge etc and pull (rescue) an image out of it.

                                      Fig 4 ( Above) sketch for Hobby Wolf, Hazel Terry

My brain is full of a litter of thoughts. My desk, bag, bedside table is a paper chase of litter that is my real sketchbook, it is not pretty, but it is how I stop thoughts, ideas and dreams disappearing.

References:

Fig 1,2 Cover from sketchbook, Hazel Terry
Fig 3  Sketch for Folk Wolf, Hazel Terry
Fig 4 Sketch for Hobby Wolf, Hazel Terry

4 comments:

  1. you are not alone in this process! I use sketchbooks more now but i still find it hard to work within a book - i often re use old envelopes and pieces of paper to work out ideas and processes but like you there has to be brewing time with my head before it can be realised into a medium. Often many kinks are worked out in the virtual space of mind rather than on paper. However I do like sketch books and i continue to battle my reluctance to dump my litter into them - mainly because i feel that once something is bound and presented in a book format it should be a completed work not an ongoing ramble. Love the new work Hazel and this indepth exploration of the the 'hood'

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  2. Yep, me too I think sketchbooks intimidate me.

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  3. These wolves are splendidly wicked, I love how they 'emerge' from the black page surrounds.

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  4. I sympathize. As you know I work in sketchbooks a great deal; finished paintings every day. But sketchbooks are an end to themselves and it's difficult for me to move up to the next level of concept work for sequential images and stories telling. I wonder as I wander!

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