Bridget Meyne is an artist, cartoonist, and comic-maker based in London, and our featured artist for this month’s Inside the Sketchbook series. Bridget’s preparatory sketches for her illustrative work rarely require the formality of a sketchbook, and she’s not one to hang on to a drawing for future reference. Here, she describes her relationship with her drawings, and why communicating her idea is paramount.
Bridget Meyne Takes Us Through Her Sketchbook Practice
It’s funny for me to talk about sketchbooks because I don’t really use them! When I’m making my work I kind of treat the line work as disposable, or I’ll have quick ideas that I want to get down fast on scraps of paper. I’ve been working in sketchbooks a bit this year and I do think it’s really valuable to have as part of your practice (I always envy other artist’s sketchbooks) but it’s something I’ve always found hard. I go off drawings quickly and don’t like to see older stuff, so working on individual sheets has always worked better for me. If I don’t like the drawing, it’s going in the bin!
Saying that, as I do so much digital work now, I do think it’s really important to keep creating physical work and a sketchbook is a great way to do that. I also don’t really work stuff out – I will have an idea for a print and will go straight into making the final piece. I mainly just do little sketches when people buy things from my shop. I’ll do a little drawing on a piece of paper, and then send it straight out with what they’ve bought – I’m not really keeping anything.
I use smooth, heavyweight paper sketchbooks with loose paper for physical work, usually in A3 or larger. I love working big and feel like it can really add drama and looseness to compositions.
I have a little orange smooth paper sketchbook that’s square and easy to fit in my bag and carry around. I also get the cheap ones that look like exercise books so I can tear the pages out as I go! For comics, I am usually thinking about the final form – if it’s for an A5 zine, I’ll work on bristol board in A4, and if it’s something that I’m making to share online, I work in a square Daler Rowney pad that has heavy paper. I know it seems perverse to be choosing size and format specifically for sharing, but I’m really not that precious about the final drawing! I’m trying to get across a mood, idea or joke, and not something particularly lasting.
I also do more considered watercolour and fine art work on watercolour pads, again A3, and then work into them with coloured pencils. I find that if the paper has a bit of texture then it’s easier to get richer colours with the pencils, and doing the watercolour first also gives them something to grip onto.
I like to use loads of different materials when I’m working, although I definitely have favourites. I absolutely love stationery and will always buy an exciting pen! I swear by the double-ended Kuretake Fude 55 brush pen as it has a big rubbery brush tip that’s really fun to use and has the best fineliner for line work that I’ve found. I also really like the Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen for line work.
When I’m doing watercolour work I like using refillable brush pens filled with water as a really quick way to get colour down, which is also really good for painting on the go or travelling. I’ll use any watercolours, but I have a mini Winsor & Newton travel palette that’s great. If I’m using coloured pencils, my favourite, hands down, are the Faber-Castell Polychromos Artists’ pencils.
My whole sketching process is laid out on the page in the final drawing – I work out the composition on the page and then do line work directly on the top. If I’m scanning stuff into colour digitally I’ll either rub the pencil line work out using a rubber, or I’ll use non-photo blue pencils so they don’t scan in.
Using a sketchbook is something that can be really useful to artists, but if it doesn’t work for you, don’t worry too much about it! If I’m coming up with ideas for stuff, most of it will be written down as notes on my phone or photos of things that catch my eye. The sketchbook I chose, in the end, was a tiny one I could just chuck in any bag, and I’m trying to be less bothered by drawings that don’t turn out the way I want. And if you’re like me and always desperate to throw things away, get one with pages that tear out.
About Bridget Meyne
Bridget Meyne is an artist, cartoonist, and comic maker based in South London. Commercially, she works on live drawing, character design, storyboarding and editorial and other design projects. She also makes and sells her own comics, prints, and ceramics.
Bridget’s work usually features an element of humour, dealing with a wide range of themes, from the uncanny and supernatural, or more sarcastic work that features girls, teenage angst, and the digital age.
Her work features strong graphic lines and stylised characters, and she also paints more atmospheric works in watercolour and coloured pencil. Working in different mediums and trying new things, she looks to pulp romance comics, real life story magazines, and nasty fiction for inspiration.
Further Reading
A Guide to Drawing in Galleries and Museums
A History of the Artist’s Book and How to Make Your Own
Plein Air Painting at Glastonbury Festival
Inside the Sketchbook of Katie Eraser
Shop Sketchbooks on jacksonsart.com
2 Comments
Brilliant!
So liberating, at last someone else who
doesn’t see sketchbooking as essential
to their practice. Thanks, Bridget!