Creative Bookazine Sketchbook Volume 4 Back Issue

The sketching stage is integral to any piece of art – it forms the foundations that everything else balances on. Sketches can often provide interesting insights into the processes and thinking behind the finished piece as well as showing off technique and skill. An artist’s sketchbook is sacred and personal – often thought of like a diary – filled with uncensored thoughts, emotions and unique flourishes that are special to them. The freewheeling excitement in sketches – where artists don’t hold back, don’t over-think, don’t censor – is hard to beat.

Ahmed Aldoori’s hands, for example, that can be seen in full on page 14 and as a background to this page, show what can be achieved when you set yourself challenges. By drawing 500 hands, Ahmed was able to explore subtleties that are often overlooked. This book is about such captured moments bursting with creativity, straight from the minds of the finest illustrators around the world. Whether made by pencil or stylus, sketches may be loose and generous or precise and economic, but all reveal something about the pure fun of creation.