Stretching the Story: How Concertina Sketchbooks Help Students Develop Visual Narratives

Narrative is one of the hardest things to teach well in art. Students often have strong starting points, a feeling, an issue, an image; but struggle to sustain ideas, sequence meaning or show development clearly over time. Pages fill up, but the thinking stays fragmented.

Concertina sketchbooks offer a simple structural shift that can radically improve this. By unfolding ideas into a continuous, linear format, students are forced to think about order, cause and effect, and progression. Their work becomes readable, not just to the teacher, but to themselves.

For GCSE and A-level, where AO1 demands clear development of ideas informed by context, the concertina format quietly does a lot of heavy lifting.

Traditional bound sketchbooks encourage accumulation. Students add pages, images and annotations, but often without a clear sense of direction. Concertinas, by contrast, insist on movement.

When unfolded, they behave more like a storyboard, a timeline or a visual essay. Students can literally read their thinking from left to right.

This linearity supports:

- Narrative thinking – beginnings, transitions, shifts in tone
- Sequencing – how one idea leads to the next
- Editing – weak sections are immediately visible
- Assessment conversations – development is there to be seen, not inferred

For weaker students, this structure provides reassurance. For stronger students, it becomes a framework they can subvert, stretch or complicate.

(Tone, texture and translation)

This project works well at KS4 and KS5 as an early narrative exercise.

Starting point:

Students document a familiar journey, walking to school, a bus route, a train line. They begin with photography, noting:

- Changes in light
- Repeated landmarks
- Emotional responses (calm, boredom, anxiety)

Concertina use:

Each panel represents a moment in the journey. Students are encouraged to:

- Shift medium gradually (photo → drawing → paint)
- Alter texture to reflect mood
- Repeat motifs (road markings, windows, footsteps)

Because the format is continuous, students naturally start making decisions about pacing: where to slow down, where to compress.

(Environmental narrative)

This project suits identity, sustainability or place-based themes, particularly popular at GCSE and A-level.

Starting point:

Students research a natural or man-made system:

- Urban green spaces
- Coastal erosion
- Personal objects ageing over time

Concertina use:

The unfolding structure mirrors the concept itself:

- Early panels: growth, order, balance
- Later panels: disruption, decay, fragmentation

Techniques might include:

- Gradual colour shifts
- Increasing material breakdown
- Interruptions to surface (tearing, scraping, overpainting)

One of the strengths of the concertina format is that it mirrors how many artists already think and work. Introducing students to this context helps them understand that narrative sequencing is not a school device, but a legitimate artistic strategy.

Antony Gormley has used unfolding formats in preparatory drawings to explore movement through space and the body’s relationship to environment. His sketches often read as investigations rather than finished images, an important message for students who feel pressure to polish too early.

William Kentridge’s animated drawings are another useful comparison. Although not concertinas physically, his work relies on progression, erasure and reworking across time. Showing students how his narratives unfold frame by frame helps them understand how their own concertina panels can function as moments within a larger visual argument.

Karen Stamper’s works extensively with concertina sketchbooks, using the unfolding format to explore narrative, memory and place. Her practice often begins with walking, collecting and observing, with ideas developing gradually across a continuous sequence. This approach is particularly useful for students working on journey-based, identity or place-led projects, where meaning emerges through progression rather than single resolved images.

Karen Stamper, concertina sketchbook example, karenstampercollage.com

Contemporary illustrators and graphic novelists also provide accessible reference material. Artists such as Shaun Tan and Chris Ware use sequencing, pacing and silence between images to convey meaning and concepts that translate directly into concertina sketchbook work without relying on text.

Because the entire narrative can be viewed at once, concertina sketchbooks are particularly effective for developing students’ ability to:

- Analyse their own work as a whole
- Compare intention versus outcome
- Identify where meaning strengthens or weakens

From an assessment perspective, concertina work simplifies what is often difficult to evidence. Development is linear, visible and traceable. Teachers can clearly see:

- Where ideas originate
- How research informs practical decisions
- How experimentation leads to refinement

This makes moderation conversations more straightforward and helps students articulate their journey with confidence. Importantly, it achieves this without excessive written scaffolding, allowing the visual work to carry the weight of the narrative.

At a time when students can become overly concerned with quantity, the concertina sketchbook subtly rebalances priorities. Space is limited, progression matters, and every decision has a visible consequence.

For teachers, it offers a reliable way to support narrative thinking, conceptual depth and meaningful development, particularly within identity, environmental and personal investigation projects.

For students, it offers something equally valuable: a way to see their ideas unfold, connect and evolve, all in one place.

Concertina sketchbooks work best when students are free to test, layer and revise without worrying about a “final page”. Mixed media is particularly well suited to this format, allowing ideas to evolve through drawing, paint, collage and surface reworking as the narrative unfolds.

The following materials support exploratory, mixed-media concertina projects in the classroom, enabling students to develop visual narratives with confidence and clarity.

Specialist Crafts Concertina Sketchbook 

Specialist Crafts Graphite pencils

Specialist Crafts Colouring Pencils

Specialist Crafts Oil Pastels

Specialist Crafts X4 acrylic paint 

Specialist Crafts Gel Plates

Specialist Crafts fineliners