Susan Keeble

You can use it to record places, events and ideas.                                                                       When you draw something you spend time looking and thinking about the moment and the thing you are drawing, so anything you draw you will remember better than a photograph.

If you sketch on holiday, you will find you can look back through your sketchbook and memories will come flooding back. Holiday photos, on the other hand, often leave me thinking “where was that?” or “why?”

When you don’t feel inspired, or feel like painting but don’t know what to do, a well filled sketchbook will be full of ideas waiting for you.

​

There are currently many classes and YouTube videos encouraging us to make our sketchbooks into artworks in their own right. This is great, and encourages those who might otherwise be too self-conscious or lacking in confidence to be creative.                                                                   A beautiful sketchbook is a thing to be proud of!

There's no right or wrong way to draw. 

Don’t try to make perfect pictures in your sketchbook, just practice your skills, record fleeting thoughts and moments of life.

The important thing is to keep practicing, every day if possible, even if just for a few minutes.                                               

Like a diary, it can be private, you never have to show anyone your sketchbook if you don’t want to. It is a place to be completely free, make mistakes, make a mess, try new techniques or materials, play.

It’s nice to have one small enough to fit in a handbag or pocket at all times, and possibly a bigger one for serious sketching trips. You can get a cheap one - if it’s too precious you will worry about spoiling it, although you should make sure the paper is good enough to take whatever mediums you are going to use.

​

I thought I would show you a couple of examples of how I have used my sketchbooks, below.