Tips for keeping a sketchbook

As someone who has made art for years, I can’t imagine my life without a sketchbook. Sketchbooks are brilliant for capturing things that inspire us while out and about, collecting our ideas as they come, and providing a timeline of our creativity.

I was not always a fan of sketchbooks. Art is something I have been very perfectionist about in the past. When younger, I would draw on individual sheets of paper rather than a sketchbook. The idea of a complete book of my sketches intimidated me. I would want each page to look perfect and that just isn’t practical. Working predominantly in pencil, having the option to erase whenever, and whatever I wanted, meant I could spend ages on one single element of a drawing.

For me, the turning point was when I started sketching in pen. Ink has a permanence you have to roll with. If you make a mistake, you either scrap it and start again or work with it. I went with the latter and have never looked back. It stopped me being perfectionist and I improved a lot.

I always have multiple sketchbooks on the go in various sizes and suitable for various mediums. Each time I leave the house I will take a sketchbook —  usually a small A6 one which fits easily into my bag or pocket — so I can sketch if I have time to fill or if I see something I want to capture or note down. Sketching is very much interwoven into my life.

Tips

Choose the layout

Vertical, landscape, panoramic, or even square. There are a variety of sketchbook styles to choose from. You can also choose sketchbooks with grids or dots. Which one will work best for you? Think about what you like to draw most. If you tend to draw portraits then a vertical sketchpad will do well, if you prefer sketching storyboards, then a landscape one will be ideal.

Paper

Sketchbooks come in a variety of different papers. Sometimes the medium you use will help decide what type of paper the sketchbook should have, but other times there can be an abundance to choose from. Conveniently lots of sketchbooks will have recommendations on the packaging of what medium(s) work best with them and this can be a great aid in helping you decide which one to choose. If using fine liners then a smooth, non-absorbant, paper is best and this can be quite thin. On the other hand, if using a medium where more liquid is used, such as watercolours, you will need a heavier paper — around 300gms.

Theme

While sketchbooks can be filled with anything, it is worthwhile considering if you would like the sketchbook to be comprised of drawings which fall under a specific theme such as landscapes, pets, architectural images, or people. Some of my favourite sketchbooks are those where the artist captures scenes everyday scenes from their life such as their morning commute or coffee shop trips. Most of my sketchbooks are full of scenes from nature. I also have sketchbooks for city scenes. Nature is my comfort zone, buildings are not. But growth takes place outside of the comfort zone so I am always keen to expand what I draw.

Daily input?

One approach to keeping a sketchbook is to add to it each day. This can be done by allocating each day its own page, while another option is to split each page into two or mix it up and fit a variety of small sketches on each page. If the entries are maintained over the course of a year, it makes for something really interesting to look back and reflect on in the future. Some inspiration for this way of keeping a sketchbook can be found on Instagram as there are many artists who use this technique. They frequently share each day’s output on the platform. If the thought of sketching every day is intimidating, don’t fear(!), a great way to start is by taking part in ’30-day drawing challenges’. These can be found online through a quick Google. The most popular of these is ‘Inktober’ which runs during the month of, you’ve guessed it, October, and encourages people to create something using ink for each day of that month.

Striving for perfection

A common reason for no longer keeping a sketchbook is striving for perfection and being out off if a sketch doesn’t turn out the way you visualised it. It’s important to remember, however, that a sketchbook is supposed to be filled with just that, sketches, not perfect drawings. It’s easier said than done, I know, as I am one of those people who have abandoned a sketchbook because I wasn’t happy with how it was looking…! As I mentioned above, a technique that has worked for me in getting over the problem of trying to create ‘the perfect sketchbook’ was choosing to work with pen as this forces you to focus on the broader picture — if you make mistake, you need to roll with it. This is hard at first, but over time you get used to it and your sketching speed will increase. Ultimately, keep sketching; the more you do it, the better you will get.

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