your sketchbook SHOULD be messy, not “aesthetic”…a message to anyone paralyzed by perfectionism 

This is such an important message! We hear so many young artists who feel pressured to make all their work public, as a result of "sketchbook tours" that look impossibly perfect and composed. We think a real, working artist's sketchbook can and should be a closed rehearsal space, and maybe a little bit of a mad scientist's laboratory too! Artists who never allow themselves to make something awkward or "ugly" aren't pushing past the limits of their abilities, and that's too bad, because exceeding your ability is how you'll increase your ability. Thanks for sharing this!

The irony, of course, is once I gave myself permission to be messy and not worry about results, the quality of my sketches drastically improved.

Thats a problem i had with sketchbook tours…compared to mine they were so dense and aesthetic?? i just leave some pages empty and then draw on the next one😅

Your sketchbook should be however you want it to be. That's the beauty of art, there is no right way, just your way

So true, there's more than 7 people have been told me "your sketchbook shouldn't be for aesthetic, but messier, because is place for you to learn, enjoying drawing whatever you want" and it's true sketchbook is for me to scribble and draw everything i like

I've discovered that buying a "sketchpad" instead of a "sketchbook" allows me to be more messy and actually PRACTICE. Ive filled one almost completely within a couple months, compared to sketchbooks ive had for years and never finished one once!! With a sketchpad you can always just tear pages out if you hate them. You can't really do that with a nice expensive bound sketchbook, you feel so much pressure to not mess up in those.

I didnt think of a sketchbook as a personal safe space until you mentioned it. I think this might help me be motivated to draw again.

My partner needs to hear this so bad!! They haven’t used any of the sketchbooks they’ve gotten for themselves because they “want them to look pretty”, and are afraid they can’t live up to that, so they just don’t try. I’ve been trying to tell them, don’t be afraid to be messy! Try to let go a little, and you’ll be surprised at what you can do! It’s okay to make “ugly” art, it all helps you grow and improve, AND allowing yourself to be messy helps you enjoy the process so much more!

RU-vid really screamed "FOR YOU" by recommending me this video and honestly I really needed it. I just finished my exams and now I'm ready to get back into my hobbies. I've always been a perfectionist but listening to your words and watching your video just made me realise that now that I have some free time I can do LITERALLY DO ANYTHING I WANT with my sketchbook cuz in the end it's my book filled with what im thinking off so it should have the same look as my head. INPUT = OUTPUT I guess lol seriously thank you for this tho!

I think sometimes that the formality of a sketchbook in general can stop people up. As a kid, I drew on loose sheets of copy paper in a clip board, there was not permanence, no consideration for how many pages I had left, or if Id rip it out if I really hated it. Sketchbooks were always more expensive, had a finite amount of pages, etc. Then I moved to digital where every image is pretty much its own thing, a single document can be like a sketchbook. ZERO permanence if I didn't want it to be that way. That let me experiment and practice so freely that I really think it helped me improve so much. No concern over "running out" or "ruining" or "wasting" anything. But yeah, wonderful video! Side note those calarts accepted "setchbook" videos are so stressful lol. Im so happy for the people who got accepted but also, thats not a normal sketchbook, and I feel like thats something we need to keep in mind before we put those kind of expectations on ourselves.

something i tell myself all the time is that "i was not made to create art just to post it online. humans were not made to share their entire lives and everything they make online". at the beginning of the year, i got a leuchtturm sketchbook - nice yellow hardcover, nice paper and let me tell you i had the HARDEST time actually putting anything in it, let alone allowing myself to be messy in it and not have fully completed pieces. growing up on social media with an intense desire for attention and validation, i would combine my desire to be seen with my desire to create and let me tell you that it was HELL. its straight up only within these past three years that ive been able to sit down with myself, get some therapy, and figure out what was causing that (among other things) like im a very messy artist and using any type of "nice" and "put together" sketchbooks are stifling, because i automatically set such high expectations for what it should look like and how i should be using it. i honestly dont even like the word "sketchbook" because it feels so finalized and unattainable for me. i enjoy drawing and coloring on pieces of colored paper, and then taping them into whatever thing im working out of at the time :-) like i barely use social media now due to my severly unhealthy attachment to it growing up (combining need for attention with the desire to create, you know how it goes) but yeah like. awesome message from this video, it really resonated with me, thank you for saying what youve said here :-)

