My Sketchpad

My Sketchpad was written as a result of my students’ inability to properly engage with a blank sketch book. Students clearly struggled with the numerous blank pages that were calling out for content. It became clear that it was too big of a leap to expect students to engage with an empty sketchpad after being hand fed content to draw throughout their college experience. What concerned me further was the knowledge that the majority of college students stop creating art once they leave a college setting. It is my hope that the prompts inside My Sketchpad might encourage students to engage with the sketchpad outside the classroom setting; that students and other true beginners will engage with the sketchpad several times a week and start to formulate good work habits that will aid them in keeping the creativity flowing and that they will no longer feel overwhelmed by the empty pages in their sketchpad.

The prompts inside My Sketchpad vary greatly, some are more difficult to render while others are easier. Some make you think outside the box while others are pretty straight forward. It is my hope that following the completion of My Sketchpad that the young artist will fill many sketch books in their lifetime. That they have found the freedom to explore all the possibilities that their environment has to offer and they will not have a shortage of subject matter. I also want to encourage the young learner to be honest in their endeavor, to not censor themselves. That they come to realize their work is deeply personal and at times polarized, that their artwork can be a warm blanket to curl up in or the blanket ripped off exposing what’s shivering underneath. My wish is for them to embrace their duality, embrace their artwork, embrace themselves, for they are their artwork and their artwork is themselves.

In addition to the prompts I have included a brief overview of art. There is a chapter on line, seeing, value, perspective, composition, and fear.