I love journals. All kinds of journals. Travel journals. Writer’s journals. Science journals make me positively drool. And I love the artist’s journal most of all (though I may be a bit biased on this one). Getting to see the raw inner workings of the creative process is simply thrilling. A glimpse into a person’s journal may be one of the purest forms of that person we have access to. So my advice to anyone and everyone is: keep a journal, whatever it is you do. Don’t think you “do” anything? Well, you can think. You can write. Its a good start.
But back to the artist’s journal. The sketchbook. Not only is it a wonderful place to read and view the conceptual process, but my goodness, also those wonderful energized sketches that so many artists eventually hide beneath many hours and layers of refined work. Sure, I love clean, processed, finished work as much as the next person, and there is definitely a place for it. But sketches just tend to be so much more exciting to look at. Not only for their frenetic energy, but also you can see the artist’s hand, their personal touch. There’s something so unique and personal lying within the unpolished lines of the sketch.
So probably needless to say, you’ll be seeing a lot of my sketchbook in this blog. And where it applies, I’ll show work that has come from the journal entries as well. Some will be finished works, where others might be parts of other projects, or works in progress. In this post, I thought I’d showcase some entries about movement and kinetic energy. I love flow and rhythm in art. I’m not only drawn to it in what I prefer to view, but anytime my pencil touches paper, it wants to dance. Here are some particularly kinetically charged forms and a couple of watercolors I did from them, along with a few other journal tidbits that seemed to fit.