Thank you, i needed to hear that. Like really. It's bean like a year than i haven't done a messy sketch on a sketchbook ! Because of all the impossibly perfect sketchbook tours, so aesthetic and pretty and thought off. Toxic perfectionism is such an issue in the art community, I have a lot of friend that even get mad at the idea of doing something sketchy and ugly. Thank you to say that, it's okay and important to have a place were we can do mistakes freely, that we don't have to show to everybody !!

i hear you. i have slowly (at the age of 40) started joining social media and i make a point to point out i am not perfect. "oops, dropped my brush again. ok, let's fix this" i have art journals that go back to my mid teens and i get a good chuckle going back over them. they were never meant to share and it shows. one book was a whole botanical series using one element in 2d for the next attempt at 3d. i had no art teachers here so everything i learned i learned by trying new things, sometimes they even worked. now when i want to know how to do something i hit youtube... it feels like cheating. i still have my messy private journals that most people don't see. it must be awful to feel like everything you do must be display worthy.

YES. Ive always hated making ""aesthetic"" sketchbooks. Like I get why people like them but it just does not work for me lol one time my art teacher made me organize my notes like this and I was LIVID. I end up focusing so much on how the notes LOOK that i forget to pay attention to the ACTUAL NOTES. I just write/draw whatever makes more sense to me, and it usually looks better than if i actually tried lol

As a young artist, thank you for this reminder 🙏

Sketchbooks have been a huge part of my life for a while now. Around 3-4 years ago, I suffered from a massive personality change and memory loss because of a lot of health issues. I live in a really stressful household and having a sketch book to create and destroy in. After a few months of working on it, (and it being incredibly messy and chaotic) I felt a lot more heard and happy, even though I wouldn't let anyone see it. One of my promises to myself was to never let anyone see it in whole. Then I met my boyfriend, after a long while of dating and planning our lives together, I decided I would give him something very special. As I said earlier I have a lot of health issues, and many chronic and auto immune illnesses, I have no idea how much longer I have left. My final gift to the love of my life, will be all of them. He will get my sketch books filled to the brim with me after I pass away. They have poems and songs and drawings and paintings and I know he will have something to remember me by. I hope the day isn't soon but if it is, I'll be ok in the end.

I 100% agree with you here! Sketchbooks are called SKETCHbooks for a reason, and it’s supposed to be messy, fun, and whatever you want it to be! After all, it’s kinda like a bit of a reflection of who you are in some way. I myself never understood why people want to be perfect with their artwork when it’s fine to have things unfinished or “ugly”. Heck, whenever I work on bigger project, sometimes I never get it done because my brain just wants to work on something else. Sorry for the mini tangent, and I hope you have a lovely day :)

For me i use notebooks with lined paper as sketchbooks, and I think that helps me with this. Because the paper isn’t “fancy” i feel less like I’m “wasting” it. I’ve noticed with my sketchbooks that are like. Advertised as sketchbooks (ie things from strathmore) I get leery of putting things in them that aren’t inked and colored.

I would say my sketch book its more aesthetic. I like to finish my drawings, and have it more neat. Though honestly recently I've noticed its pretty bland. And with the way i want to get my drawings perfect stresses me out sometimes. I really need to get another sketch book, and be more messy in that one. It would definitely help me feel more free when im drawing. Thanks for the video!

Fellow older millennial here! LOVED this essay!!! This video popped up on my feed as I was watching a video of a "perfect" sketch book, lol. Stopped watching that one to watch this... I have noticed this tone of perfectionism in a lot of social media content in general, not just art topics. I never had formal art training, but I always considered my sketch books very private spaces and more like a diary/journal entry. But I admit these social media "draw with me" sketching and perusing their sketchbook content, I do question whether I've been doing it wrong! lol Even my watercolor testing is a total mess in my sketchbook. However I do understand the appeal of wanting things to have a certain "look" and subtle perfection, which is cool and fine if that's your goal. Expressing your creative vision is your right and authority, even if it would be an eye-sore to a mainstream audience or onlooker lol. If anything, social media has enlightened me that there will always be people out there who absolutely love what you're doing.

To me, the moment you stop caring about perfectionism and aesthetic, then just have fun and it will begin to look unique and amazing in its own way. That’s the kind of stuff I want. The trend stuff always starts feeling like you’ve seen it before once you start looking for ideas. Idk just my opinion on it, not saying I’m right it’s just how I feel.

