What is Grid Journaling - How to keep a Raw Sketchbook with Pen Grids, Journaling Fragments rather than Wholes, Cohesive Composition though Drawing Gridlines as part of the Sketch
Milliande Sketchbook Journaling - What is Grid Journaling ?
Doodling in my Sketchbook has over the years always been my companion art activity especially when travelling .
I always find a few minutes , sketching an interesting fragment encountered on my journey ...
Often sketchbook keeping gives way to my photography , especially since becoming an iphone photography lover I tend to find myself neglegting the travel sketchbook
But always return to my idea sketchbook for bashing about some seemingly unrelated pieces of inspiration encountered along the way that in turn always nourish my muse when I am ready to paint later on
How to Keep a Grid Journal with Simple Grid Lines to focus on Small Aspects of a Scene for Keeping a Sketchbook, Ideal for Travel Sketchbooks
I also like to keep a sketchbook for freeflowing and loosening up sketching doodles .. those pittle moments of time captured in a quick sketch ... these are not meant to be masterpieces but rather serve to let a loose line capture the essence of a moment, a fragment of a whole composition ... something taken down to be included in another composition later on .. Raw Sketchbook sketches... not honed , not trimmed,not worked over again and again ... just released onto the sketchbook page.... studies of a particular aspects, preliminary drawings , quick glimpse out of a moving car ... etc
~ Keep the lines loose, holding the pen very gently and playing with the flow of lines, no need to be straight, or careful or measuring
~ Add the first grid square or rectangle on to your page setting the " mini canvas" as it were
~ Look at your subject/object in my case looking over the rooftops of London
~ find an interesting snippet ..a fragment , a pattern, a roof, an angel that resonates with you and focus on that , disregarding everything else
~ Try not to make the chosen object fit into your " Grid" rather than start somewhere and let it evolve and if you ran out of room , simply stop there ... even if a " vital " piece appreas to be missing .. it is simply not meant to be there right now ..
~ try to let your eye wonder of the scenery until it stops .. then capture that view ... a little balcony, a pipe running down a wall, a chimney top, half a London Eye, the roof of St Pauls Cathedrawl, a corner of the gherkin ... a leaf tumbling down, a wild weed hanging on to a small roof tile ...
~ the idea is to rejoice in the fragments not the whole
~ after the first grid square is filled ...add another ... I rarely think of what I am going to put in it until I put the square down ... split them into rectangles, change size, make some mini ones, some large ones, some odd angles
~ to keep the composition coherent make sure the outer lines of the grid are aligned .. it the gris squares that touch the edges of the sketchbook are all aligned horizontally and vertically ... it does not matter about the inner grid squares .. just the outer ones to form an impression of it being " one picture" belonging together made up of little puzzle pieces as it were
~ I use Grid Journaling a lot when going to galleries where no photography is allowed, when travelling and having only a couple of minutes to capture a mini view , when Raw Sketchbooking to connect a bunch of different ideas ..
Here a Peek at how I grid Journal :-)
London Rooftop Sketching Art Materials Used :
Unipen Drawing pen and Moleskine Journal
Have you ever tried sketching rooftops .. or from a roof garden ? Or climbed to the top of a building, maybe taken the elevator all the way up to peek ?
A lot of museums here in London have upper level viewing galleries too ..a fab place for a little grid journaling
Exhibition Sketchbook -- Attended the Treasures of Heaven Art Exhibition in London held at the British Museum. They created a very sacred space , subdued lighting and soft carpets and quite rightly no photography was allowed . So I took out my moleskine sketchbook and trusted unipen sketching pen and recorded those fragments that resonated with me .. I like these grid journals as a memento when I am traveling.
