Artist’s Sketchbooks That Will Change Your Life … (2024)

Drawing exclusively from life, Evan Kitson has amassed a collection of sketchbooks filled with anatomical studies, notes, figure drawings and portraits. The sketchbooks themselves feel as personal as journals: the margins are packed with handwriting and the drawings show constant exploration. That Kitson teaches art is no surprise; there is a beautiful authenticity to Kitson’s sketchbook practice that reveals a near religious devotion to the pursuit of learning. Some of Kitson’s sketchbook drawings are worked to a flawless finish, while others are abandoned or covered over — the sincerity of purpose, however, is evident on every page.

There is a timeless quality to the sketches of Galina Ershova that cannot be explained by her choice of subject matter alone. In a style reminiscent of old master etchings, Ershova favors quiet nature vignettes or the familiar architecture of popular European cities for her sketches, making it difficult for viewers to place the era. As you might expect, Ershova also makes etchings: the fluency of line exhibited in her pen and ink sketches is naturally present in her etchings as well, giving the sense that each practice enriches the other. Routinely seeking out fresh views of popular sites for her sketches may likewise influence the inventive compositions that make Ershova’s finished works so noteworthy.

With a resume that includes album and magazine covers, collaborations with the Australian Ballet and Prada, epic murals and sweetly embossed stationary, James Jean is the archetypical L.A. artist — which is to say, he is equally at home in a staggering array of creative pursuits. The casual ease in which Jean transitions from one art form to another is also evident in his sketchbook style: Jean’s mix of naturalism and graphic design lend an appealing quality to his imaginative drawings. Visually dense and elegantly rendered, Jean’s drawings navigate the grey area between illustration and fine art with a characteristic — and enviable — effortlessness.

As a self-described “sketching nerd,” Jenya Uzhegova does not shy away from the details. Her meticulously rendered drawings leave no subway grate or fire escape unexplored, getting to the heart of borough living by examining the everyday aspects undergirding it. From the Domino Sugar Factory to Chinatown, Uzhegova faithfully records what she sees in watercolor, pen and ink. At times Uzhegova allows her detailed drawings to overlap in a collage-like approximation of urban chaos, overwhelming to all but those who have lived it. For those who have, there is added enjoyment in recognizing ourselves in Uzhegova’s candid sketches of lingering park-goers, harried shoppers and dozing commuters.

Jewel tones, rich textures and a distinctive style bring Marco Mazzoni’s color pencil sketches alive with captivating charm. Mazzoni often depicts stereotypically saccharine subject matter such as flowers, butterflies and puppies, while nimbly undercutting the sweetness of his subjects with subtle distortion. A keen familiarity with proportion and anatomy is necessary to convincingly distort them, and Mazzoni does not disappoint. Even the way in which Mazzoni uses color pencils — layering a limited color palette over a black and white rendering — is closely related to the traditional oil painting grisaille technique. Befitting his peculiar mix of traditional skill and fairytale aesthetic, Mazzoni’s next project is naturally a children’s book: “Mirta + Her Pawsome Friend — A Little Story,” in remembrance of his own beloved, and pawsome, pet.

Repurposing the style and format of traditional Chinese painting, along with a healthy dose of pop culture, Mu Pan crafts a decidedly modern, iconoclastic narrative. His sketchbooks are themed with aggressive titles such as “sh*t History of China” and “sh*t Myth of China,” where scenes of everyday life are peppered with gory imagined battles and psychosexual fantasies of dominance and power. In the sketchbook titled “Mu Pan the Great,” Pan even includes a sketch of himself masturbating at his computer along with the text “Every body does that! Even Jeremy Lin.” The opulently rendered surfaces and multifaceted narratives of Pan’s sketchbooks wind the viewer through a modern day Garden of Earthly Delights, while challenging us to confront our own uncomfortable desires in turn.

To describe what artist Nicolas V. Sanchez creates with ballpoint pen as simply extraordinary is to understate the case dramatically. His miniature ballpoint drawings display a mastery of the medium rarely seen and fantastic to behold. Sketching in his preferred Moleskin sketchbooks, Sanchez layers assorted colors of ballpoint pen to construct exquisitely lifelike drawings of people, animals, scenery and fine art copies. Sanchez dedicates entire books to his various residencies, travels, family and friendships. Viewers fortunate enough to get their hands on one of his sketchbooks are treated to page after page of brilliantly rendered slices of life.

Themes of home and place permeate Pat Perry’s sketches, which seem to be at once both tough and nostalgic. Perhaps it is because Perry himself is constantly on the move — hitch-hiking across America and Europe, train-hopping, camping in abandoned spaces and photographing all the steps along the way — that his sketchbooks contain such searching imagery. That Perry harbors a deep curiosity of our global society is without question; much of his illustration work focuses tightly around activist causes. For example, his work on the massively oversized, hand-drawn educational poster for the Beehive Design Collective, “Mesoamerica Resists,” demonstrates an abiding commitment to causes such as climate justice and class inequality. From localized concerns to the broader American experience, any subject to which Perry trains his eye is certainly worth a closer look.

The unguarded candor of Paul Heaston’s sketches — which document his surroundings with pleasing directness — reads much like an open invitation to his daily life. Heaston, it would seem, draws nearly everywhere he goes. There are countless sketches of his home, strewn with the happy messes of family life, as well as sketches from inside his car, at coffee shops, libraries, airports, and nearly anywhere else you could imagine Heaston had reason to be for over ten minutes. Indeed, Heaston is so eager to capture the day-to-day minutia that surrounds him that his sketches actually bend perspective in order to squeeze in more visual information — including his own hands, legs and feet. At least for Heaston, an unhurried appreciation of the little things is what sketchbooks were made for.