Whether you’re a professional artist or just beginning your creative journey, a sketchbook practice is such a rewarding and beneficial habit to have. Your sketchbook is your own personal space to grow your skills. You can explore new ideas, try new techniques, document ideas to use later on larger projects and hone in on your own personal style.
If you want to begin a successful sketchbook routine, read on to learn some practical tips and get some inspiration to inspire your creativity and have you looking forward to spending a little quiet time every day with your sketchbook.
Table of Contents
5 Benefits of Sketchbook Consistency
Here are just some of the daily benefits of drawing and painting in your sketchbook.
- Improve your sketching skills – Your sketchbook is the place to work on your drawing skills without worrying about ruining your more expensive canvases or papers. It’s also your space to sketch brand new ideas you are trying for the first time. Sketch – erase – sketch again. It’s all about learning and developing ideas.
- Become more observant of details – When you spend time sketching a still life, trees or flowers in your yard or even a photograph, you will begin noticing details. The more practice, the more comfortable you get with the process.
- Use your sketchbook to experiment – This is the place to experiment with new ideas, new mediums, and new styles. If you always paint with acrylics, try watercolors. If you usually paint landscapes and always want to make them more abstract, this is the place to do it!
- Boost Your Creativity – The more you draw or paint, the more ideas begin to flow and the more it helps eliminate creative block. Keeping a sketchbook (or a few) going will encourage you to take one concept and repeat it on the next pages to develop the ideas into something that you can then use on a larger project.
- Build Confidence – As you fill your sketchbook, you can look back and see your progress. Consistently working on your art, you will improve and feel more confident to continue to try new things.
Supplies to Start a Sketchbook
If you are already a painter, illustrator, or sketch artist, you probably already have most of the supplies you need. If you’re just getting started, you can start with a few basics and add more as you go.
- Sketchbooks – THE PAPER MATTERS. If you are sketching with pencils or pens a 68lb paper is fine but if you use your sketchbook for painting, you’ll need heavier paper. Mixed media paper is a thicker paper (around 98lbs) and watercolor paper is even thicker (around 140lbs.) You can find some samples of each type below.
Ideas to Help Fill Your Sketchbook
The ways to fill your sketchbook are endless, but here’s a list to help you get started.
For the beginner
- If you are a beginner…. copy! Find something you like and try to copy it. This is just for practice; you should NEVER try to sell a copy of another artist’s work.
- Try a tutorial from YouTube. There are thousands of them to choose from. Here are a few to get you started.
- You can search for beginner art tutorials online or try one of mine here.
- There are lots of books available to teach you to draw step by step.
For artists of all levels
This is your space for experimentation with new color palettes. Try repeating patterns in your new colors to see what you think before starting a new painting.
If you are a watercolor artist, try out new paints, techniques, and textures like these by Jen Picicci. before they go on your nice new watercolor paper
If you’re an artist that creates your work in series, this is the perfect place to plan out your ideas, color palettes, and style to make it cohesive. You can make lots of small paintings and refine your ideas in your ideas before you start.
If you want to work on your drawing skills, you can fill an entire sketchbook with doodles and simple sketches. Doodling is known to be great for your hand-eye coordination and focus as well as a stress reliever.
Try urban sketching. Urban sketching is a form of art described as drawing scenes from life on location, not from a photograph. It’s not only cityscapes, it could also be a rural barn scene or anything that captures a moment in time.
Art challenges are another way to hone your skills. You can find great challenges at Daily Paintworks. You can also find them on Instagram and Pinterest. Use #artchallenge2024, #paintingchallenge, or other variations to find one that is right for you.
It’s a great idea to keep a few sketchbooks around for those times when an idea pops into your head that you want to remember, but having a sketchbook habit can make a noticeable difference in your art. The results will be more confidence in your choices and skills on large projects since you’ve already practiced those choices in your sketchbook, AND you will discover new color pallets. ENJOYED the process!
Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at no cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase