How I'm creating a sketchbook habit that sticks

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How I'm creating a sketchbook habit that sticks

As I explained last week I had a shift in how I look at my sketchbook practice, and I promised to share how I’m now creating a sketchbook habit. And while I’m at it, I thought I’d share a few sketchbook pages from the last year.

First, I can’t emphasize enough

I had doubts about why I was spending time in a sketchbook, but now I get it. Making a list of all the benefits made me realize…well, I feel the need to repeat this list here:

  • The PLEASURE of pen or brush on the page

  • The lovely feeling of being fully PRESENT

  • The surprise when DISCOVERING new line, shape, texture…

  • Really SEEING while drawing from life

  • The absolute fun of INVENTING while drawing from imagination

  • The satisfaction of LEARNING craft

  • CONNECTING with Self—responses, challenges, emotions, voice

  • EXPRESSING my Self

  • BUILDING SKILL over time

  • The unexpected JOY in any of the above.

These are all the reasons I need for working in my sketchbook every day.

What is there to doubt?

Hah—let me count the ways

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Rethinking the sketchbook habit

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Rethinking the sketchbook habit

“routine behavior repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously”

“An acquired behavior pattern followed until it has become almost involuntary”

“Something you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing you are doing it.”

—Dictionary definitions of “habit”:

If we want to make art and we want to get better at it, we’re told to build a daily sketchbook habit. Now, I do create almost every day in some way, and I do keep a sketchbook, but is it a habit?

Definitely not.

I sketchbook in bursts. When I’m inspired. When I have ideas about what I want to sketch. Otherwise, I do something else.

This strategy of course is not a habit, and if I’m honest I’m just not satisfied with my sketchbook practice. It lacks consistency and pages often feel random. I struggle with finding something to draw every day—and while I love art projects, I often wrestle with self doubt when it comes to my sketchbook. (Why am I doing this? What’s the point?) And bottom line, I just don’t work in my sketchbook enough.

I’m not embracing its place in my art practice.

So I had a rethink.

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