Tropical Rainforest

For this brief, we were given a choice of subject. I got really excited when I saw the list in the presentation because I saw so many themes that I was attracted to!
I reduced the list to themes that I was the most interested in: Vintage Toys (my parents collect them), Carnival/Circus (I currently have a huge obsession with macabre and Victorian fashion) and Tropical Rainforest (this theme made me think of Tropical World and childhood daydreams of adventures in the wild).

It took me a little while to decide which theme that I wanted to focus on because I liked so many, but eventually I chose the theme Tropical Rainforest. I took out several books from the library about the nature of tropical rainforests and found great pleasure in looking at the bizarre and beautiful creatures that live there.

The real focus for this week was sketchbooks and the module briefing discussed the importance of sketchbooks as a collection. We looked at Ping Zhu's 'Ugly Pages' and I was impressed with the acceptance she had for her rough sketches. She embraced them, these ugly drawings, and moved on from them, but also posted them online to document her journey and errors.
http://whatdididraw.tumblr.com/

I began trying to use my sketchbook in this way. I struggled at first, being precious over my work and striving for final, polished drawings, but I kept working at it and I think that I am starting to use the sketchbook as a tool.

'A Page is Just a Page'
Something that I really wanted to take away from today's briefing. Don't take the sketchbook too seriously and don't waste time trying to decorate it. It is for your own personal use and should be used as a tool to record visual information and practice translating that in different ways. If you don't like a drawing, that's good. Don't be passive. Have an opinion. Make that opinion and move on. Flip the page. It's only that: A PAGE.

Using it to figure things out. I drew characters and animals several times in an attempt to work them out and get the look that I was going for. This development is crucial in making decisions and progressing.

Accepting mistakes - working with them. I found that some bad drawings could be developed from and others I just hated to look at. I used masking tape and covered over parts that I was really unhappy with and working over them again. I really need to get out of this habit and just accept the page as it is, but for the moment this is a productive way for me to work from my mistakes and make them into something I am happier with.

Although it was not specified in the brief, I took a couple of my drawings into Photoshop and tried adding colour that way. Is this still sketchbook work? Is that another way of experimenting?
In retrospect, I don't think so. I think a sketchbook is a physical tool for learning and deciding the elements of drawing. Although digital decisions require attention too, I don't think they belong in a sketchbook and I need to stick to the task at hand instead of going off on my own tangent.