Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
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Art & DesignStudio practice: recording, materials and evaluation30 min★★★ difficulty

Recording in sketchbooks and journals

A sketchbook is not a gallery of finished work. It is a working tool where observation, notes and experiments accumulate until an idea becomes possible.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Use a range of techniques to record their observations in sketchbooks, journals and other media as a basis for exploring their ideas

Key learning points

  • • Recording by looking
  • • Using more than pencil
  • • Annotating with purpose
  • • From recording to ideas

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

techniquesrecordobservationssketchbooksjournals

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Recording in sketchbooks and journals

An English teaching video on this topic from Sketchbook Skool. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Use a range of techniques to record their observations in sketchbooks, journals and other media as a basis for exploring their ideas

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already be able to make a simple observational drawing.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Observational drawing
Drawing directly from what you can see.
Thumbnail
A small, quick compositional sketch.
Annotation
Written notes explaining intention and findings.
Media
The materials used to make marks.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Ways of recording

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Recording by looking

Draw from the object, not from memory or a symbol of it. Timed studies help: one minute for the whole shape, five minutes for proportion, fifteen for tone. Working at different speeds trains different skills, and the fast studies are often the most useful because they force decisions about what matters.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Using more than pencil

Record with whatever suits the subject: biro for energy, charcoal for mass, wash for atmosphere, collage for pattern, photography for fleeting light, and rubbings or frottage for texture. Varying media prevents everything looking the same and often reveals a quality of the subject that a pencil hides.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Observational drawing means drawing from...

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Which annotation is most useful?

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Making the book work for you

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Annotating with purpose

Notes should record intention, method and judgement: what you tried, why, and what you would change. Useful annotation is short and specific — 'diluted ink dried too flat, try layering' beats 'this is my ink drawing'. Dated pages let you see progress and give evidence of how an idea developed.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

From recording to ideas

Recording feeds development. Group related studies, choose a detail worth enlarging, and use thumbnails to test compositions before committing. Leave space to return to a page. A sketchbook works when its pages talk to each other, and the messy pages are usually where the thinking happened.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Thumbnails are used to...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Frottage records...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • People often try to make sketchbook pages look finished. It is a working tool, and experiments belong in it.
  • People often annotate by describing. Record intention and judgement instead.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

____ with whatever suits the subject: biro for energy, charcoal for mass, wash for atmosphere, collage for pattern, photography for fleeting light, and rubbings or frottage for texture.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Recording in sketchbooks and journals

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. A one-minute study is useful because it...

  2. 2. Varying media helps by...

  3. 3. Dating pages provides...

  4. 4. Charcoal is particularly good for...

  5. 5. A sketchbook page should ideally...

  6. 6. Recording feeds development when studies are...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

Reading a portrait

Artists make choices before they make marks. A sitter placed high in the frame looks powerful; the same sitter low in the frame looks small. Light falling from one side sculpts a face into shadow and bone; flat light makes it open and plain.

Objects do work too. A book says learning, a dog says loyalty, a wilting flower says time passing. Viewers in the past read these signs as easily as we read a logo.

When you look at a portrait, ask three questions: where is the light coming from, what has the artist put in the sitter's hands, and where am I standing — above, below, or level with them?

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Choose a portrait and answer the article's three questions about it.
  2. Explain how you would light a portrait to make someone look kind.
  3. Plan your own portrait, listing two objects you would include and what each one says.

  • Sketchbook page

    Diagram

    Make your own piece, then photograph it for your sketchbook page.

    1 finished piece

  • Annotation

    Writing

    Write around your work: what you tried, what worked, what you would change.

    6 sentences

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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