I've decided to join up with the group Everyday Matters which is a drawing 'challenge' group. BAsically, they post a suggestion of a topc for drawing once a week and then you have a week to come up with something.
There are good and bad things with sketch journals. I think that somewhere, a few years ago, someone was keeping a sketch journal where they'd draw their daily coffee or spoon or whatever, label it with cute letters and write some Twitter-esque bit of prose to go along with it. Usually this was done in pen and may or may not have been colored in.
Since then, for some reason, this has become the style-regule for sketchbook artists and in a way, I think instead of promoting creativity, it stifles it a bit because newbies think that this is the way sketch journals are 'supposed' to look, so...they do the same. The same somewhat wiggly lines, the same slightly out of proportion drawings, the same washes of color and the same thoughtful insight on the latte of the day. PBTTTHHHHHH.
It's kind of like Bob Ross. Think what you will of his art, you have to give the guy credit for bringing art to probably millions of folks who would have otherwise never picked up a brush or had the cahones to attempt an oil painting. What happens though is that the technique is so formulaic and foolproof that people get comfortable with that 'style' and techinique and can never escape the land of the almighty tree and the majestic mountain and old rugged barn. I long for a still life. Forget the sunlit wave and paint an apple for god's sake.
I think that sometimes sketchbooks can become the same crutch. I have millions of sketchbooks. Some of them alternate between barely sketched ideas and dozens of thumbnails to work out a painting idea I have, to finished drawings and pretty groovy works on thier own. mixed in is the occasional grocery list and unlabled phone number. But, I'm not bound to my book (haha. get it...bound...to a book...nevermind). The sketchbook should be a tool, a means to an end, a catalyst or springboard. It can be a work of art in itself, but not a genre. I think that while a sketchbook may be a tempting, comfortable and maybe even easy 'gateway' art for people who like the site says "havent picked up a pencil since elementary school', but regardless of your expertise or even goals, it would be a shame for what seems to be a catalyst for creativity actually creating a fenced in world of it's own.
That being said, I think that for now, I'll follow the EDM and post some of my sketches here. But...I will also post some of my paintings, musings, sketches and ideas that are not dictated by anyone by my own little monkey muse in my head.