I fell into the whole trap of making my sketchbooks look more interesting for tours and they got more and more elaborate whilst i rushed through them to film a tour and to push myself to see what the shortest time i could fill it was. Though I learnt a lot and my art improved, I got burnt out. I was worrying about spending too long on my sketchbooks and watching way too many tours whilst comparing myself to other artists, which is quite harmful. I do love making my tours but now I'm taking my time and using it to explore ideas, experiment and to study in. I like to draw in pen and for me, that has helped me with being less of a perfectionist and just getting loose with my ideas. Some things that help me is I have multiple sketchbooks, my everyday sletchbook, my studies sketchbook and my storyboarding/comic sletchbook. Giving each one a purpose personally helped me to stop worrying about making it look good. Also there's also art journaling if people want to have a sketchbook that they just want to fill with finished pieces

This is funny that this video got recommended hours after I saw a specific tumblr post about the topic that we should let our sketchbooks be messy and chaotic again, and I agree with that! I myself have issues with perfectionism about my art and try to get into drawing again.

I’ve been saying the same thing for years. I started a “finish” sketchbook that I challenged myself to actually make finished pieces in but only because I usually just leave it as a sketch. Also strongly recommend people use ballpoint pen or colored pencils to sketch. Getting use to the deduction of a line is a lot and by using a colored pencil it makes it less intimidating in my opinion. You can always go back and line it if you really like the sketch.

didn't even realize just how much i needed to see a messy, not-aesthetic sketch with me until this. as a relatively new artist, this takes so much of the pressure off. thank you for posting this!!

As a young artist I appreciate this note because, some of my friends do art and they get the wrong idea of thinking it needs to be perfect. But art is just for people to be creative and make art that they enjoy.

THANK YOU!!!! I feel the same way when I see young artists keep only “perfect” or “aesthetic” sketchbooks that are “worthy to post”. As Wassily Kadinsky said, there is no must in art because art is free. To let go of perfectionism, embrace mistakes, feel free to express anything, and create things not for the eyes of others but for one’s own heart, that is what it’s all about… Art is free and art is freeing; truly, art is a journey of self. ❤

i struggled with this for so long, i genuinely would refuse to draw unless i knew the sketch would be turned into a full finished piece within my sketchbook. i currently have a sketchbook i’ve been working through since august 2020 and i’m only halfway done because i wanted it to be pretty and aesthetic. finally around 2022 i realized i can’t just neglect it, and to grow is to make mistakes. I began filling pages with stupid sketches and doodles, or even filing the page with stars i colored in with expo whiteboard markers lol. i caused my own art block for the past 3 years and slowly i’ve started coming out of it bc i don’t need to prove my skills to anyone & i should just be happy to create and leave my mark somewhere :)

I also come from a certain generation. When I arrived to IG, the word "Journal" was connected to scrapbook-type stuff and drawing, while to me, "journal" was handwriting. Personal. I have said that one learns to write by writing, and keeping a journal taught me to write. Playing piano scales teaches one about playing the piano. And, my dad was a professionally educated watercolorist. His sketchbooks were not finished pieces of art. They were where he did rough sketches which would consist of a rough idea of the subject, and values. In other words, artistic shorthand. I still remember him pulling off the road saying "I'm going to do a quick sketch", and it took less than a minute. Wasn't meant to look like anything but scribbled "notes". The irony is that I am surrounded by dad's paintings and think I should be that good - - and I'm a beginner. I see people's work on IG and feel defeated, because my stuff is "horrible". It's time for me to keep just a tiny sketchbook for scribbling. Thank you - found this be scrolling along YT.

This is definitely a mindset I struggle to get into, even as a fellow elder millennial lol. I unfortunately struggle against a strong "all or nothing" tendency in most things I do. I either want it to be perfect or I don't try at all, and it's so unhelpful and unhealthy. The perfectionism trap is so hard to fight against.

your so underrated :0

Thank you! I wish I saw this video when I was 18 or smth😂

Its crazy how many people forget the "sketch" part of sketchbook. Literally every sketchbook ive ever owned has lazy doodles, messy sketches, and so much "bad" art and color swatches lol. Not everything an artist draws has to be a masterpiece, and I cant imagine limiting myself to that much perfectionism, let alone to an *entire* sketchbook?? Ive seen this problem especially on TikTok, and I hate the performity of it. Making bad art is part of being an artist, not everything has to be a pleasing aesthetic to post online.

This is how i feel as well, especially sketchbook tours. All these people have nice, athletically pleasing artwork in these good quality sketchbooks and me: Inexpensive composition blank paged notebooks full of scribbles, half formed practice poses, ideas that go no where in either pencil or ballpoint pen. .

