Friday, November 23, 2018
Why You Should Keep a Daily Sketchbook—and How to Get Started
Artsy: A sketchbook can be much more than just a notebook for drawing. “It can be thought of as a closet, an attic, a basement or a file folder, where unedited thoughts are stored in a jumble,” explains Olivia Petrides, a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “A sketchbook is a way to process raw information.”
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I always admire people who can draw their thoughts and observations onto a paper, or any surface really. Whenever I try, I struggle with visualizing my thoughts or remembering exactly what I saw. I get caught up in small things like finding the perfect reiteration of the objects and end up confused very quickly because I lost the initial angle I started with. So all the advice bullet points in the article are not really helpful for me. They are too theoretical and not practical enough. But whenever I try drawing, I always realize that my perception of an object is vastly different from what I actually see. The image of the object and how I think it ‘should’ look have a bigger influence in my head than what I actually see that the result of my drawing always does not reflect what I actually see. It is frustrating, but doing it sometimes just make me realize my prejudice towards things and my deepest appreciation towards artists.
This past summer I had a doodle journal, where I would sit down at the end of every day and doodle the best part of my day. This allowed me to reflect on my whole day, but also it helped me remember details of it that otherwise would’ve gone unnoticed. Like the article says one of the hardest challenges is to push away expectations. I wanted them to look very similar in aesthetics and would get disheartened when things didn’t look like they were in real life, but now I look at my journal and have so many cherished memories. A couple of years from now I will probably will not remember the frustration of drawing them, but the memories that are drawn. I am by no means an artist, I just truly love doodling, and making quick drawings. Keeping a doodle journal helped me to be mindful of my present and also polished my skills.
When I saw Eli Hill’s Article “Why You Should Keep a Daily Sketchbook and How to Get Started” I immediately clicked. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, have a daily sketchbook,but I never implemented it into my routine. My long term commitment always fell through. It was always treated by me as another one of those ideas or habits, I said I was going to do but never actually got around to doing. Ive been able to do that with writing in the past, and it was because I treated it beyond the act, it was a tool to get any thoughts on a page, such as a feeling, idea or description. So when Eli mentioned that “A sketchbook can be much more than just a notebook for drawing” and quoted Olivia Petrides’, School of the Art Institute of Chicago examples “‘it can be thought of as a closet, an attic, a basement or a file folder [and, as what I did with my writing journal], where unedited thoughts are stored in a jumble”. When he brought that concept up, it immediately became more clear to me how I could implement it into my routine. I had to think about the sketchbook in a more loose way. I'm definitely considering this article when starting a new sketchbook this upcoming semester.
I have tried keeping daily sketchbooks many times before. My main problem is the need for organization. Every time I start a sketchbook, I find myself doing a certain type of art in it: whether it be portraits, watercolors, landscapes, etc. I constantly find myself starting a new sketchbook every time my focus changes, as to keep each sketch book focused on one category. I definitely want to try and start over with a daily sketchbook at the beginning of the new year. I want to focus on letting out the creativity in my head each day, in one place, instead of seventeen different sketchbooks/notebooks. I think it will be a nice way to keep track of my artistic growth throughout the coming years. I know I love looking back at my old sketchbooks, but I wish they were more complete and labeled by year. Hopefully this year I will be able to keep up one solid daily sketchbook, by using a small one I can always carry with me, and by using my favorite materials.
I was admittedly inclined to read this article due to some confirmation bias; I have kept sketchbooks and notebooks pretty much my entire life, and I suppose I wanted to hear that I was doing something right. I have recommended the practice countless times to countless skeptics, and what I’ve come to realize is that it just doesn’t work for everyone. It can be a healthy and productive practice for artists and visual thinkers, but for others, it can be frustrating, daunting, or a hassle. Maybe someone else’s equivalent to a sketchbook is a blog, a camera, even a therapy animal. There’s no right or wrong, better or worse way to get ideas out and explorations achieved. Personally, I find that a solid quality dotted notebook can serve as a journal, a dump for loose thoughts and ideas, a sketchbook, and so much more. I am very content with the routine that I’ve found for myself, and I think that others would benefit more from investigating what their personal routine might look like, not what an article tells them will be beneficial.
Personally, I’ve never really considered myself an artist, so I’ve never really felt the need to keep a sketchbook. When I think about it, this logic doesn’t really make any sense. I’ve always been one to doodle in my notebook during classes, or on paper when I’ve finished something and have some extra time, but I’ve always just thought of this as a time killer, not actually drawing. Now that I think about it, that is still drawing, and if I use those opportunities to draw, there’s no reason I can’t use an actual sketchbook. I’ve always noticed that I am better able to think and retain information when I’m doodling, because it clears my head. If I were to keep a sketchbook daily, I think it would be a good kind of self care, to help me be able to think clearly and take a minute each day to really think about how I’m feeling. My doodles are always related to my mood, either involving dark scribbles and swirls when I’m upset about something, or light lines and actual figures when I’m in a good mood. I still don’t consider myself an artist, and I don’t think I’ll be winning any awards for my notebook doodles, but I do think using a sketchbook could be useful for anyone.
This practice is actually something that I am a big fan of. I am not always the most successful myself at actively remembering to participate and draw in my own sketchbook, but I do think that it is a healthy practice for the brain. Personally, I have found that actively and often engaging in creating actions makes me sharper, a better thinker and even more able to solve problems. Studies all over have shown that using your brain in a creative way opens it up to make better connections and to clear thought and processing. I also have found that creativity elevates my mood, and is one of the best ways for me to not only become a better artist, thinker and problem solver, but to deal with stress in a healthy and productive manner.
For pretty much my entire life I’ve wanted to keep a sketchbook and actually fill it up! Yet I’ve never managed to even get more than maybe a fifth or a quarter of the way through a sketchbook. Another thing I’ve always had a challenge with was getting started, because when you have a nice and clean/new sketchbook, the idea of putting a mark on the pages and possibly messing it up is stressful. I think that’s also part of why I draw primarily on post-it notes, because they’re small and easy to carry, as well as they have little risk when doodling on. I like the tips that Eli Hill goes over in this article, and I hope I can take some of it to heart and put them into practice. Like the whole ‘making mistakes’ thing, as someone who is trying hard to get over rampant perfectionism, is something I really want to try to work at. I think I should also push myself to use different mediums in the sketchbook, cause perhaps that would get me more interested or motivated in keeping with it.
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