A lot of blogs and sites will only show you the prettiest pictures from their sketchbooks, but a sketchbook is a tool in your art, not an artist's book. At least not to me. So I thought today I would give some examples of what I use a sketchbook for. Maybe it will inspire you to use your sketchbook for some of these things as well and in any case it will rid you of any prejudice that a sketchbook has to be filled completely with pretty pages. ;-)
Some of the following you have already seen in some other posts and some you have not. Some are nice to look at and some are not. This is just a sample of a real life sketchbook. Enjoy!
THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH A SKETCHBOOK:
* test your pens and markers on black and white paper to see how they respond
* try out a friends copic markers on different types of paper and be surprised at how much you don't like them
* leave a drawing unfinished and then stick the left over of a sticker page on it to give it character
* make a color chart for some new paints
* note down all those ideas that pop into your head at the most inconvenient times
* write down quotes you like
* paste in images of art work you like (the art work on the below spread is by Dina Wakley and Shannon Sinclair)
* try out a new idea and see where it goes
* paste in all the odds and ends you can't find another place for, like pretty old japanese prints, information leaflets and a random self portrait
* paste in art works you intended to use for a project but then decided against
* draw some ribbons and circles or other nonsense (bet you didn't see that one coming!)
* make lists
* take notes
* plan out another journal (these plans were for ROD2)
* do a mind map to work out an elaborate idea (I still want to do an artist's book on Wuthering Heights someday, but I'm a little scared to start such a huge undertaking)
* practice your doodling, then add some color
* practice your doodling some more and learn that...you still need a lot of practice
Thank God for sketchbooks! Where else would we collect our try outs, our notes, our mistakes, our left overs, our ideas, our experiences with art supplies and a hundred other things? Use your sketchbook as the instrument it is, learn from it. Don't throw your try outs away, don't hide your mistakes. They are valuable teachers.
Hope you enjoyed this peek into my process and wish all of you a very artsy and wonderful weekend!