Sketch books...I cannot sing their praises highly enough!
Probably THE biggest benefit of keeping a sketch book is that it's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. You absolutely don't need to show anyone else your drawings unless you choose to do so. This is so freeing, especially if you're a perfectionist! Mistakes are fine here! In fact they are welcome...after all, that's how we grow as artists! You are under no pressure at all to "perform" or to be a certain standard. Check out these two drawings of Joaquin Phoenix and the improvement between the first and the second....
Using a sketch book is also one of the cheapest ways to create. My first sketch books were inexpensive Daler Rowney A4 softbacks from Ebay. I had a run-of-the-mill HB pencil and eraser.
I wasn't afraid to be free with my mark-making because I wasn't worried about "wasting" good paper. And don't forget.... if you don't have a book, to sketch you can use anything from printer paper to an old paper bag!
As I grew more confident I started spending a little more money, and when I wanted to use paint in my sketch book I progressed to ones with 300gsm sheets which wouldn't buckle and bend under the wet paint.
I like to use a double page spread for landscapes (spiral bound aren't so good for me for this reason). The below sketch was done outdoors, using a fountain pen and watercolour paint on a Moleskine Sketch book. It was a rainy day in the Lake District. When I look at it it reminds me of the wonderful day I spent there with my old school buddy Claire. She's a fit, outdoorsy type and went marching off up a hill, while I sat on a rock painting. This was how we spent our time, in between coffee shops and eateries! We both did what we loved and had a fulfilling weekend together!
You can pop your sketch book in your bag or pocket and scribble away to your heart's content just about anywhere! The below watercolour sketch of Pheasants was painted while on a long road trip....unfortunately inspired by the amount of roadkill we saw!
The sketch book can be used for practice, for colour-swatching, for jotting down notes (both written as well as drawn) as well as preparatory sketches for bigger pieces. But mainly it's fun...no pressure, do as you please, fun!
A good exercise is to give yourself a time limit of, say twenty minutes, to copy a famous artist's's work in a abbreviated way (I use random pages from this book which I got second hand from Ebay.....The Art Book by Phaidon Press (goodreads.com)) or just complete a sketch really quickly of an object or person. This teaches you to loosen up and not get bogged down in detail.
Finishing a sketch book gives such a sense of achievement. I really like to look back through old sketch books and see how far I have come. Practice really does make ... well maybe not "perfect" but certainly better!! The more you do it the more you build up your muscle memory and in time the things you found challenging become less so.
Below are a few more of my sketch book pages.....
Tina x
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