19 Jan 2024, 20:58

@Elena-Marengoni

Hey Elena,

I really can find myself in your words. 
I struggle a lot with keeping up with my sketchbook and it bothers me, because I find it really helpful in so many ways.
In the past I got so overwhelmed how others do crazy art in their sketchbook and I am not able to do anything at all, it made me feel so intimidated that I just stopped sketching at all, because I will not be good enough. 

I think social media is a big part of that bad mindset, not being good enough because every thing we do MUST be perfect.
It took me really a while to change my mindset about it. 

I really think that it got a bit out of hand though, when people have an urge to call their Sketchbook „ugly Sketchbook“ to allow themselfe to not make perfect art. I know it’s a way of coping, but I think it’s more important to go back to the roots! It’s called sketchbook for a reason.
A sketchbook is the place to make mistakes and to learn and try out new stuff, a place where you can do whatever you want without being judged. Its also our own fault, if we have the need to show off our sketchbook, mostly what I read about sketchbooks, that it is your privat place, your diary, your world, why would we show it to the world then anyway? I wouldn’t let people read my diary though. 

That’s being said, sometimes I decide too, to show what I have drawn and that’s okay for me. And if a page is way too ugly, I also cut it out XD but mostly I don’t, because everything we draw, will maybe help us in any way.

  1. I mostly tend to have multiple sketchbooks at a time. That’s mostly not helpful XD
    One I use for color pencils, one for Watercolor (or 3 for watercolor), one for carbon pencils and my daily also visual diary sketchbook where I also stick printed things like stickers or postcards into that I made.

  2. I did’t want to make them specific but it happened.
    In one I draw cats with hats, another on is for colorful drawings of faces ans skulls. In the Charcoal sketchbook I practice figure drawings by minutes. Another one is for traveling and photos.

  3. Mostly I prefer smaller sketchbooks A5 or smaller. But for charcoal I use the A3, because I think it helps, when I can make bigger movements with my arm. It loosens me up.

  4. I read a book about . It’s from Felix Scheinberger and he is a big deal here in Germany, and got also translated in to other languages. I think I don’t need a book to open my own sketchbook and draw, but I kind of liked the input. dare to sketch & Urban Sketching

I try to fill one page a day, sometimes I just go to Pinterest and draw, the first picture I find appealing so I don’t have to figure out myself what to draw. It helps me a lot. 
Also it’s important to not being mean to myself if I couldn’t make it, because I have a lot to do. I will just try it the next day.
I read about, that it’s important to make a habit appealing, so my sketchbook is always on my desk or I have it with me, and also I have my pens right next to me, so I can just start whenever I want.

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