Thank you!!! I've seen a few sketchbook tours and have been so confused as to how many "sketchbook" is that perfect. They're more like art book projects to put on display in your living room for people to flip through, not an actual sketch book.

Every time I get a new sketchbook, they all become "dedicated" to one thing. This means all my sketchbooks are empty, save for the first few pages of whatever thing I tried to dedicate them to. I'm about to take one and literally start scribbling in the pages to make it less valuable and precious to me. Sort of related, clean pages are very daunting! I will lightly scribble and smudge with my pencil to make the page "dirty" and get over the fear of damaging the pristine white void.

I've always been a messy doodler, it just fills up the page more

Not sure why theres a "SHOULD" here, sketchbooks are as individual as the artist... you set the intention for each one (or even each page). If you want it to be messy, great! If you want it to be finished works, totally up to you ❤ I tend to have multiple going all the time, each with a different purpose. Helps me keep my practice focused😊

When you said the word « Privacy » it’s so real ! Cause a Sketchbook for artists is private ! I hate when people are forcing like : Show us ! Come on it can’t be that bad ! And a second point, when you said that sketchbooks are not supposed to be that perfect I was so happy that someone was agreeing with me ! All of my sketchbooks are NEVER finished… But I started to cause myself pressure since of people saying that sketchbook is supposed to be « aesthetic ». But look at me, I started drawing 2 years ago, and now I can finally draw normal person instead of sticks ! So thank you, for this video.

Too many people weigh themselves down with "shoulds". It's soul-crushing.

I agree. I have tons of messy sketchbooks and when I would see these supposed 'aesthetic' sketchbooks I was just there like. That's not it. I mean, great, the drawings in there are great, but that's still not it. Thank you for this. Yep, sketchbooks are supposed to be messy, not aesthetically pleasing.

I use my sketchbook for both rough sketches and finished drawings, I love keeping everything together :D

YES! And I wish people could be more open with and unafraid of the idea of showing their "unperfect", unfinished, "ugly" art and scribbles and sketches. Because they are JUST as valid as a finished piece, and all of those unfinished, ugly scribbles FAR outnumber the beautiful finished pieces you produce.

I have a dedicated cheap soft-cover sketchbook that I call a "Smash Book" (it's like a book that you won't be afraid to damage or smash) where it's all random garbage doodles, warmups, practice, failures etc., and it's been pretty helpful. Not saying it's the solution, but if anyone is struggling with marking in their main sketchbook with the nice paper that was way more expensive than they would like to admit (me), this might help in bringing your confidence up.

Thank you for this! I didn't grow up drawing, I fiddled with it in my 30's and now that I'm in my 40's, I'm taking it more seriously. I was *so confused* watching all these 'sketchbook tour' videos! Where are the mistakes? Where are the epic failures? Where are the weird doodles, and the scribbled notes? All beginner artists need to learn that these perfect art-pieces some people call 'sketchbooks' are *not* typical, and they are definitely not how you learn to draw. Nobody is born knowing how to play the piano like Horowitz--it takes hundreds of hours of practice! Playing the same scales over and over again until you can do it almost without thinking.... I *wish* someone had told me this when I first started drawing!

I've noticed some people try to make their sketchbooks super neat, but it's not actually THEM. Different artists have different personalities, some people are messy and some people are crazy organised (like me for instance), and our personalities should be reflected in our art.

Preach! I rarely start sketchbook drawings with the intention of finishing and sharing them. And if I'm gonna spend a long time on something, screw that book, just give me a loose sheet flat on the desk.

100% agree with ALL of this❤ and I’m a Gen Xer who also grew up in a time of keeping my sketchbook in a drawer in my room never to be seen by judgemental eyeballs 👀 I’m always thinking this about younger artists and how the pressure is so on for them and how it doesn’t need to be that way. I’ve even talked in a video about how my sketchbook has everything in it. The good, the bad, the meh, and some finished stuff, too. I mean, if ya wanna have perfectly curated sketchbook, that’s fine. But don’t feel pressured to have a pretty sketchbook and an “ugly” sketchbook because you feel that cannot coexist. Creativity just is what it is and it should not be inhibited! So even if I should sketchbook tours, I let it all hang out because I’d rather people see a realistic view and not me trying to look like I have my act together 😂because I don’t! And even if art making is my full time job and I draw on a daily basis, I don’t make good art all the time. There’s plenty of uggos in all the pages😮😅

