In and Out of a Sketchbook: Stories, Inspiration and Creativity

This week I finished filling up my 24th sketchbook.

I’d been saving the last two spreads, not quite ready to be done with this cute little book that I’d been working on for over 3 years. Athough it’s exciting to finish a sketchbook, sometimes I don’t want to finish them. It’s nice to linger in their pages just a little bit longer.

(And yes, I chose this one because it was a cute little book).

I’ve written about sketchbooks on my blog many times. I teach quite a few classes about working in sketchbooks. I think about sketchbooks a lot. Do I have anything to say about them that I haven’t said before?

I don’t know.

And I don’t think it matters.

Encouragement always bears repeating. Maybe it’s like the pages of sketchbooks themselves. Working in a sketchbook is a practice. One that nurtures my creative spirit. It’s why I love them so much.

Even if a particular page is less than exciting, it’s a part of a bigger story.

At this point in my practice, I’ve come to see how all of my sketchbooks seem to intertwine. One idea leads to another.

One page to the next.

I have multiple sketchbooks in progress and often do the same sorts of pages again and again, across various books. Sometimes even at the same time.

It makes me sad to think I spent years avoiding sketchbooks because I thought they always had to look good.

Now, for me, a sketchbook is more about the experience of creating the pages than the pages themselves.

It doesn’t really matter what the pages look like.

When I sat down to paint the words for the last spread in this little book, I’d been looking through it’s pages, thinking about the years of working in it. And I was struck by how much of my life became part of my sketchbook. How much was captured on its pages.

Many of my sketchbook pages are done in my garden, connecting with the plants as I observe and sketch them. They capture a moment in time.

This spread was the last one I did in my old garden:

This book also includes the first sketches I did in my new garden, or as it’s not yet a garden, my garden-to-be.

The pages of a sketchbook are never the whole story. Even the stories of an entirely filled book spill out into our lives. Out into our other art or creative endeavors. They intertwine and overlap with other artists’s stories. Whether we’re inspired by them, are learning from them or collaborating with them.

And as a teacher my sketchbooks intertwine with the sketchbooks of all of my students (thanks for the reminder, Karen!).

Perhaps that’s the most beautiful thing about them, the way they connect me and my story with so many other stories.

If you’d like to see all of the pages in this sketchbook, I’ve created a video tour of it, sharing my thoughts about the pages and some encouragement for your own creative practice. (There’s also a sneak peek of my new studio).

Some of the pages in this book show up in two of the classes I teach, including Develop a Sketchbook Practice.

It’s one of my all-time favorite classes and is now available as a stand alone class on my website (in addition to being on Skillshare).

Plus, for a few more days you can purchase it as part of this year’s Art Bundles for Good.

For $109 you’ll get 102 classes (valued over $5000) with 25% of profits going to The Uganda Partnership.

I’d love to have you join us in making art and doing good.

Do you have a sketchbook practice? What are some of your favorite things about it?