Here's some of my 2020 sketchbook work, created throughout the year according to a range of tasks. Most of it is based on observational drawing. I'm one of the co-founders of Sunday Sketching Berlin, which is a collaborative drawing meet-up held every fortnight, and most of these were drawn in our sessions, which all have themes and topics, which might be related to subject matter, or to technique, ie: something like positive and negative space.

Using sketchbooks is a way to a) improve my drawing and b) challenge myself, so I definitely try to make it a regular activity....

But I also use my sketchbook work as a resource for ideas. When I like the results, these are often starting points for larger project, and I might transform them into more polished images or prints, for example.

I prefer to work in a range of media, although of course I have my preferred materials that suit my style of drawing and painting. These were mostly made using pencil, gouache, ink, Neocolour wax pastels, coloured collage paper and I cleaned the images slightly in Photoshop.

I think there's something about hand-made work that still resonates with people, and this is an example of this. This project was featured in the "Illustration" category on Behance, and the comments were very positive.

Regular sketchbook work is essential to my practice, and when I keep it up regularly, I really feel like more "fluent" at drawing and I start to see a lot more progress. Publishing the results and seeing people's reaction is also a way to motivate myself to continue!

Susannah Garden

I'm an Australian illustrator and artist based in Berlin, Germany. I produce a lot of graphic and semi-decorative work, and I enjoy working with narrative and storytelling in various forms. I have a strong passion for handmade work — I'm an active print-maker, and I often create images with ink, pencil, goauche, markers and collage — but of course I also produce digital illustrations. I sometimes produce work in other media, like 3D or moving image.

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