I grew up watching art tutorials and sketchbook tours on RU-vid, and while watching those taught me so much, they really impacted the way I viewed my art. I’ve always been somewhat of a perfectionist, but I was the absolute worst when it came to art making. There’s even been occasions where I’ve been too scared to draw at all, out of fear that it wouldn’t be good enough for anyone. To this day I have never finished a sketchbook, because I was too scared of making an ugly drawing in it. But I needed to put my ugly sketches somewhere, right? So I started drawing on the backs of cereal boxes and receipts, and then squirrel them away where no one could find them. I love art so much, but working in this way really drained me. It’s been SO hard to get over the insane idea that sketchbooks have to be beautiful places, and that I can only draw in them when I am worthy enough to do so. Nowadays, I still really struggle to remember that it’s okay for my work not to be pretty, and that I’m allowed to have a book of ugly drawings, but I’m so much better than I used to be. I now have two sketchbooks, one for complete drawings, and one for my messy drawings. I still have days where I am too scared to even draw in my messy sketchbook, but at least I don’t draw solely on cereal boxes anymore 😅 In conclusion, this video is absolutely correct, and you should take it to heart. If I could time travel I would show this to my younger self… who knows where I would’ve been now if I wasn’t so frightened to try.

I really think this is helpful! Barely any of my sketches are finished and they rarely have color because im always drawing at school. At home i feel the pressure to make perfect and spend so much time on one sketch whilst at school i feel free and tend to make quicker drawings due to the 40-50 minute periods that we have. MESSY SKETCHES FOR THE WIN!!

yeah thats why i have a notebook for sketching not a fancy sketch book makes me feel more relaxed about it

I find that my sketchbook reflects the state of my mind (and myself) very well. It’s messy, filled with half finished pencil doodles, poorly drawn bodies, tiny stick people, sometimes scribbles, traced arts(because I liked how a character was drawn in that art-style), and the same few concepts over and over. Barely anything is ‘finished’ and I didn’t even bother coloring in anything. (I felt like they didn’t deserve the effort of coloring, too lazy.) Can never focus on 1 idea, my thoughts get cut off by another thought, can’t keep a single pose in mind, quick,random doodles of whatever that appears in my head at that moment until I run out of fume and stop. I just draw stuff whenever I’m bored. It doesn’t feel like I’m doing the whole ‘sketching’ thing right but that’s just how it is for me.

Many of my sketchbooks have the most ridiculous doodles BUT when I look thru them again, I remember how silly o was being and of course laugh at the memories and would rather have some wonky doodles amongst more finished drawings. Some random character doodles are fun to redraw when I look thru to see how I’ve grown. I’m always read from some professional artists (tho I don’t remember who said it) that a sketchbook is a practice place, not a portfolio. I wish you all the ability to sketch without a care when you want to!

i think it's the rise in calarts (or other art schools) accepted sketchbook tours that's fueling the impostor syndrome in people. it low key did for me lol. most of my sketchbooks are messy as hell. so, i'm trying to work on a nicer one currently but yeah the progress has been extremely slow on this one.

Ooh, i used to have this issue! I saw plenty of artists i loved having clean sketchbooks with amazing drawings and it just stopped me from drawing so that i could "wait for the right time" where I'd be able to do a full piece. Yeah that never happened and after a year, i just decided to just roll and draw whatever on my sketchbook. Suprisngly, among the unfinished sketches, i had pretty beautiful ones too that i can't help but look back on!

It's true and I agree with you a sketchbook is a place to practice amd express your art in a loose and easy going way from which one can use the ideas in making art later on "An artist doesn't make a sketchbook, a sketchbook make an artist"

Thank you for this! I have often wondered why sketchbook tours online contain such perfectly aesthetic pieces. My sketchbooks are full of weird, wonky, wrong and wacky sketches. Some I would show to others and some that will never see the light of day. I always thought the point of sketchbooks was to let loose and work with the intention of not having to make the pieces too refined. I do however like the idea of keeping one for finished work too, so I now have one dedicated to messing around and another which I keep for attempts at more refined pieces. I feel like that's a comfortable balance for me. But I would love to see more messy sketchbooks by others artists!

I have a little notebook that I for whatever reason have always called my doodle journal. Almost all of my drawings in there are completely random, but I’m more than glad to have it.

