I love (love!) looking at the sketchbooks of artists, almost more than looking at the finished works themselves. So, when I saw this book and recognized some of the artists on its list, I ordered it and waited impatiently. Sketchbook Confidential did not disappoint. I was also happy to discover many great artists that I hadn’t heard of before!
After reading The Creative License, which is more like a how-to keep a journal/sketchbook, it’s doubly enlightening to have an inside peek at all the different ways other artists keep their sketchbook. The two books together make a fantastic duo for people who have never kept a sketchbook or have tried and “failed” to keep one because of pre-misconceptions of how a sketchbook must be. This book is proof that there’s definitely no correct way. Every artist has their own style of keeping a sketchbook, varying in level of detail or steps towards completion. It’s all so personalized. People even sketch on everything from napkins to metal.
Each artist is given four pages and a little blurb, which is a sufficient amount of space to showcase the sketches and get a feel for their process. The artists are in alphabetical order by last name and so the book doesn’t need to be read linearly. It’s similar to The Creative License in where it’s almost pure inspiration and you’re guaranteed to want to reach for your own sketchbook or journal.
With that said, this is not a how-to book. There is no instruction anywhere, though many artists do list their tools of preference along with little tips and tricks.
Though the work of the artists outshines the gripes I do have, there are a few.
Over half of the book was filled with artists from New Mexico, Utah, California, or Colorado, with over a quarter of the book from New Mexico. That’s not even including the artists that have roots in New Mexico but are no longer there. I know Santa Fe has a strong arts culture, however, it would’ve been nice to have more artists featured from other parts of the world, or at least the country. Neither of the editors, Pamela Wissman or Stefanie Laufersweiler seems to have ties to New Mexico, so I’m not sure why that was the case. Perhaps Sketchbook Confidential 2 has people from more places.
I also wish that the artist’s information was also listed somewhere on their four-page spread instead of only the back of the book. This isn’t an art book with many artists crammed into one spread. There are 4 whole pages with lots of white space! Surely there could have been a way to aesthetically put the information there, rather than having readers flip to the back and search to find out more.
I didn’t mind the writing, though it did sound like the artists were answering questions due to the lack of transitions between each paragraph. It also seems as if they’re all answering the same questions, but the book never lists what those questions are. We can only infer by the way the writing sounds because multiple artists appear to be answering the question “Does sketching shape how I see the world?” (pg. 137). I wonder what questions were asked and would’ve preferred them to be listed somewhere. Other questions it sounds like they were asked are “Why do you sketch?” and “What are your favorite sketching tools?”
Something they do have is a little metric conversion chart at the very end (pg. 174). I’m not sure why, since every time measurements are listed, the conversions are in the parentheses right next to them (as they should be).
Minor gripe: Moleskine was misspelled as Moleskin. (Unless there’s a Moleskin journal I should know about!)
Now that thatโs out of the way, here are some interesting commonalities of keeping a sketchbook along with the number of artists who mentioned it. I only counted the ones that were most explicitly stated:
To Solve Problems: 22
Freedom to Explore: 22
To Document Experiences: 20
To Practice Skills/Study: 18
For Fun/Pleasure: 13
Because it’s more Honest/Personal: 11
For Relaxing/Meditation: 10
Because it’s Low Risk/Pressure: 8
To Connect/Communicate with People: 6
Sketches Nearly Everyday: 14
Sketches Once a Week or Less: 8
TL;DR – The Bottom Line
3/5 (But 5/5 if all you’re looking for is a peek at other artist’s sketchbooks)
Sketchbook Confidential: Secrets from the private sketches of over 40 master artists|
Favorite Quote: “My sketches are like the evolutionary ancestors to my finished work.” – Jennifer McChristian (pg. 75)
Type of Book: Art Inspiration
Editors: Pamela Wissman and Stefanie Laufersweiler
Published: 2010
The Good: Beautiful and inspiring look into sketchbooks, Variety of different styles and mediums
The Bad: Questions asked were not listed anywhere. Artist info not listed on artist spreads. Over 40 artists equal 41 artists…
Artists (in order of appearance):
The book was published in 2010 so I’ve updated some links. In checking all the websites, I discovered that an artist had passed away since then (Ed Morgan, 1943-2014) and felt a profound sense of gratefulness that I had the opportunity to see his sketchbook.
Robert T. Barrett
Dan Beck
William Berra – No personal website found. Wikipedia page linked.
Roberto (Bob) Cardinale – New website link. The one listed in the book is no longer active.
Erin Currier – Warning: Music automatically plays on the website.
George Allen Durkee
Douglas Fryer – New website link. He has a blog that’s not listed in the book.
Tammy Garcia – No personal website found. Wikipedia page linked.
Albert Handell
William Hook
Cathy Johnson – New blog link: http://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/ . The one listed in the book is no longer active.
Nancy Kozikowski
Geoffrey Laurence
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Bev Lee
Linda Leslie
Chuck Lukacs
Jennifer McChristian
Richard McKinley
Jeff Mellem
Ed Morgan
Art Mortimer
Claudia Nice
P.A. Nisbet
Margy O’Brien
William O’Connor
Joe Paquet
Jean Pederson
John Potter
Tony Pro
Alan Paine Radebaugh
Chuck Sabatino – No active personal website or Wikipedia page found. McLarry Fine Art bio linked.
Mark Spencer
Kate Starling
Aleksander Titovets – New website link that wasn’t in the book. Shared with Lyuba Titovets.
Lyuba Titovets – New website link that wasn’t in the book. Shared with Aleksander Titovets.
Joshua Tobe
Elan Varshay – Website no longer active. Unable to find other websites with current work.
Frederico Vigil – No active personal website or Wikipedia page found.
Mark White
Mark Willenbrink