Visual Language; Sketchbook Pages NYC

In preparation for creating a minimum of four sketchbook pages in relation to my chosen theme (New York in the 1980s) I conducted a little bit of research into what what going on around that time and what the general feel of New York was like. I found it to be very much a time of the rich were rich and the poor were poor. The lower classes lived in suburban anti-cultures, immersed in a world of crime, drugs and deprivation, while the higher class bathed in their wealth; faking ignorance to the underground world living outside of their doorway. It was very much a time of gritty, dirty imperfection, and that aesthetic was something I was very interesting in conveying through my sketchbook pages. I've always been a strong believer in not being precious with a sketchbook. IF you start to worry about each page or drawing being perfect and beautiful, you're sketchbook will become lifeless, un-experimental and dangerously dull. I believe a sketchbook should be somewhere to make mistakes, make bad drawings, make messy drawings, make whatever drawings you feel like making. And this idea of a tainted and imperfect New York city seemed to fit ideally with how I wanted to start my sketchbook.