EXACTLY! And like sometimes I feel bad my sketchbooks are a trainwreck but other times I'm glad they are. Because my sketchbooks are for me and for ideas. And thats supposed to be messy.

i actually have 3 sketchbooks. one that’s really big, for projects for youtube. then, a normal sized sketchbook for practicing (mainly anatomy because i suck) but it’s still neat. and finally, a really small and convenient sketchbook. it fits in my pencil pouch for school, and i male little doodles and sketches in it. it’s the messy sketchbook that has random practices on every page. the best part about it is that i can take it anywhere, so i have the most sketches in it.

the point of a sketchbook is to sketch, a.k.a be messy bestie that's why its there for you to MESS IT UP LET'S GOOOOO WOOOO

I have a messy sketchbook and a finished work sketchbook! It’s really nice and freeing. Plus, I like having all my nice finished things in one place.

"A place...with no pressure and no fear of criticism." It's going to be difficult to draw in if I can't look in it either.

There are very few times where I was told to arrange my drawings. I mean, I would and could ignore it, but it's just how I can show how artistic I can be :) All I needed was to hear was that. Thanks👍👍

BROOOO THANK YOUUU like idc if you want your sketchbook to be aesthetic cuz it's yours you can do whatever you want but i hate that like- there's this expectation that your sketchbook is now your portfolio or something and it sucks cuz it takes the fun out of having a sketchbook :( so i appreciate this very much, it's a great wake up call for me JKBDDHKBD and now instead of ripping out my doodles just because they're not a finished drawing- i'mma just keep em, thanks Leanne

This is why I only draw in old school notebooks. I just do life drawing and studies in there and there is not pressure to make it perfect because it’s literally just an old notebook.

I agree even though it's hard what I like to do is find a way to make it look good with scraps so it not like perfect but I know I can just ruined my whole sketchbook and make it all thick then so I can make the rest of the sketchbook spreads messy when I do like 1 to 2 pages.

I totally agree with this! I've always tried to focus on giving my sketchbooks a personality rather than making them perfect. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I love going through my old sketchbooks and seeing how the drawings speak for themselves. It's just so fun to look at them. It's almost like a timestamp of where I was at that point in life! When the drawings don't have any personality and are trying to be "the perfect sketch", it's not very fun to look at :( Side note but I write a lot in my sketchbooks and reading the little notes next to the drawings is so funny 🤣

I've only really been developing my art "seriously" for less than a year. I've written children's books that need illustrating (they are novels not picturebooks) but I have to draw very specific scenes in pen according to the plot. It's amazing how much better my drawings are just 9 months later. I make a distinction between my sketchbook which is an A5 art journal and sketch pads which are usually A4 and are loose bound so you can take pages out and frame any masterpieces you accidentally produce (totally accidentally in my case, ha-ha!) There's a couple of pictures I'd love to cut out of the sketchbook to go on my wall but I force myself to recreate them bigger and better if I want to frame them. Part of being a "professional," I think, is being able to recreate something you did well before. And because I'm drawing fictional (animal) characters, it's part of the process to be able to draw the same character in every mood from every angle, which took me a while to get used to. Most of my art before last year was abstract patterns. I didn't have the confidence to try portraiture which is mostly how I practise now. The proper sketchbook is full of paint tests now, seeing what different paints and inks look like when overpainted, blended and so on. Most of my drawings are black and white but I've started experimenting with dabs of colour. I use acrylics for everything I paint because they're so versatile and interchangeable. I love the waterproof quality of acrylic. All the paints and inks I use are waterproof, partly because I so hated having to use watery paints years ago at school. I'm 52 years old this year. It's never too late to learn, ha-ha!

You are so right. Whenever I look at videos on how to keep a sketchbook, they are full of pages and pages or double pages of amazing drawings, paintings etc. So thank you. At the moment I use one like a scrap book with my best pieces I need to move away from the idea that only the best gets in there.

Awesome advice! I'm currently starting my third sketchbook (literally just did the first page lol) and I decided to label it my "Sketchbook of sketches", meaning I will dedicate it to sketching and learning, and not to finishing things. I will not care about spreads or anything other than sketching more often and more freely. I've been trying to make my sketchbooks "pretty", and while that can be super fun at times, it just led me to not sketch much at all. And at this point in my artistic journey, I feel like what I truly need is to get that mileage, you know? So yeah, your advice makes total sense! Thanks for sharing!

