Using a Sketchbook: 5 Key Tips

Full disclosure, all my school life I had no idea what the hell my sketchbook was for. I got so much conflicting information! I was shown all these immaculate tomes, each page stained or inked or treated in some way before a pencil was put on the page and when it was boy was the art great. Then they told us that the sketchbook was for us to work through our ideas, improve, grow but we’d be getting marked on our growth! So I have to grow as an artist while seemingly being the full package to begin with? Great. So the following article will give you some key tips I’ve discovered in the intervening decade when I’ve had no one to impress. 

TIP #1- KEEP MULTIPLE SKETCHBOOKS

I don’t know what stage you are in your artistic development. You could be in school, in college, a hobby artist, a working artist, an enthusiastic amateur or a budding professional. This tip is all about state of mind. I long ago threw out the idea of the majestic presentation sketchbook my teacher showed me. I even threw away calling it a sketchbook and opted for workbook. Fact of the matter is, to improve you need somewhere to fail, you need to make a mess, you need spaces appropriate for your development or you will not succeed. Keeping multiple sketchbooks can be for many reasons. You may want that nice and neat sketchbook you can show your friends so they can ahhh… over your immense talent. But you need a place to do your nuts and bolts stick drawings, life drawings that look alien, thumbnails etc… Bad art in a sketchbook can be discouraging, so keep a separate sketchbook you tell yourself is meaningless. Its scrap paper in a binding. Other reasons you may have a second or third or fourth sketchbooks is because there is no one size fits all sketchbook. Not that I have found.  Alcohol markers are notoriously difficult to find sketchbooks for and watercolourists have their own preference. Separating your work out into multiple sketchbooks is fine as you’ll find mixed media papers are a jack of all trades and a master of none. Then there is size itself. From tiny A6 sketchbooks to massive A2 sketchbooks, it just depends on your goals.

TIP #2- SET GOALS

So you’ve got a sketchbook or a range of them. The best way to start a sketchbook is to have a think of what you want to accomplish in this book. Sketchbooks are about working through ideas and improving. They are the working in the maths equation. They help you get to the result quicker. But what is your result? So you have a thin sketchbook for one specific piece you want to develop? Your goal is your final piece of course but its more than that. Its the goal of making the piece. So your goal may be to explore a theme or different media. Have a think about the end of the sketchbook and what you want to look back on. Some examples from my current sketchbook:

-Work on watercolour.

-Try to achieve more varied effects and vibrant colours

-Work on drawing more including life drawing and shading methods

-Explore a wide variety of subject matter building more challenge into each piece as I progress

-Experiment with different brands of paint to see which I like more

-Try to be more original with composition

-Explore the work of other artists

-Work on more detailed images, train my mind to figure a way in to complex subjects

-Become confident enough to share my work online

TIP #3- EVALUATE, EVALUATE, EVALUATE

So, you set goals at the start of your sketchbook. Seems only right you should explore how far you got with them at the end. This can be done in conjunction with setting your goals for the next sketchbook.  Look at each goal you set at the start and browse through your work to see how far you have gotten with these. Some of the goals set out above can be taken forward into a new sketchbook if you don’t feel sufficient progress has been made. Evaluation should be ongoing throughout your sketchbook regardless. You will get more ideas, get deeper into themes and subjects, see your work move on in a way you didn’t anticipate to begin with but you should realise this. Every piece of work you do should have comment. What do you like? What do you not like? What can be improved? How can you use this in future? This is as essential to the learning process as doing the drawing or painting. You need to know what you’ve done spectacularly well to do it again.

TIP #4- DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF

I’ve seen a lot of artists who use their main sketchbook very much as a rough book. That is not me. Maybe a hangover from my examination days but I put no limits on how good a sketchbook page should be or how much time and effort I should put into it. If you worry about doing something so great you want to sell, get a sketchbook with perforation. I feel that practice doesn’t stop at line art or quick anatomy drawings but through to the very end of the painting. How do I know I can do something effectively on canvas if I’ve never done anything similar to my full potential in my sketchbook? Nothing is to good for your sketchbook. Also remember the great benefit of sketchbooks when you start out, they are space savers. Stretched Canvas takes up the space of an entire sketchbook sometimes. Where will you put 10 of those? Do your work in your sketchbook as you learn and grow and you have 30 sheets or more to do your business. Then you won’t be knee high in space wasting canvas, then when you do progress get some Canvas boards.

TIP #5: USE TRACING PAPER TO COVER MESSY MEDIA

So we are experimenting with media, and we get to charcoal and pastel. Your Sketchbook becomes untouchable. You’ve fixed it but its still staining. Here is the simple tip, Cover your messy drawing with tracing paper. Just tape a size appropriate piece to your page and presto, it won’t affect all your surrounding pages. If you have a casebound sketchbook you can even bend the paper into the book’s spine groove and tape it on the opposite page so you can use your full page. This is often used in pastel pads you can buy but you can do it all at home for less cost. Awesome! Remember, we put no limits on our sketchbooks. OK, maybe don’t do a paint pour in your sketchbook. One limit.

So there are my 5 tips for sketchbooks. I figured out what my sketchbook needs to be for me and my art. It was not what the exam board wanted when I was 18 but there you go. We are all different so I’ve tried to be broad. Happy sketchbooking!