Sketchbooks are one of the most important parts of an artist's tool kit! Many artists rely on their sketchbooks for capturing facets of their process and for developing their creativity. The journey of personal discovery and progress that can be taken in a sketchbook can take a lifetime for one artist, while another can fill it in an hour! There are no definitive timelines for sketchbooks – only you can choose the time, place, and pace in which you work.
Some would even go so far as to say that the sketchbook is an artists' best companion! They travel with you, never leaving your side, always there for you to record your ideas and hone your artistic skills.
It's incredibly important to find the right sketchbook for you so that your creative adventures become personal and meaningful journeys. In this blog, we'll explore a few famous sketchbooks from history, and see how some of history's greatest artists used them as a testing ground for their beloved works.
© Ellie Jakeman
What are Sketchbooks Used For?
Artists use sketchbooks and sketch pads as an essential tool for honing their skills, pushing ideas forward, developing themes, and monitoring their progress. They can be used to explore concepts, experiment with new media, as visual diaries, for note taking, and much, much more. With a sketchbook, your imagination is the limit!
You can use them to hone in your skills of proportion, test out colour palettes, practice textures, and develop narratives. They're an integral part of any artist's creative process and are an excellent way for artists to chronologically record their development and look back upon to see just how far they've travelled stylistically, skilfully, and spiritually.
Famous Sketchbooks
Today we'll take a look at the sketchbooks of Leonardo da Vinci, George Robert Lewis, JMW Turner, Frida Kahlo, and Vincent van Gogh, but this is only a small selection of artists! We recommend after reading this article to do your own research, try to find the sketchbooks of your favourite artists, and see what you can learn from their creative processes.
Historical sketchbooks give us the unique privilege look back and gaze into the minds of some of history's most influential artists, and see some of the initial stages of the most iconic works of art the world has ever seen.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) - First Drafts of the Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci needs no introduction; his work, including the famous Mona Lisa, is known and loved the world over. As one of the most diversely-talented artists to come from the Italian Renaissance to ever live, he served not only as an artist, but as a sculptor, an architect, a musician, an inventor, and an engineer!
His acute attention for detail and thirst for knowledge is captured on myriad amounts paper, which later became a collection of sketchbooks and visual journals. Some of the most prolific studies of Leonardo da Vinci can be viewed at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is believed that da Vinci created 50 different notebooks; between 20,000 to 28,000 pages of notes and sketches!
The above image show study for da Vinci's famous mural painting The Last Supper. In the study, da Vinci illustrates various poses for the twelve apostles as Jesus informs them that, before the night is over, one of them shall betray Him. Da Vinci labels nine of the twelve apostles above their heads, allowing him to keep track of the intended poses throughout the painting process.
George Robert Lewis (1782–1871) - Farmhand Studies
Another beautiful sketchbook collection you can view from the V&A museum contains the works of George Robert Lewis, an English painter of landscapes and portraits.
George Robert Lewis was the younger brother of famed engraver and landscape painter Frederick Christian Lewis, and son of the bookbinder Charles Lewis. Born in London on 27 March 1782, he studied under Swiss painter and draftsperson Henry Fuseli in the schools of the Royal Academy.
Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
This sketchbook was made around 1815 in the fields of Haywood, Herefordshire. In it Robert Lewis illustrates the process of haymaking. He focussed on figure drawing; observing the movement and body language of the labourers as they set to their strenuous work. Many pages feature light, rapidly-done sketches that show Lewis' interest in capturing the pure physicality of the labour, and later in the book we see these poses repeat yet again in more completed landscape illustrations, made using ink and watercolours.
Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The series of completed illustrations designed to be sold depict the difficult labour of haymaking in a somewhat romanticised fashion, but from the sketches we can see that Lewis was not blind to the hard physicality of the process and the struggles of the workers. The full sketchbook presents a beautifully-detailed depiction of a day of haymaking back in the waning days of pre-industrial age, and serve as a great study of not only history, but how sketchbooks can be used to capture fleeting moments in time with a personal, expressive touch.
Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
For more information on this Lewis' sketchbook, check out the excellent V&A blog article "Fifty Shades of Hay: The Sketchbook of George Robert Lewis" by Sarah Beattie.
JMW Turner (1775–1851) - The Channel Sketchbook
This beautiful sketchbook is housed at the Yale Centre for British Art. Out of the 300 sketchbooks bequeathed to the British Nation now at the Tate, this sketchbook which is thought to be JMW Turner's last, made its way to the US after it was acquired by Mr Paul Mellon – the centre's founder.