I feel that. Sometimes I have ideas for big complex projects, but I don´t have the energy/motivation to do it and actually just want to scribble a bit. And then I feel bad about it for some reason.... :/

See, what's so trippy about this is like- I was just thinking today like, why am I even trying to do and complete a "aesthetic" sketchbook. I would always criticize my work for being too "boring" or not towards anyone's liking. so that's what I did, I would like follow art trends and tik toks to "improve", but at the end of it all, I didn't feel like it was me. and this video actually helped a lot with me seeing that. Thank you for opening my eyes :D

I have definitely struggled with this over the years... Seeing sketchbook tours only made me feel worse about my art and i eventually just stopped. People have gifted me really nice sketchbooks and I've been too afraid that I'll ruin them. Eventually I decided to go to the dollar store and buy the cheepest sketchbook they have so I can practice and not feel bad about my work and it's helped a lot. Once I get more confident, I'll start filling in the lovely gifts I've been given and make myself proud.

my sketchbook is one big mess lol, full of sketches and random things i like, never have a finished piece in it.

thank you for this. i see so many artists with beautiful and perfect sketchbooks and there's mine😅

That’s why i have a sketcbook and an artbook. The artbook has more finished peaces but it gets filled much more slower than the sketchbook

The beauty of sketch books to me is to see how much progress you've gained along the way as well imperfections

"Not making perfect/aesthetic art" was one of the reasons why I was struggling so much with drawing again, let alone fill out a sketchbook (which I haven't done in YEARS). One of the things that helped me was buying a cheap notebook (with blank pages or a dot grid journal) and give myself permision to do ugly sketches or random stuff. As long as I draw something. It's helping me get back into this habit and I'm trying to fill it up. This video is further motivation for me to keep going, so thank you!

I struggled a lot with this so i kept a sketchbook, (ones thats perfectly neat and formatted) and a sketchbook sketchbook (where i would draw and doodle)

Making my own sketchbooks has helped me overcome the fear of ruining them

i used to not really worry about the looks of my sketchbooks, i thought they were _good_ messy, but then i saw all these tours and its always been hard to let go since,,, thanks for making this video

_I noticed how my sketches appear to be more nicely done in my math notebooks than in my actual sketchbooks. It's brought to my attention that whenever I draw during discussions, there's no worry or doubt about the outcome because you're only doing the activity out of boredom. However, looking back at my sketchbooks, there's always a constant pressure to maintain an organized or complete illustration. My sketches were either redone or ripped away as a result. This video shows that sketchbooks are a personal thing for artists, something you can use to draft and explore your potential without judgement. A flawless artwork doesn't matter anymore if what you're doing isn't making you satisfied or happy. Coming from a young artist, thank you sm for the eye-opening message !!_

Thank you!!! I’ve always felt super insecure about my own sketchbook because every other sketchbook I looked at seemed “clean” and “organized” meanwhile I have super crappy sketches in my book with pencil smudges all over the place and mysterious stains

thank you so much. I have ripped out tens of pages from sketchbooks, scrapped hundreds of drawings, and erased sketches I found “ugly.” I know that I have this problem, and have been trying to trust myself and my skills. This really helped me remember that my sketchbook is mine, and nobody will see it if I don’t want them to. I think back to myself when I was younger, and even then I was overly obsessed with making each picture perfect. I really feel that when I let loose and draw for myself, I really do have more fun drawing.

I gave up on making my art look good a while ago. I just decided to have fun and try any idea I have without worrying. Funny how even though I pretty much told myself "I don't care if my drawings "look bad" now", my technique has significiantly improved. I allow myself to mess up and I realize learning is very fun. I have a better time looking back at my "bad" drawings that I made without a worry in the world than the "good" drawings I stressed myself out over cause I thought it all had to look perfect.

to be honest, my brain has an unhealthy addiction to neat aesthetic sketchbooks filled with colour. the messiest thing i do if fill every page (even if marker goes through one). im a really bad perfectionist (especially since ive just gotten back into art) and i hope this video helps me. since the most practice i get is the pencil sketch.

This is such a great advice! I have multiple sketchbooks, one is only for finished watercolor & marker pieces, the rest is to sketch out ideas, recently i've starter doing my art loosely, most of the times i don't finish a piece unless i feel like it and its very refreshing and sometimes i just get lazy and dont finish them lol

I really needed to hear this. I constantly find myself rubbing out most of what I draw in my sketchbook because I worry someone will see it and try to leave only the best in it. A lot of it I’m not proud of but perhaps saying fuck it and just honing my skills so I actually can make something decent is what it’s really all about.

Excellent video, and I wholeheartedly agree! Sketchbooks are intimidating for me, because they’re not cheap I think I have to fill it with good drawings and finished pieces. So now I use printer paper to sketch with until I’m comfortable enough with my skills to move up to the “good” paper. And I’ve noticed how good my stuff looks when I’m able to let got and not worry about messing up on the expensive paper. I also made a discbound sketchbook so I can throw away pages I absolutely don’t like and refill it with more paper. I highly recommend the discbound system! It’s a little tedious (cutting paper to the right size and punching holes), but I like it better than having to buy multiple sketchbooks over time.

