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Rikard Lindby

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How do you treat small sketchbooks? I I just got some A5 sized sketchbooks made from very nice handmade paper. Now I feel a bit blocked. I normally paint/draw on larger papers, A4 minimum. Starting a sketch I always hope, almost always in vain,  that the result will be worth framing and hanging on the wall. But A5 feels a bit small, doesn't it? Maybe if I use it exclusively for very strong compositions, like figure studies or something, I don't know. Hmm. Thanks for any thoughts.

Sylvia Evans

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Just keep it with you with a pen and draw / sketch wherever you are...a jumping off point for a grand opus or just to make memories ....I've got quite a lot of A5  books and wouldn't be without them   This was a spontaneous gig in a pub in Scotland....a memory and fun. 

Alan Bickley

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That’s great sketching Sylvia… Forget about working up finished artwork for framing, sketch books are for recording anything and everything on a daily basis, scribbles, colour notes, any subject matter and medium that inspires…but not finished work generally! A5 is a great pocket size, I’ve also got lots of them… these are typical sketches done in my Stillman & Birn Delta sketch book, which I’ve used a double page across the gutter!
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Rikard Lindby

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Thank you both Sylvia and Alan. Those are great advice and sketches. I think will use them for small studies, travels and daily life etc.  Fun things.  And if fortune smiles and I happen upon a masterpiece, there is just a question of finding a massive enough frame to put it in :) Bust of a Bearded Old Man by Rembrandt. 10.6 x 7.2 cm

Teagan Waters

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Consider treating your A5 sketchbooks as intimate visual diaries. Use them for quick, spontaneous sketches, capturing moments, ideas, or emotions. Experiment with new techniques or styles. The smaller size encourages freedom and exploration without the pressure of creating frame-worthy pieces. It's a personal space to nurture creativity and express without inhibition.

Sylvia Evans

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I think the artists on here do exactly that Teagan...

Alan Bickley

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It has all the hallmarks of being AI Sylvia! I’ll stand corrected if this new poster replies!
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I had the same thought Alan when I first read the posting . There seems to be a pattern of bring up past items by new members  but of course that doesn’t mean they are all AI , will be interesting to see if there is a replay. Quite sad that it’s one of the things you thing of when reading a comment that it could be AI , it’s already having an impact on us. 
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Collette Hughes

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Consider treating your A5 sketchbooks as intimate visual diaries. Use them for quick, spontaneous sketches, capturing moments, ideas, or emotions. Experiment with new techniques or styles. The smaller size encourages freedom and exploration without the pressure of creating frame-worthy pieces. It's a personal space to nurture creativity and express without inhibition.
Teagan Waters on 17/11/2023 12:50:56 This is identified as ai on Copyleaks. 

Sylvia Evans

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I did wonder...Did anyone hear today about AI  over riding copyright. ??
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Martin Cooke

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Sylvia, I heard about it (half asleep on World Service at some ungodly hour this morning) https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67446000 By the way, I don't know if they still work this way, but recent AI image generation approaches are based in part on connecting the image with the text in image 'alt' tags provided by users, so one way to subvert these systems is to make up nonsense tags (not nonsense words, which are easy to reject, but just 'wrong' words), though since these tags are used by speechreaders for visually-impaired readers this isn't ideal... A site like this one with titles associated with paintings is a goldmine for AI image generators (leaving aside the titles I give to my abstract pieces).
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Collette Hughes

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The only thing I've heard about recently is a court ruling that people cannot copyright ai produced material. Even if it is made up of hundreds composite images and has additional work to it. It is treated as derivative work. The court views it the same as creative commons. Say someone uses a photo from pixabay for a painting you cannot copyright the resulting painting even if you add other elements because all derivative work is subject to the same creative commons licence as the original photo.  I know there are artists fighting copyright infringement by ai firms such as midjourney. I read somewhere that the Daily Mail has joined them too because of stolen text. The like of Nightcafe have done nothing to stop users putting the names of living artists in their prompts, no excuse for that, it stinks.  They still allow people to hide their start images, most of these will be stolen off the internet too. It really is a dirty game.    
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