Sketchbooks are treated in many different ways :

- Some people treat them like books of art with every piece finalised and fully rendered.
- Some people only create rough sketches and scribbles for quick ideas with the intention of keeping it to themselves and not sharing with the world.
- Then there are the people who are so intimidated with new sketchbooks that they hardly draw in them before they give up and start a new one and end up with hundreds of unfilled sketchbooks on the shelf... (we have all been that person at some point ...am I right ?)

Here are the ways in which I approach new sketchbooks - I hope you can find some of it useful if not interesting :) Below are some sneak peaks into some of my sketchbook pages and a video of my latest sketchbook tour!

#1
Choosing a Sketchbook

My advice for choosing a sketchbook is really just to try as many as you can. The more you try the more you will figure out what you like to use the best: what the best paper is or the best paper size, spiral bound or not, thick or thin etc. I am currently making my way through an A4 Moleskine sketchbook but all previous books have all been different. If you like the satisfaction of finishing a book I would always advise buying the thinner sized books to start with. This way you get that sense of joy and accomplishment when you finish a book quickly. Personally I don't mind a thicker sketchbook now I have finally got over the 'blank book fear'.

A great idea is to ask for sketchbooks for birthday and Christmas presents so you have a stockpile of many different ones to test out before buying them!

#2
Goals & Practice Points

On the very first page somewhere I always write down the things I want to achieve or practice throughout the new book and I always refer back to this on the days where I know I want to draw something but I can't decide what. Some of the things I have been noting down have been :

- Anatomy practice - specifically hands
- More dynamic body poses
- Practice no reference sketching
- Practice ink drawing with no pencil sketching

Once I have finished the sketchbook I always like to look back through the pages and then add another goals/practice list of things to the back. Things that I have discovered need more practice or that I want more practice at in the new book. Then I transfer this list into the front on my new sketchbook.

I always find that doing this keeps me focusing on improvement and gives me something to work towards in the next book.

#3
Mindset

One of the things I struggled with in the beginning was the fear of starting a new blank book. There were too many thoughts of expectation that everything had to be good and it stopped me from actually making anything. What I have learnt now is that the sooner you stop thinking of a sketchbook as 'precious' the better.

The reality that I found was that the more you draw in them the better they will become. Yes, the first few you do will probably 'suck' to you but you will never get the confidence to keep starting (and finishing) new sketchbooks if you don't just dive in and go for it. I would advise starting with a small/ thin sketchbook to start with such as the Seawhite and Brighton A5 paperback ones.

I like to think of my sketchbooks now kind of like time capsules and if I look back through them I can see such drastic improvements from my first book to my current one, and you will too - guaranteed. You just have to do it and not worry about anyone else seeing it apart from you.

I find now that the more sketchbooks you complete the better they look each time. You get familiar with what layouts work and how to make pages look interesting and expressive. So let that fuel your energy into creating sketchbooks. The quicker you can fill one the quicker you can move onto the next!

My main advice is keep going ! keep completing books!

#4
What to Draw?

Like my fear of the blank book i also had about 5 different sketchbooks on the go at once. In one i would do pencil portraits, in another it would be fashion sketches, another would be larger portraits and another would be watercolour practice.

Looking back this was an awful idea - I didn't know what book I wanted to work in and I had only ever filled a couple of pages in each. It was such a waste!!

Now I use my sketchbooks to practice everything!! I have one watercolour book and one normal I only use the two. If I need a paper that needs to hold more water I will use the watercolour book but otherwise its my Moleskine.

Practice everything in there - if you feel like doing some anatomy, do that. If you feel like a gouache landscape then do that!

Personally I think it's what makes sketchbooks look so interesting to look at when they are filled with so many different subjects and mediums.

If you want to do a more finalised piece - that's okay too. It is still practice at the end of the day whether its the medium you use, the colour mixing, or the style in which you've drawn it. It is your sketchbook you can put whatever you want in there.

What also makes a sketchbook interesting? - filling all the pages and filling the whole space. Utilise all the space in the book and don't just put one drawing to a page.