As someone who wants to pursue writing creative fiction, this really resonates with me. I’ve always been too afraid to write out my ideas and not having them come out as perfect as I imagine them.

"can I see ur home sketchbook?" me n every other art student in my year: "no it's got personal and cringe stuff in there."

I've been keeping sketchbooks for years and for my sketchbooks, I always had the mindset to use my sketchbook for anything I wanted and whatever I draw and write in it, it doesn't have to be perfect and I do just that! I sketch, make 'study' pages, experiment with different colours and mediums, make finished pieces, draw designs, draw spreads & even take art related notes and even dedicate whole pages to art related notes! But also, its not a bad thing to use multiple sketchbooks at the same time and for different purposes as well :D

If you want to see me goofing around more in my sketchbook, you can watch that here! 😆ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-skNnwZVkiuw.html

It's so interesting because I used to feel that I had to really try when drawing in a sketchbook, to have a specific idea of what I was going to make and not waste the page. What I found was I got frustrated with these drawings and I much preferred the doodles I made on pieces of scrap paper. Because I wasn't trying to make something "good," these doodles were more natural and I ended up with some really cool ones I liked

Finally someone came out and spoke about the reality of sketchbooks. I’m trained and studied art for 6 years and my sketchbook is where all my ideas started and the kinks got worked out till I’d done all the studies, ready for the final piece. I’ve shouted at the screen so many times that something doesn’t belong in a sketchbook but is a final finished piece. It frustrates me. Thanks so much for the video it was well needed!

I've never heard anyone talk so... freely about their sketchbook. I've been afraid of even drawing in it for so long, and this video helped me see that that's not normal. I've always said that I don't like people looking at my drawings. At first, I was just embarrassed about it, so I hid what I was doing when people walked by. My family mostly ignored it, but sometimes they would try to sneak peeks before I could hide it. I really hated it. You see, I love character design, but the reason why I started doing it was to cope with my depression. My earliest characters are extremely personal to me because they were manifestations of the ugliest parts of me. Feelings of emptiness, self loathing, uselessness, I put each of them into characters as a way to tell myself that people could still function even with such traits. They weren't good characters in any sense, but they were mine. Obviously, this is a really sensitive topic for me, so I avoid showing them to anyone even now. My family, though, interpreted it as just shyness. One day, when I was in middle school, my older sister was visiting home. I left her alone in my room to use the bathroom. When I came back, my sketchbook was open in her lap. I don't remember what she said about it, but I couldn't handle it. I couldn't even draw for a whole month after that. I distinctly remember that during a depressive episode, I crawled towards my sketchbook just to do something for once and I wasn't able to touch it because of the anxiety. I also remember what she said when she did it again a few years later: "You don't have a lot of finished drawings in here, huh?" To this day, I always physically hide my sketchbooks when she visits. My mom is worse, though. In the past few years, whenever she's seen me drawing... It doesn't end very well. She's outright insulted my art to my face several times just because I won't do realism in my sketchbook. She's said that it isn't good enough to go to art school, that I can't even pass my high school art classes. Needless to say, I feel absolutely terrible now. I still feel drawn to art, but my self confidence has never been lower. It's gotten to the point where I am literally incapable of acknowledging my art as good no matter how many compliments I get. Heck, I even got into college for art, and I still have to have people reassure me that my art isn't garbage. Every doodle I do requires a massive amount of willpower because the fear that someone will barge into my room just to criticize it terrifies me, so I just never draw at home. Ironically, my sketchbook has become the least safe space for me to draw. It shouldn't be like this. I should be able to draw whatever I want without feeling afraid or ashamed. Somehow, I keep forgetting that. Maybe someday I'll be able to fix all these issues, now that I can see just how... differently normal people think. Sorry for trauma dumping, but I'm really happy that there are people who feel safe and happy drawing in their sketchbooks. Please keep loving your art and making beautiful things regardless of what people say.

my sketchbooks are only for me, but I found I do best with a middle ground. Having nice, pretty, finished pieces in my pages motivates me a lot to want to make more art. That being said I definitely have scribble pages and messy half finished sketches and enjoy them a lot. It's just more motivating for me to use the sketchbook if I like what's in it at least every couple pages or so.

Exactly! For me, sketchbooks are there to unwind and just be silly with art. Small studies would be good too, but it really is just for quick doodles. Do what works for you!

thank you, i really needed to hear this