Filtering by Tag: Sketchbook

New Sketchbook Images

Added on by Lara Hoke.

This summer I was blown away by Pat Sonnino's series of Moleskine Japanese sketchbooks that combined materials (largely from Rome's vast Porta Porteses flea market) with pen and ink and gauche.

Inspired by her work, I purchased a sketchbook and began drawing.  Each set of pages is of a particular space, our living room, a friend's apartment, a coffee shop.  Each space is connected to the next set of pages by an architectural element, shape, or line.

I've always been a fan of the Surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse and like to think of this sketchbook as a spatial version of the game.

Lara Hoke, Japanese Moleskine Sketchbook

I shared my first sketchbook with my critique group last week and received some great feedback.  One suggestion was to research the variety of camera angles used to create interest and meaning in film and bring that variation into my work.  This shot below is of my first attempt to incorporate this idea.  I think it's a start, but that I can push this idea much further.

Lara Hoke, Moleskine Japanese Sketchbook

Work In Progress

Added on by Lara Hoke.

Some of the work I'm most proud of lives in the pages of my sketchbook.  Over the past several years I've tried to recreate the qualities of those drawings in various ways including projecting transparencies on canvas and photo-etching.

Below is my latest attempt, and, in my opinion, my most successful.  In these new pieces, I'm working on toned gessoed boards with pen and ink, using paper towels and water to create atmosphere and a feeling of history. The greatest advantage of this medium over my previous attempts is that, like a sketchbook, it's transportable.  I can work directly from my subject matter (as I do in my sketchbook) rather than using reference images.

Pen and ink on gessoed board.