Sketchbooks and Daily Practice
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| sketchbook | 速写本 | sù xiě běn |
| master copy | 临摹 | lín mó |
| practice | 练习 | liàn xí |
The engine of the course
- The sketchbook 速写本 is where daily low-pressure drawing compounds into skill.
- Short daily sessions beat rare marathons — 20 focused minutes a day transforms a year.
- Fill pages with studies: hands, cups, corners of rooms, colour tests.
Working journal or decorated diary?
Sort each page by whether it documents real practice.
Copying a master drawing to learn its mark system is a ____.
A master copy, labelled as a study.
Short daily drawing sessions beat rare long marathons.
Daily practice compounds.
Master copies teach from inside
- A master copy 临摹 (Dürer, Rubens, Kollwitz, Hokusai) teaches a mark system from the inside.
- Copying reveals decisions no video can — label it clearly as a study.
- Date every page and add a one-line note.
A dated sketchbook is a form of ____ of growth over time.
Dates prove development over time.
Select all things a working sketchbook should contain.
Only finished pieces hides the practice.
A dated book is documentation
- A dated sketchbook is documentation of growth over time.
- Treat some pages as experiments you expect to fail — the CED rewards visible practice 练习.
- Photograph strong spreads well: process images are legitimate portfolio images.
Match the page type to what it shows a scorer.
A working journal shows the process.
A sketchbook full of only finished, precious mini-drawings is not a working journal — it hides the practice. Let it be messy: failed tests, dated notes, and half-ideas are the evidence scorers want.
One spread, one week: Monday five blind-contour hands, Wednesday a Dürer hare copy labelled as a study, Friday three ink-wash value tests that mostly failed, all dated. That single messy spread proves practice, experimentation, and study at a glance.
The sketchbook compounds daily practice into skill and evidence: short sessions, master copies labelled as studies, dated messy pages, and expected-to-fail experiments — all legitimate process documentation.