From the Scrapbooks
SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
When I was in art school I started keeping scrapbooks of things I came across that I liked. I’d save illustrations by artists I admired, napkins from bars, old magazine covers that I found in flea markets, packaging, lettering, anything that caught my eye that I thought I could use for some future assignment. I’d glue them or tape them into these over-sized sketchbooks and whenever I had a project that I was stuck on for ideas, I’d flip through these books, looking for inspiration or something I could steal. These books were different from a scrap file that was full of reference photos that seemed useful, these were books that were a pleasure to look through, pages that could spark ideas. Every illustrator has their collections of things they like and use in their work. Internet image-search has seemed to replace this accumulation of printed ephemera for young artists today. When I give assignments to my students at Art Center that require historic research many of the same images show up, time and again. Keeping a physical record of my interests and inspirations helped me form an identity for my work, and I recommend that young artists who are finding their style of image-making try keeping a scrapbook like these.
I made a Tumblr of some of the pieces from the books, you can check it out here.
I made a Tumblr of some of the pieces from the books, you can check it out here.
Peter Palombi
Mick Haggerty
McKnight Kauffer
Animation
Art Center Student Work
Baseball
Book Jackets
EDITORIAL
Forever Young
Jazz ABZ
Jazz at Lincoln Center
L.A. Sketchbook
London Sketchbook
Maps
Musicians
Name That Movie
New Orleans
On The Road: Illustrated Scroll
Paintings
Playboy Jazz Festival
Postage Stamps
Posters
Sketchbooks
The New York Times
© 2024 Paul Rogers