Sketchbook Stories 5/27/23

Using Photos in Sketchbook Spreads? Is it ok?

This might be puzzling because you don’t see any photos in this spread - right? But the two padlocks and the key to room 8 are photographs of art I created in other sketchbooks.

However, I want to address this subject from the standpoint of using *any* photos in a sketchbook. We are supposed to be sketching - so is it “cheating?”

I know that “there are no rules for a sketchbook”, and that is true as far as the great public opinion of the internet goes, but truthfully, there is nothing I care less about than other people’s opinion of my sketchbooks. My problem is me - I am the rule maker for my sketchbooks, and I am the one proposing this question, and making trouble for myself.

Unlike many sketchers, I am also a fine art photographer. I was one of those long before I embraced sketchbooking, and in fact, my first sketchbooks have many photos in them. I fell away from that for awhile, and my books became all drawing and painting.

But when I realized I would never finish any travel journal if I drew everything, the photos started to creep back in. My photos are good photos - every bit as much my “art” as my sketching is. But, somehow, when I turn to a spread with a lot of photos, I feel a little more bored by them, and am more excited about the sketching in the spread. I find that odd and wonder what to do with those thoughts. If I had drawn everything in it, that spread would probably still not be finished. What’s better? This is much ta-do about nothing but I’m wondering if anybody else feels torn this way?

And now, this story turns to the picture above, which is a whole other thing.

I like to try challenges - but only the good ones (Susan Yeates hosts some of the best IMO. Look her up.) I only usually finish a couple of days on time - or at all - but that’s ok because I always get some interesting experience out of what I do get done. This is an example of that.

Because I have been sketching for so long, it often happens that a prompt is something I have sketched before - sometimes multiple times in different books. I can’t call those my response to the challenge because they already exist, so I do something new. But this time, I thought of the idea of including the old with the new and having a little collection spread of my responses to that challenge.

I really got excited doing this spread. I wanted the old art to look as much like the sketches as it could - not like a “photo” of the art. The answer turned out to be a thing I have shared before - using the Betckey Label sheets I get from Amazon to print the photos of my sketches. The label paper is matt and a little bluer than by S&B Beta pages, but the results looked so much more cohesive in the book. I did not get my “photo doubts” at all.

You can experiment with this paper on your own. It accepts watercolor media after it is stuck to the page and burnished, so you can print line drawings in waterproof ink, stick them in your sketchbook and paint them.

I have a Skillshare Class all about this, which will soon be in my website learning space as well. On Skillshare the class is called Make Line Art Stickers to Paint in Your Sketchbook.

None of this works well with Avery or other big brands so don’t spend the extra money. The Betckey brand is very inexpensive. $11.99 for 100 full letter size labels, so you can print lots of things in all sizes on one sheet.

So on this one spread, I have made new art - AND gathered art from two other sketchbooks. The padlocks were done in 2020 when being locked down and locked out of our business was heavily on my mind. The #8 key was from a lovely Texas trip in 2016 - the first time I stayed in one of the Sunday Haus cottages at the The Herb Farm in Fredericksburg. The door with the giant key is me doing my surrealistic thing, and the car key fob has its own recent story.

I had two when I bought this van. I lost one and the other was so worn out that it would barely work. So I ordered two new ones online. But you have to have them activated by a dealer or locksmith and nobody wants to do it because it is a gigantic, computerized butt pain. Our car repair shop finally managed to get all the codes etc. etc. and activate it. Three appointments over a month it took. Good thing the fobs had Panic buttons!

But now, they work great - too great, in fact. They are so sensitive that I am constantly locking and unlocking my car by accident! Sometimes, doing both at once. Unlocking the car as I approach it and locking it again as I put the fob back in my purse or pocket - *before* I have opened the door of course. Makes life so entertaining.

Anyway - I would love to know what you think about photos in sketchbooks - or key fob stories if you prefer. Any response is so appreciated on this end of this newsletter. You can leave a Comment below - or go to our Chat, where I will start a new thread with this question.

And so it goes.

jessica