The rumors are true!
I finished a sketchbook
I know. I can barely believe it myself. But it’s true, I did indeed finish a sketchbook. You can see a little flip though here.
- pause for applause -
Sure, it's the smallest sketchbook in the world and it took me 3 months but hey I did it. Honestly this sketchbook is tiny, it’s an A5 and it only has 20 pages. It’s almost embarrassing how accomplished I felt finishing it. Honestly I can’t recommend a teeny tiny sketchbook enough because now I feel too powerful for my own good.
On most days, this is who operates my brain.
So as much as I love the idea of a sketchbook, the reality of keeping a sketchbook is a bit different. A sketchbook is for sketching, painting, life drawing, playing, experimenting with colors, documenting your travels, collaging, scrapbooking or anything else you want. Great… Nothing makes my mind go blank quicker than being offered infinite possibilities and unlimited creative freedom. Oh is it also a chunky sketchbook that’ll last me a while? Yeah I’m not touching that thing thanks.
So this is why the teeny tiny sketchbook worked so well for me. These are all things I noticed in retrospect, but I’m gonna pretend like I was deliberate and strategic about them from the beginning.
A bit of structure? Yes please!
I saw _sashakolesnik post about her 30 Days of Kitchen Objects and decided to do exactly the same thing because as a grown-up who gets to make her own decisions, there’s nothing I find more relaxing than having someone tell me exactly which decisions to make.
Variables? No thank you.
Eliminating most of the variables, prevented my brain from going into its default OMG PANIC!-mode because there were very few decisions left for it to make.
Theme: Something in my kitchen
Medium: Black pen
Time: 5 minutes
I didn’t really stick to this rule too strictly, but I liked having it in place because it made it easier to get started knowing that I only had to do it for 5 minutes.
My main conclusion after this is that a collection makes even shitty drawings look not so shitty. On day 3 of this experiment, I drew something that I thought was looked awful and I felt pretty bummed about it, but I turned the page immediately after I finished it and pretended like it never happened. Although I still don’t like that drawing, when I flip through the filled out sketchbook now I have to admit that it’s doesn’t look nearly as bad.
I have another tiny sketchbook and I’m tempted to do it again. This time I think I’ll use it to get comfortable with gouache and colors in general. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Talk to you soon,
Ana