Do you struggle to keep a routine sketchbook practice? Admittedly, I do. For years I have gone through cycles where I would be very diligent and try to draw in my sketchbooks every day. That lasts for a while, and then I just don’t open it for months.

Today, I keep all kinds of sketchbooks – digital, watercolor, art journals, and books for painting and doing mixed media. Homemade books, store-bought books, and even actual old books that I’ve turned into sketchbooks and journals. Having so many different projects going on at once helps me from getting bored or not being able to keep working because something is drying.

Over the years, I’ve kept books that are more journal-like and saturated with words, and other times I’ve done more of an actual sketching and painting practice.

Either way, I think it’s important to keep a sketchbook/journal for several reasons…

4 Reasons Why Keeping a Sketchbook is Important

Number 1 – Measure your growth as an artist

When you keep a routine sketchbook practice you are making a visual record of your progress. It’s important to see how you have grown as an artist. Never forget where you came from and how far you’ve gone.

Number 2 – Perfect place to experiment

It’s the perfect place to try new techniques. Most of the art you make will likely be for yourself and will probably be pretty bad – especially in your sketchbooks because this is the place to try new things, and learn new techniques. Give yourself permission to make some bad art!

Number 3 – There’s freedom in making art that’s just for you

Along that same vein – it’s nice to have something that is for your eyes only. There’s a certain freedom in that! Not to say you can’t share what you’ve created in your sketchbooks, but that you don’t have to.

Number 4 – It’s a great place to process your feelings

Get in touch with your feelings. Admittedly, I am someone who feels a lot. Like, I should probably come with a warning label “prone to excessive amounts of feeling”. Sketchbooks are a great place to let those feelings “live”. Sometimes, I have such intense feelings that I can’t even carry them around – they’re too big, intense, and heavy. On the other hand, I also don’t want to forget how strongly I feel either, so I write it all down or draw it all out.

I think it’s really important to make art that is less about the final outcome and more about the joy in the process. For us creatives that isn’t always possible, but in your sketchbook it is.