Working in drawing, painting, and printmaking, Isla Jones’ work depicts imagined landscapes and dreamlike scenarios. She explores themes including folklore, transformation, ritual, and identity – ideas often informed by her upbringing in rural Northumberland. Isla visited the Jackson’s Studio to give us a glimpse inside her sketchbooks. She discusses her love of coloured pencils, her methodical, patient drawing technique, and the importance of remaining playful with ideas.
I usually have a few different sketchbooks in rotation that all have different functions. I’m able to keep track of my ideas better when things are compartmentalised, so this way of working is really helpful for me. I keep one sketchbook for the roots of the ideas, which are a bit more rapid and chaotic, all in pencil. These books are a bit rougher, a bit smaller and flimsier. I try not to think too much when I’m working on this initial idea book; I just try to scribble and generate until I find something that I connect with.
The main sketchbook I use to play and plan is a little larger in scale. It’s a space for experimentation, sampling and recording colours and different configurations – different versions of the same thing. My other sketchbook is used as a starting point, and this one becomes a continuation of ideas that speak to me. I love playing with colour; it helps me understand what I want the work to say and how I want it to speak.
I also have some little sketchbooks that I keep just to record my day-to-day; all of the things and people around me. I like keeping something where I draw from observation. Most of my other work is mostly imagined or from memory, but I like being able to record directly too.
Paper that isn’t bright white is my preference, and at the moment I prefer a smooth surface for drawing. Sometimes when things are too beautiful, I get too precious about them, so I usually go for quite small-scale, A5 or so, paperback booklets with thin paper. This also takes some pressure off starting them; they feel approachable.
I like to use mostly pencils and coloured pencils in my sketchbooks. I like sticking things in and attaching little snippets and fragments too, so there are often little bits and pieces glued in or attached. I’ve used charcoal and soft pastels in sketchbooks in the past, but I’ve always found them to transfer a little bit too much for my liking.
I use pencil because it feels the most natural way for me to work. And I like the ghost images that coloured pencils make when they transfer onto the opposite pages over time. Or when they’re transferred unintentionally by a mark made on a different page. Sometimes ghost images like this can inform compositions or spark further ideas.
I like testing colours out and exploring lots of different combinations. Layering coloured pencils is such a nice way to work, and I do it mostly because I find it exciting. When preparing for paintings especially, it’s nice to test out colours with coloured pencils because you’re able to get a comparable depth through layering.
When I’m making something new, I always use my sketchbook. I’m a big planner. I need something consolidated to a point before I start making the work, which is a bit rigid, but it’s what works for me.
There’s a filtration process that the ideas go through, and it’s a journey from the initial sketch to the finished work. I need something to build into and on top of: an initial framework that gives me a sense of direction immediately. Of course, things don’t always go to plan, and that’s important too. The sketchbooks inform the work regardless. The subconscious always finds a way in, even when I’m not aware of it.
The sketches go through a big process of reconstruction. I revisit and reconfigure; I change things and then change them more. Some things that start off somewhere end up very far away from where they began.
Ideas move and churn and evolve, sometimes for months or years before they materialise. I think a lot of the creative process feels like a type of alchemy, and the metamorphosis of a sketch into a finished work feels like it especially. I love looking back at my initial sketches because often they feel so far away from the real work, a distant echo, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
Play is important. Sometimes we forget that all we’re really doing is playing and testing things. Making art can feel so serious sometimes, but a lot of the time I just really love the fun of it all.
I’m always using my sketchbooks. I especially like working on them at home, where I can spend my evenings letting ideas develop with no pressure. That’s the most important thing for me. From that, something emerges that starts to feel real and meaningful. My work is very precise and contained, which sometimes can feel like a lot of pressure. But the initial process is all about play. I try not to overthink it too much and just play and test.
If I were to give any advice, it would be that sketchbooks are for you and you only. You can approach them however you want to, but I think the main thing is to go into it with low pressure and play around with ideas.
Don’t worry about impressing people with your sketchbooks; scrappy sketches are just as valuable as beautiful ones. I like the idea of sketchbooks being your own private world, in contrast to work that is made to go out into the world and be seen.
Materials
Caran d’Ache Luminance Coloured Pencils
Pentel Mechanical Clutch Pencil 0.5 mm
About Isla Jones
Originally from Northumberland, Isla Jones is a Brighton-based artist. She works across drawing, painting, and printmaking, exploring themes such as identity, connection, memory, and folklore through narratives that exist somewhere between reality and imagination. Her meticulous, meditative approach to art-making draws on traditional craft, with mark-making treated as a ritual in itself. Jones graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Kingston University in 2019 and a MA in Print from the Royal College of Art in 2023. She completed the Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2025. She has exhibited both in the UK and internationally.
Further Reading
Preparatory Drawing Methods for Painting
Inside the Sketchbook of Noemi Conan
Jackson’s Art Prompts Course: The Fundamentals of Drawing
The Dark History of the Pencil
Shop Sketchbooks on jacksonsart.com
The post Inside the Sketchbook of Isla Jones appeared first on Jackson's Art Blog.
