Working in drawing, portray, and printmaking, Isla Jones’ work depicts imagined landscapes and dreamlike eventualities. She explores themes together with folklore, transformation, ritual, and identification – concepts usually knowledgeable by her upbringing in rural Northumberland. Isla visited the Jackson’s Studio to present us a glimpse inside her sketchbooks. She discusses her love of colored pencils, her methodical, affected person drawing approach, and the significance of remaining playful with concepts.
I often have a number of completely different sketchbooks in rotation that each one have completely different features. I’m in a position to hold observe of my concepts higher when issues are compartmentalised, so this manner of working is absolutely useful for me. I hold one sketchbook for the roots of the concepts, that are a bit extra speedy and chaotic, all in pencil. These books are a bit rougher, a bit smaller and flimsier. I attempt to not assume an excessive amount of after I’m engaged on this preliminary concept e-book; I simply attempt to scribble and generate till I discover one thing that I join with.
The principle sketchbook I exploit to play and plan is a bit bigger in scale. It’s an area for experimentation, sampling and recording colors and completely different configurations – completely different variations of the identical factor. My different sketchbook is used as a place to begin, and this one turns into a continuation of concepts that talk to me. I like enjoying with color; it helps me perceive what I need the work to say and the way I need it to talk.
I even have some little sketchbooks that I hold simply to file my day-to-day; all the issues and folks round me. I like holding one thing the place I draw from statement. Most of my different work is usually imagined or from reminiscence, however I like with the ability to file straight too.
Paper that isn’t brilliant white is my desire, and in the intervening time I choose a easy floor for drawing. Typically when issues are too stunning, I get too valuable about them, so I often go for fairly small-scale, A5 or so, paperback booklets with skinny paper. This additionally takes some strain off beginning them; they really feel approachable.
I like to make use of largely pencils and colored pencils in my sketchbooks. I like sticking issues in and attaching little snippets and fragments too, so there are sometimes little bits and items glued in or hooked up. I’ve used charcoal and comfortable pastels in sketchbooks up to now, however I’ve all the time discovered them to switch a bit bit an excessive amount of for my liking.
I exploit pencil as a result of it feels essentially the most pure means for me to work. And I just like the ghost pictures that colored pencils make once they switch onto the alternative pages over time. Or once they’re transferred unintentionally by a mark made on a distinct web page. Typically ghost pictures like this could inform compositions or spark additional concepts.
I like testing colors out and exploring a number of completely different mixtures. Layering colored pencils is such a pleasant technique to work, and I do it largely as a result of I discover it thrilling. When making ready for work particularly, it’s good to check out colors with colored pencils since you’re in a position to get a comparable depth by way of layering.
After I’m making one thing new, I all the time use my sketchbook. I’m an enormous planner. I would like one thing consolidated to some extent earlier than I begin making the work, which is a bit inflexible, however it’s what works for me.
There’s a filtration course of that the concepts undergo, and it’s a journey from the preliminary sketch to the completed work. I would like one thing to construct into and on high of: an preliminary framework that offers me a way of course instantly. After all, issues don’t all the time go to plan, and that’s vital too. The sketchbooks inform the work regardless. The unconscious all the time finds a means in, even after I’m not conscious of it.
The sketches undergo an enormous technique of reconstruction. I revisit and reconfigure; I alter issues after which change them extra. Some issues that begin off someplace find yourself very distant from the place they started.
Concepts transfer and churn and evolve, generally for months or years earlier than they materialise. I feel loads of the artistic course of appears like a kind of alchemy, and the metamorphosis of a sketch right into a completed work feels prefer it particularly. I like wanting again at my preliminary sketches as a result of usually they really feel so distant from the true work, a distant echo, acquainted and unfamiliar on the identical time.
Play is vital. Typically we neglect that each one we’re actually doing is enjoying and testing issues. Making artwork can really feel so severe generally, however loads of the time I simply actually love the enjoyable of all of it.
I’m all the time utilizing my sketchbooks. I particularly like engaged on them at dwelling, the place I can spend my evenings letting concepts develop with no strain. That’s a very powerful factor for me. From that, one thing emerges that begins to really feel actual and significant. My work could be very exact and contained, which generally can really feel like loads of strain. However the preliminary course of is all about play. I attempt to not overthink it an excessive amount of and simply play and take a look at.
If I have been to present any recommendation, it could be that sketchbooks are for you and also you solely. You possibly can strategy them nevertheless you wish to, however I feel the principle factor is to enter it with low strain and mess around with concepts.
Don’t fear about impressing folks along with your sketchbooks; scrappy sketches are simply as precious as stunning ones. I like the thought of sketchbooks being your personal non-public world, in distinction to work that’s made to exit into the world and be seen.
Supplies
Caran d’Ache Luminance Colored Pencils
Pentel Mechanical Clutch Pencil 0.5 mm
About Isla Jones
Initially from Northumberland, Isla Jones is a Brighton-based artist. She works throughout drawing, portray, and printmaking, exploring themes resembling identification, connection, reminiscence, and folklore by way of narratives that exist someplace between actuality and creativeness. Her meticulous, meditative strategy to artmaking attracts on conventional craft, with mark-making handled as a ritual in itself. Jones graduated with a BA in Advantageous Artwork from Kingston College in 2019 and a MA in Print from the Royal School of Artwork in 2023. She accomplished the Drawing Yr on the Royal Drawing Faculty in 2025. She has exhibited each within the UK and internationally.
Additional Studying
Preparatory Drawing Strategies for Portray
Contained in the Sketchbook of Noemi Conan
Jackson’s Artwork Prompts Course: The Fundamentals of Drawing
The Darkish Historical past of the Pencil
Store Sketchbooks on jacksonsart.com
