Sketchbook_Confidential

Sketching can provide a shorthand communication that only I have to understand.

I feel compelled to sketch or make notes when I see something that makes me stop and wonder or something I find particularly fascinating. I have a very visual memory, and I don't like to forget observations or ideas. My shirt pocket always has a 3" × 5" (8cm × 13cm) notepad and fine-point black Bic pen for notes and quick sketches.

I do most of my sketching and journaling between three o'clock and six in the morning. I also often wake up in the middle of the night and sketch ideas. This is the time of day

when I seem to replay the events of the previous day and incorporate them into meaningful images.

Sometimes while sketching, I'm thinking of ways to solve problems related to the execution of ideas on which I am working. Often I am trying to figure out a way to bring an idea that I have never completely imagined into existence.

While sketching, I often feel a sense of relief. It's as if I need to get something off my mind and into a physical form. Sketching an idea brings the idea to a tangible form that presents a new reality that informs a new interpretation of all phenomena.

Sketching provides an ongoing dialogue between my mental life and the interpreted world around me. My life changes as I reinterpret my world through the invention of these new ideas.

Sketching can provide a shorthand communication that only I have to understand. When I am sketching for myself, I don't have to worry about anyone else's perceptions.

Sketching often solves the problems that make it possible to develop the final piece of artwork. Sketching often provides the inspiration to create artwork that is a very personal interpretation.

Mark Willenbrink

An internationally known artist and teacher living in Cincinnati, Ohio, Willenbrink works primarily in watercolor but also enjoys oils, graphite Willen-brink drawing and scratchboard. has contributed nearly forty articles to WATERCOLOR ARTIST magazine, and his published books include WATERCOLOR FOR THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNER, along with two follow-up books on drawing and oil painting for beginners, as well as a series of artinstruction workshops on DVD. He has also illustrated children's books for Harcourt Achieve and two greeting cards for National Geographic, and he has done over two hundred illustrations for Standard Publishing.

Many times I am inspired to sketch or journal when I want to record a new idea or when I see a previous subject with fresh eyes. I can also find inspiration by viewing someone else's artwork. Inspiration comes to me naturally when I am outdoors.

Sketching is recording what you see visually on paper, and it is also communicating what you see to someone else. I can't say I sketch every day for the purpose of sketching. It is natural for me to pick up a pencil to sketch what I am trying to communicate to someone or to capture something visual. I may sketch a piece of furniture I saw to describe it to my wife. I may sketch a tree or someone's face as we are sitting in the park so that I can capture the interest that has been sparked and put it down on paper. I sketch to plan finished art, to problem-solve or to study a subject for my teaching or a book I am working on. I sketch to capture or record an idea, vision or

dream.

When sketching, I use different materials according to my purpose for sketching. If I am casually out and about, I may use a small sketchbook (about 6" × 9" [15cm × 23cm]) or 8½" × 11" (22cm × 28cm) copier paper used with a Masonite board and a 2B or mechanical pencil. For more serious sketching, I use larger, heavyweight drawing paper (usually 80 lb. [170gsm] or more) along with 4H, HB and 4B graphite pencils.

When sketching, I may think about how to approach a common subject in a new way or about the magnificence of the world around us, but if it's lunchtime, I am probably thinking about food.

Working out my artwork not only requires knowledge, experience, observation and talent, but it also takes the right frame of mind. When sketching, I try to be relaxed and easygoing so that I am able to be more creative and also comfortable with my artwork as I progress.