Sketchbook as therapist: Self-authorship and the art of making picturebooks. Issue 1 (1st August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pedler, Caroline
• Is Part Of: Journal of illustration. Volume 7:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 147
• Page End: 177
• Publication Date: 2020-08-01
• Subjects: Graphic arts -- Periodicals; Illustrators -- Periodicals; 741.605
• DOI: 10.1386/jill_00029_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-0204

Abstract

To self-author means to have the capacity to make coherent and informed decisions based on one's internal beliefs and to not rely on, or be swayed by, external sources; to trust one's internal voice and identity. In this article, I look to self-authorship as a framework to enable the illustrator to better understand personal engagement and experience of practice and visual identity through critically informed decision-making based on one's internal beliefs; using self-authorship as a phenomenological approach to practice, encouraging the exploration of and reflection on the individual facets of process and self with a more reflective and critical eye. Two case studies set the foundation of this article, and in case study one, I reflect on using personal sketchbooks created on a master's degree and later during a period of great personal distress. As an established illustrator, I explore the way these sketchbooks have revealed the lengthy steps of redefinition of my practice over the past decade or more. Presenting a renewed 'sense of identity' for me as practitioner and for the work I create. Case study two is a prelude to the conclusion and sets in place a context for my own self-authorship as a picturebook maker. Building on Fauchon and Gannon's Manifesto for Illustration Pedagogy, through personal exploration of self-authorship and the role of the sketchbook, this article presents the use and analysis of the sketchbook and mark making as a route to 'visual self-discovery' towards a more authentic picturebook practice.