I finished my sketchbook

I’ve recently finished my sketchbook. I did a full sketchbook tour on my Instagram (I even did a little voice over), so if you want to see all the pages from it, you can watch it here.

Since the instagram reel length is maximum 3 minutes, I couldn’t say everything that I wanted about it, so here are few of my thoughts on working, somehow consistent, in the sketchbook.

First pages were done by the end of September last year. This was the time when I started posting on Instagram again and somehow came to the conclusion that I wanted to become a freelance illustrator in the future. Maybe I wasn’t totally sure about this decision back then, but I was sensing the direction I want to go. The main aim for the sketchbook, from the beginning, was to search for the “style” I want to go with.

At the same time I was taking part in peachtober, for which I did almost all illustrations digitally. I was almost convinced that I should go the digital route with my works, even though I always was a traditional medium type of girl. I just couldn’t find the way of doing illustrations in watercolour or gouache.

I did master’s degree in painting, so I knew how to paint, but finding a way to paint illustrations for picture books was a whole different story. And the sketchbook was
the answer. Over few months I’ve tested various techniques, compositions, started searching for how to paint textures, details and all that jazz. And I’m so glad I did. Because, if I didn’t, maybe I would only focus on digital illustrations and it would be such a waste!

Through that journey of searching I had few breakthroughs - some of the sketches showed me how I want to portray my characters (the way they move, how their bodies are shaped, should they be more expressive or maybe more poetic and ascetic when it comes to their expression), as well as some technical aspects of illustrations like the use of colour, textures and composition. The spreads I show in this post are some of the ones I think have shaped my visual language.

It’s so strange and fascinating to look back on all of the sketches and see how my style has evolved. Especially on those done in October - for me it feels like they’ve been created by somebody else (the same feeling I have when looking at my illustrations from peachtober). It’s not that I don’t like them (or at least not all of them). I just don’t know anymore the person that created them - or maybe I should say that I finally know myself much better and I know how to address all my inner thoughts and desires on paper?

What’s more - putting so much time and effort into this tiny notebook made me realise, that I really want to become a full time freelance illustrator. Back in September I thought that I want it, but now I’m 100% sure. I’m even quite obsessed with it. I work so much on it, it’s my main goal right now. From the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed I think about my illustrations, stories behind them and what actions should I take, to make this dream come true.

And now that I know how my visual language is more or less formed, I am more and more interested in building my own stories. In recent months I've been thinking a lot about who I really am, what my strengths are, which has always been immanent with me. I have also been reflecting a lot on what I was like as a child and what remained of it but also what was forgotten as I grew up. In parallel with these thoughts, I was working in my sketchbook, coming up with new characters - wondering what their character traits, stories and adventures would be. And then it came to me - after all, I, as the only child, loved to make up different stories - I had invisible friends, often spent time going through different adventures and adventures in my head (either as myself or an invented character). It was only when I started growing up that this was somehow lost and forgotten.

Currently I’m entering phase two of establishing style. I want to make a little shift with my illustrations, just to refine it a little bit more. That’s why I started new sketchbook, just as I was finishing the first one. Can’t wait to see where it leads me!

Hope your days are filled with sun and gentle wind,

Karolina

P.S.

First week of June was so incredibly hot and humid in Cracow. It’s almost unbearable - the shift from rainy and rather cold May into heat is too rapid and my body and mind are protesting.

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