Concertina sketchbooks for art material testing

There is something magic about unfolding a concertina book.

I love to collect them and use them to develop any sort of creative idea:

from photo albums to travel journals, from sketchbooks to little artist collectable books.

One of my favourite ways is to use them to test new materials and medium for panting.

It’s very different from how you use it as a sketchbook because the focus is just on “what happens if I use this material on top of another?”, “is this medium durable?” “how does this tool work on paper?”.

Rather than being focused on the visual idea, on creating something visually appealing, your brain is simply engaged in understanding the character of the material itself.

Even if created completely random, while unfolded you magically discover that everything creates an interesting visual thread :)

Here below is my latest concertina for material testing that I have made over a span of 6 months. Is a visual diary of my art explorations and new inspiring discoveries.