How to Keep a Sketchbook

Artists who care about developing their skills keep a sketchbook. Like a writer's notebook, it's a place to record inspiration and try new things. Saving old sketchbooks can also jog your creativity years later and provide a record of your artistic development. They just might inspire future relatives to take up a drawing pencil and see if artistic talent runs in the family.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Sketchbooks
• Lead pencils
• Eraser

1. Buy sketchbooks in a variety of sizes. Smaller ones that measure 5 by 7 inches or 5 by 8-1/2 inches are fine for your purse or the car. For more serious sketching, however, choose an 8-1/2 by 11 inch or 9 by 12 inch sketchbook.
2. Create a "sketch-to-go" package so it's always ready to go when you have an inspiration. Include your sketchbook, lead pencils of various softness so you can draw defining lines and do shading and an eraser with sharp edges.
3. Choose simple subjects to start. Go out into a garden and concentrate on a single flower or leaf. Notice how the light plays off corners and textures.
4. Move on to more complex subjects such as people, landscapes and groups of objects. You don't have to get every detail right. Follow your instinct about when a picture looks "done."
5. Record your thoughts about art, your work and the work of others. A sketchbook doesn't have to be strictly visual. Reflecting on your craft often helps you grow as an artist, which is what the sketchbook is for anyway.
6. Collect pictures and drawings from magazines and marketing materials that inspire you. Photographs and drawings in library books or periodicals can be photocopied. Paste these into your sketchbook.
7. Set aside time each week to examine the materials in your sketchbook. Play with variations of things you've drawn or pictures you've pasted from other sources.

Tips & Warnings

• Paperclip an envelope to the back of your sketchbook for keeping loose pictures you'll want to glue in later.
• For left-handed artists, sketchbooks with spirals on the side are best held with the cover upside down so they're on the right.

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