Exploration can mean both traveling and exploring a particular subject. The definition in the Oxford American Dictionary says that “to explore” is to “travel in or through in order to learn about or familiarize oneself with it.” It turns out that sketchbook is a perfect medium to explore with. As one records his exploration in a sketchbook, he will unmistakably learn more and become familiar with the subject than simply exploring with the eyes and thoughts, and also more effective than recording only in words. Darwin, in the famous “Beagle” expedition wrote, “From not being able to draw, a great pile of the manuscript from the voyage has proved almost useless.” If exploring itself is an input, recording that on a sketchbook is the output. In that record is a journey, a passage of time captured and made permanent. It’s also about stepping out of the boundaries we know and encountering the world that lay beyond our knowledge. As that encounter translates into drawings and writings on a blank page we add a layer of our own perspective to that newfound world.
Artist Tom Kane is an advertising art director, who keeps a sketchbook that he carries around everywhere to draw anything that interests him even slightly. He says, “there is a great feeling of drawing life as it happens.” Just from his sketchbook drawings one can tell that he travels a lot, since the pages go from Vienna to Brooklyn to Seoul. He emphasized the aspect of spontaneity in his works, that he is ready to sit and start drawing at the first sight of the scene that interests him.
Tom Kane -
