Sketchbooks

For a long time I thought of my sketchbook as an intimidating place that I had to sit down and consciously make great art in, however I think it took moving away from the page and beginning to work in a medium such as clay to realise the importance of the sketchbook.  I believe that sketchbooks are a place to think in pictures, much in the same way a notebook might be used to think through ideas in words.  They're a place were you don't have to take yourself so seriously and were you can think through ideas without being judged on them.  When I start to work on an idea that I want to make in to a sculpture I find that the first design idea that I have (despite how cool I think it is) almost never turns out the way I wanted it to or at least it never has the feeling that I wanted to convey.  In cases like this I find that working in a sketchbook can be very liberating.  The first drawing almost always sucks but as soon as it's done, ideas begin to manifest themselves in quick succession and soon enough ten more ideas are down on the page.  Before you know it, you'll have scratched away all the dirt from your idea lens and will be able to see the thing that you wanted to create clearly.
Here are some pictures that I scanned of my sketchbook from the last few months, you can see how messy and sketchy they can get!

 

  

It's a trap!

This guy was inspired by the Venus Fly Trap that lives in a pot on our kitchen window sill.  He usually catches his prey by burying himself so that only his trap is exposed but here he is contemplating whether or not he's going to eat these curious moths.