Creating sketchbook time for artists

Finding time to create can be hard.  Our lives pull us in so many directions.  There are so many ways we can use our time and our energy.  We need to make concious choices on how we use our time.  As an artist there are many things that need to be done. It is very important that we plan and use our time constructively and creatively.  

“It was amazing what an hour with her sketchpad could do for 

her mood. She was sure that the lines she drew with her black 

marker were going to save her years of worry lines in the 

future.” 

― Victoria Kahler, Their Friend Scarlet

Making time for drawing is crucial in pathway as a artist.  Drawing every day creates new ideas to pursue,  new skills and new techniques.  This can be all done with a simple page of work which requires small investment of time and of materials. 

Using a sketchbook opens our creative juices and gets us ready for other work.  A regular sketchbook practice develops ideas into mature work and into series.

There are many ways to open up time to sketch. But the first thing to do is give yourself permission to sketch.  This is really important.  We are often our biggest reason we don't get something done. 

Ways to create in a sketchbook each day

• Create a space to create.  This could a be a portable pencil case and bag or something more permanent like a desk.  I have both. A pencil case that goes with me everywhere and a desk when I am at home
• Limit the equipment you carry around.  Less is better for the creative juices.  I carry a few pens and my water colour paint.  This gets rid of the need to make a decision on what medium you are using.  You can just start drawing
• Create space in your time.  I sketch in wee bits of time. While waiting for sports practice, music lessons and while in waiting rooms.  I also schedule 15-30 minutes a day just for sketching.  The sketchbook pages I have posted today were all done in 30 mins or less.  
• Do it.  This sounds like the most simple step but it is the hardest. There will be lost of people and other things that will want to sabotage your efforts.  Unless someone is bleeding or at deaths door I sketch every day.  Sometimes it is the only time I get to make art in a day
• Use a timer.  Set your time and stick to it.
• Don't try and finish a page everyday.  Just work until the timer goes off and pick it up again later or tomorrow.  
• You don't have to show any one your work.  It is your journal you can keep it as private as you like. 
• Celebrate your work and enjoy the process.  It is not about being perfect it is about the process and practice.  
• Draw what you want to draw.  It doesn't matter what you draw just as long as you draw.
• We all have to start somewhere the important thing is starting 

“I keep drawing the trees, the rocks, the river, I'm still 

learning how to see them; I'm still discovering how to render 

forms. I will spend a lifetime doing that. Maybe someday I'll

 get it right.” 

― Alan Lee