Before visiting the Brooklyn Art Library, I thought it would be very spacious and mostly packed with big and heavy sketchbooks. I imagine it to look like a research library where people bring in their work and use the library as a reference. However, when I arrived at the Brooklyn Art Library, I was astonished at how small the place is. This art library does not give off a strong work environment as other libraries do. It is homey and makes me feel inspired while looking through the sketchbooks. I was impressed with how many sketchbooks there are on the shelves and how every single one of them is different. After spending time looking at the sketchbooks I felt like the books are not only well drawn, but also contain unique ideas that could be a good resource for my Bridge Project. I learned that composition or the structure of how to arrange the drawings in a book has a significant impact on the viewer. Positioning it in a specific way makes the picture unique and allows the shifts to take place. In the beginning, I was confident that I would probably not gain anything from this field trip because it was difficult for me to understand the sketchbooks that I looked through and incorporate it into the assignment. However, the guiding questions or the question below the drawing box from the homework handout were really helpful as it helps me think through and dig deeper into my ideas. It helped me feel outside of the box. For example, Part 5 of the handout talks about how might a sketchbook look like a game. I was really confused because no matter how much I look at the sketchbooks, I could not find ones that might appear like a game. However, after reading the questions repeatedly, I begin to find a solution to the answer. I wish that I had more time during our visit because I believe I would have gotten more references for the different ways to present a drawing or painting. If I were to have more time on the field trip, I would search for more sketchbook with “grid” as my keyword because my portfolio post earlier is based on grids. I want to find more ideas and improve it from there.
