Sketchbooks

Artists use sketchbooks for various reasons, some of which are simply as a place to practice observational drawing, recording the artist's direct response to a subject, or to work out ideas, as a travel journal or to use for reportage.  The following images are from various artists' and illustrators' sketchbooks.  

The first of these comes from the sketchbooks of Jeff Geib, a long-time friend and former PCA&D teaching colleague.  Jeff continues to teach and make art at his studio in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  His sketchbooks, with their masterfully-drawn images and thoughtfully composed pages, have achieved the level of art...

Click on images to enlarge.

See more of Jeff's work at LANCASTER GALLERIES.

Irinna Vinnik, a Russian artist, fills her sketchbooks with stylized and decorative images of organic forms in pen & ink...

See more of Irinna's work HERE.

Mattius Adolfson draws whimsical, but intricate cartoon images in his sketchbooks...

See more HERE.

From the sketchbooks of artist & illustrator James Jean...

Visit James Jean's WEBSITE.

French artist Helen Strom's lovely watercolor sketches...

See more of Helen's work HERE.

From the sketchbooks of artist/illustrator Henrik Drescher:

Visit Drescher's site HERE.

Following; images from a variety of (anonymous) artist's sketchbooks...

Design Army

Pum and Jake Lefebure are the co-founders of the multi-disciplinary creative firm Design Army, based in Washington DC.  They have worked with everybody from the Washington Ballet to Neenah Papers to the AIGA and more.

Visit their website HERE. 

Interview HERE.

Illustrator of the Week: Cathie Bleck

Cathie Bleck, an internationally respected artist is best known for her distinctive works in  scratchboard and kaolin clay board.  Her stylized forms are painstakingly cut through inks and handmade pigments, revealing the white of the kaolin clay beneath. It is a process similar in concept to woodblock printing.

Artist statement : “When I was a girl I fell in love with darkness.  The tools I work with-pen, ink, fine knives and clay-became natural choices for someone drawn to observe and record the world in close detail, and to best orchestrate the balance between opposing forces. Through the exploration of symbolic narrative imagery, carved into earth’s clay; I speak to relationships that are intrinsic, permeating through human experience.  I rely on intense contrasts of tone and imagery to form dualities of interconnectedness, observing the equilibrium all species are challenged to establish m in a world of constant change.”

Bleck has been the recipient of many awards, including a gold medal from The Society of Illustrators, NY.  Her artwork has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, The New Republic and on U.S. Postage stamps, Sony Records, Warner Bros. and Motown Records as well as the U. S. State Department’s Earth Day and World Ocean Day Images and many celebrated book covers such as a series of  Carlos Fuentes novels published by Siaggitori, Italy and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Harper, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.

Visit Cathie's website HERE.