As I wrap up the studio for the year I’m feeling thankful for everyone who has supported my practice.
I spoke to Jackson’s earlier this month about my sketchbooks, which are the basis for all the different parts of my studio practice so thought that would be a nice thing to conclude with. Have a read below or there’s a link to the full interview here
INSIDE THE SKETCHBOOK OF SOPHIE GLOVER
Sophie Glover is a multi-disciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, and jewellery, she focuses on themes ranging from the occult, culinary gatherings, to the female gaze. She visits us at Jackson’s Studio to share an inside look at her sketchbook and talk about her practice. Sophie discusses how her sketchbooks serve as vital tools for organising her varied creative work, how the hustle of professional kitchens fuels her creativity, and why the communal atmosphere of eating together enlivens her practice.
I use about four sketchbooks at a time, and they’re all 13 x 21 cm softcover Moleskines. The paper is thin and a beautiful cream colour, which sets off the black pen or pencil that I work in. The soft cover and lightweight paper gives them an unprecious feel which helps me relax when using them.
My practice has many different facets to it, and my sketchbooks reflect that. Although my ideas all stem from the same themes – often centering around food and the domesticity of the kitchen – I can sometimes feel like I’m putting on very different hats in the studio; a painter exploring themes of rest, personal ritual and the occult, an illustrator intensely observing the creativity and pace of kitchens, or a jeweller thinking about the female gaze. I use the differentiation of my sketchbooks to make sense of these different areas.
My most serious sketchbook is the one I use to plan paintings; ideas quickly jotted down, thumbnail sketches for big works, and studies of figures or objects. It is messy and always made in pencil (Faber-Castell Series 9000 Pencils 2H), so I can rethink and revise as well as relax into the soft edges of the medium.
The sketchbook feels private and precious to me; a little window into my mind, and I would think twice before letting someone freely rifle through! These ones run over several years as I find it hard to find time to paint, and ideas come slowly.
Once I make a thumbnail sketch of a painting, I then make a second, more detailed sketch in pencil on A4 paper, which I then translate to a full-scale drawing made in pigmented black pencil (a beautiful dark line but immovable once put down strongly). I then trace this drawing onto my primed painting panel in red pencil before making my underpainting. And so the drawing grows.
My second sketchbook is my notebook, the paper is printed with tiny dots, which immediately makes me less precious when working in it. It is predominantly filled with to-do lists and meeting notes, but as a result, I carry it around with me everywhere, so it also ends up being the sketchbook that I use to capture life around me.
The sketches are made in pen (a Pentel BK77-A, which is an incredibly fine and dark black biro). This allows my line to be fast and varied; I work upwards from a faint underdrawing to a heavy line on top which is important for making complicated drawings from life in busy environments. I can never know when starting one of these sketches which lines will be important an hour later. These make up the source for my drawings of kitchens, using fast overlapping line work to show movement and the flurry of creative process.
The making and sharing of food has always been a centre point to my world; the community of the kitchen table fascinates and enlivens me. I used to draw in artist’s studios and fell into drawing kitchens when I was partying at a Wednesday lunch being served in the printmaking Atelier of Michael Woolworth in Paris.
At around midday, after a studious morning on the huge lithography presses, one of Michael’s assistant printmakers disappeared to a back corner of the atelier to cook. And at 12:30 lunch began; served on a long wooden table amid a riot of colourful Jim Dine editions that stood splendidly against the walls.
A salad to start, followed by seafood pasta served with a small glass of red wine. Then an apple tart, brought from someone’s mother that morning in Normandy, and coffee and cigarettes all round.
The lunch table served as a setting for creative ideas to be hashed out and worked through. After two hours, work began again with new solutions and ideas in tow – it was glorious, and Michael assured me they did it every day. So I changed from drawing studios to kitchens and have never looked back!
I also have a sketchbook where I plan new jewellery designs for my pins and rings. These pages are slow and considered and mostly technical with a lot of lists of costs, measurements and workshop dates surrounding them.
Finally, I have a ‘clean’ sketchbook with plain pages in which I make any commissioned drawings either on site in restaurants or back in the studio. These drawings are often then carefully removed from the sketchbook and pressed onto Somerset paper to give them weight and flatness. Or, if it is a more commercial commission, they are scanned before being cut up, rearranged, and enhanced with digital linework.
Sketchbooks give me a private place to think and plan, without pressure, without mess. They are a quietener for a busy mind; I offload into them, but then they, in turn, give things back to me.
I have a shelf of them going back a decade in the studio. I refer to some of them daily and can feel quite confused if I’ve left one at home when I’m in the studio or vice versa. I lost a sketchbook once for five years, which I had taken around Japan, drawing in kitchens and markets – it felt like an emotional relief when I was reunited with it!
My advice for those wanting to make the most of their sketchbooks would be to make sure you get a sketchbook that feels casual. Whether that’s the paper quality, the size, or the medium you use in it, it’s important you don’t feel like you’re on show whilst using it. To the same end, I would also say don’t feel you need to share it on social media whilst what’s on the page is still a working idea.
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