Sketchbooks serve various purposes for different artists and professionals. They are used to develop ideas, practice skills like drawing, and document experiences. Sketchbooks can take many forms from simple spiral notebooks to more elaborate handmade books. Artists discussed in the document use sketchbooks for life drawing to understand buildings, record scientific experiments, and develop daily artworks. Teachers encourage students to customize their sketchbooks by adding different materials to engage them in the creative process. Sketchbooks are an integral part of visual arts education, allowing students to explore personal interests and develop their style over time.

1. Sketchbooks

2. Do you ever doodle while you’re on the phone, while lesson
planning, or in a meeting ?

3. Thinking books
Idea books
Journals
Diaries
Painting is another way of keeping
a diary. -Pablo Picasso
Sketchbooks have differing names, forms,
and purposes...

4. Christian Slade,
Illustrator
I have been addicted to
sketchbooks my whole
life. In the early years,
the books held drawings
of favorite cartoon
characters from TV,
cartoons, and toys. I
decided to hold off on
drawing from my
imagination and focus
heavily on life drawing. I
always keep one
sketchbook that I
consider the "formal"
one. I also keep many
cheap spiral bound pads
around and fill them with
ideas and random phone
doodles.

5. Simon Unwin,
Architect
I carry my sketchbook everywhere. I often
try to draw the plan and section of a
building I am visiting, just so that I
understand it better and get to know how
it works.

6. Laura Trinkle - Mulcahy,
Scientist
For a scientist, it is very
important to keep some
form of a lab notebook.
When I am writing a paper
discussing lab results, I
inevitably have forgotten
the important details, and
my lab notebook becomes
a lifesaver. I fill in the
date every morning and
then jot down details
about experiments that I
carry out that day. I also
paste in the results if I
have them, such as
printouts, graphs, and
pictures.

7. Artists of differing nationalities and
backgrounds Christine Castro Hughes,
Artist, Filipino
My journals are a record of my
life, but by no means a complete
one. Once in a while, I make a
masterpiece, but usually I just
make a mess. I keep my
journals to remind myself what
is good and beautiful in the
world. Blank pages definitely can
be intimidating to me. The best
first pages are the ones where I
don't think too much, where I
just have fun.

8. Rama Hughes, Artist
American
Even if you don't like
the physical results,
drawing slows you down
and helps you
appreciate things that
you would never notice
otherwise. I pride
myself on really looking
at things. I really study
faces and details.

9. Mattias Adolfsson, Artist
Swedish
For me, the web is like a
substitute for people
flipping through my book. I
try to update my blog daily
so I have to produce at
least one spread each day.
My sketchbooks are my
playground. I tend to draw
from my imagination rather
than reality.

10. Sophie Merrill
Primary school teacher
I encourage the children to change the pages
in their sketchbooks by adding images, brown
paper, tissue paper or string, or folding or
ripping their pages. I do this as many
children can feel daunted by being presented
with a blank piece of white paper. More often
than not it also stops children constantly
requesting a rubber or thinking they can't
draw.
Sketchbooks in the Primary

11. Sophie Merrill
Primary school teacher
It is always important that
while children are doing this,
they are noting in their books
what they are trying to
create, what materials they
used and how, and whether
they think what they have
done is effective. This
strongly develops the
children's evaluation skills,
which transfer across all
subjects.

12. The school’s programme of inquiry provides a relevant and authentic context for students to create and respond to arts. Wherever
possible, arts should be taught through the units of inquiry and should support students’ inquiries.
Regardless of whether arts are being taught within or outside the programme of inquiry, it is believed that purposeful inquiry is the best
way to learn. The starting point should always be students’ prior experiences and current understanding. When teachers plan learning
experiences that enable students to develop artistically, students are able to make connections, apply their learning, and transfer their
conceptual understanding to new situations.
The term “Visual Arts” is used to describe practices that have been more traditionally described in education as “Art, Craft and Design”.
It is important that students are exposed to a broad range of experiences that illustrate the field of visual arts, including architecture,
bookmaking, ceramics, collage, costume design, drawing, graphic design, film, illustration, industrial design, installation, jewellery, land art,
mask making, metalwork, painting, papermaking, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, set design, textiles and woodwork.
Students will begin to appreciate the depth and breadth of the field by experiencing visual arts created by diverse artists, locally and
globally, now and in the past, by women and men, and by people of different backgrounds. In visual arts, the role of the sketchbook is
integral to this process. The sketchbook provides a space for students to take ownership of their learning, to creatively explore personal
interests and to develop their own style. The PYP recognizes the range of forms a sketchbook may take, reaching beyond the physical
book to possibly include new media, sound and film.
-Thinking Skills and Integration
- Differing Forms and Mixed Media
-Varying formats of Sketchbooks, an integral part of the Visual Arts programme
From the Arts Scope and Sequence

13. Form- Size, binding, cover, pages, premade or
classmade
Ownership - Where kept, when used, rules, control
Permanance - Removable pages? Ripping out, covering
up, adding pages, rules
Time span - When and for how long?
Integration - What other subjects can be
explored visually? Which Units of Inquiry?
Take a minute to think
(and sketch...)

14. ISL Primary Arts Sketchbook
Guidelines - agreed upon August 2011
Students will keep a sketchbook used for
exploration of visual arts content, with
possible relevant integration into other subject
areas.
Students should use this sketchbook for a
period of at least 6 weeks(but sketchbooks can of course
be used all year.)

15. ISL Primary Arts Sketchbook
Guidelines – agreed upon August 2011
The sketchbook should also contain at least
one exploration of a “responding” learning
outcome.

16. For Example...
Taken from the Learning Continuum for
Responding
(A learner may exhibit a range of learning
outcomes from various phases at any one
time.)
Phase 2 Learning Outcomes
Learners:
• enjoy experiencing artworks
• show curiosity and ask questions about
artworks
• describe what they notice about an artwork
• identify the materials and processes used in
the creation of an artwork
• analyse the relationships within an artwork
and construct meanings
• communicate their initial responses to an
artwork in visual, oral or physical modes
• make personal connections to artworks
• express opinions about an artwork
• create artwork in response to a variety of
stimuli.

17. Let’s try a sample...

18. Sample pages and PDF notes
from our Art textbooks are
available in: Primary
General/Primary Curriculum
Binder/Section 7 Arts