Inside this sketchbook, we find quick sketches of seascapes, landscapes, and quick gestural responses made to recreate the sense of place and of the forces of nature, dark swirls of clouds or calm reflective sunsets.
Turner would take his quick paintings, drawings, and notes back to his studio where he could reference them later for inspiration whilst composing his larger canvases. A beautiful example of using the quick and loose opportunity of using sketchbooks to enhance final paintings made in the studio.
Turner would create these striking images whilst touring England's south coast and Frances’s north coast in the mid-1840s. Contained within this beautiful collection of pages are 74 watercolour studies and 26 graphite drawings. It is believed they were all created en plein air – that is to say they were painted and illustrated on-scene.
It’s also believed that Turner worked from front to back on the right-hand pages, and then he would turn the sketchbook over and work in the opposite direction.
Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) - Visual Diary
Frida Kahlo was renowned for portraying herself and her life through a collection of richly-coloured and uncompromising self portraits. There are many images of her dressed in beautifully colourful traditional Mexican outfits and headdresses that sing off the canvas. They narrate her tragedies and her passions, her dreams and her reality. Identity, the human body, and death were concurrent themes in her work.
Frida started a Visual Diary at the age of 36, in the last 10 years of her life. This visual diary connected Frida to her feelings and emotions, she talked about her pain both physical and emotional. She discussed her worries, and her art practice. Her Visual Diary was a place to discuss her political opinions, her inner thoughts in both words and images.
She was freed from any shackles on these pages and the work that she produced illustrates her spontaneity and her creativity; they are not careful images; they are alive with movement and colour. She talks about how each of her colours are symbolic to her, 'Blue' refers to 'electricity and purity', while 'yellow' represents madness, illness fear, part of the sun, and happiness'
For Frida this diary was personal and intimate, where everything could be contained, remembered and created. Her pets feature in her visual diary, as do pre-Hispanic Mexico, nature and duality, all were recurring themes in Frida's work.
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) - Travel Diaries and Letters
Pictured Above: Cows in the Fields, Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Chalk and Pencil on Paper, May-July 1890
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
The letters and sketchbooks of Vincent van Gogh are one of the best examples of word and image that reveal how deeply and complex an artist feels about their work. They are probably one of the Art world's greatest collections of a chronological journey that enlighten and educate us on this often misunderstood, talented artist.
We see the whole of his creative process through these sketchbooks and illustrated letters but seen through his eyes.
Pictured Above: Palais du Luxembourg Seen from the Garden, Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Pencil on Paper, Paris, February-June 1886
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
It is believed that Van Gogh may have written over 2,000 letters in total to his friends and family, especially to Theo, his brother, confidante and sponsor. He called the drawings in his letters ‘scratches’ and his letters contain over 240 sketches. He describes his inspirations, colours, feelings, emotions, health and daily life, along with his encounters.
Pictured Above: Street View with People Walking, Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Pencil on Paper, Antwerp, November-December 1885
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh’s sketchbooks were the inspirations behind his paintings, his daily visual diaries. He observed the world in deep focus, he watched human behaviour and body language, he noticed every nuance of human emotion and attended to the minute reproduction of it through his observational drawings. Nothing was too insignificant for his attention, he was an observer of life..
Start Experimenting for Yourself!
© Ellie Jakeman
Having looked through five very different sketchbooks from five very different artists, we start to notice a pattern emerge. All of these artists used their sketchbooks as a receptacle for every form of personal expression they experimented with and enjoyed. These sketchbooks were often employed whilst the artist was travelling, enabling them to work quickly and loosely without the sense of preciousness they may feel when working on larger-scale paintings.
Their sketchbooks connected them to the wider world and assisted them in bringing those emotions and observations back to the studio, which allowed such themes to be explored in greater depth. Sketchbooks allow us to jot down whatever we imagine or dream, establish colour palettes, experiment with composition, and make abstract thoughts tangible in a way where we don't have to worry about concepts like neatness or organisation. Sketchbooks provide us with a safe space to try out new ideas, explore new narratives, experiment with different styles, and (perhaps most simply and crucially of all) develop our artistic practice.
If you're interested in starting your own sketching journey, check out the ARTdiscount Sketchbook Collection using the link below.
