How to fill a sketchbook: Tips and ideas for sketchbook practice! ✏️

[@tinakoyama8258]

Excellent tips -- thank you! My favorite sketchbook tip is to carry a small one with me everywhere I go. I try to sketch daily while I'm out taking a walk, waiting in a pharmacy line, riding the bus, sitting in my parked car, or whatever. They are all sketches from life, not from photos. I also enjoy drawing from photos, but drawing from life is a whole different energy. And when you get used to doing this as a part of daily life, it becomes very easy fill sketchbooks regularly. I also have very low expectations about what is worthy of sketching. I draw a lot of trash bins and utility poles. 😉

[@KatieMoody]

Ooh great tip, thank you for sharing! That's such a lovely way to not only document little slices of life but also get more drawing practice in! Totally agree about drawing from life being different energy - definitely something I'd like to make more time for this year 😊

[@kimberlyjeffers1623]

I like how you said you came into your own way of using the sketchbook. I think it's the same for me. Like I'm learning that having a journal is the door for me. so my sketchbook is an extension of things that spill over from my journal. This year I've also started sketching really quickly when I'm out walking. I create these 1 page "zines" if you will and that allows me to find things to draw in my sketchbook. I've realised that sometimes photos are way too much for me to process during a sketchbook session and I end up just not doing anything at all, if that makes sense.

[@KatieMoody]

Thank you so much Kimberly 💛 That's so interesting to hear! It sounds like such an organic process for you too, which is so wonderful! I love the idea of it spilling over from journaling, and the 1 page zines sound like such a fantastic way to approach it. I definitely know what you mean - I can spend so much time worrying about what to draw that it puts me off creating it in the first place! Love the idea of drawing what you find during a walk, I'll have to try it!

[@christianejaszczur6378]

Wonderful tips and ideas Katie. Thanks to you I have been trying drawing challenges to improve my drawing skills. What works for me is to keep the challenge "easy", I will do one month in one small sketchbook (A5) with one set of pencils and one reference book (currently plant and animal life in the mountains). Every drawing takes me around 15 or 20 minutes to finish. I finished a sketchbook like this and started a new one this month 🙂 So thank you for the inspiration 🙂

[@KatieMoody]

Thank you, Christiane! 🧡 The drawing challenges have been so helpful for when I'm feeling stuck! I love that you have your own rules with them to make them work for you too, such a good approach! And yay for starting a new sketchbook! 🤩🥳

[@emmaneary6120]

Love these tips Katie. I filled my first sketchbooks by doing an online course like Han's tip below. My tip would be to use cheap sketchbooks with fewer pages (like the Seawhite starter sketchbooks - cheap and with 40 pages of pretty decent cartridge paper). That way there's no reason to be precious about them and they don't seem so daunting to fill as a sketchbook with lots of pages. If someone wants to use paint, or markers that bleed through, they can always do it on loose paper and tape it in like you did in the first sketchbook you showed. I love using different sketchbooks for different projects but it's always good to have that one 'catch-all' sketchbook for ideas and notes.

[@KatieMoody]

Thanks so much Emma! I still have a Domestika course I need to watch - must make time for it! The cheap and fewer pages sketchbook is such a good idea!! The Royal Talens ones I use are quite thick and that in itself can feel pretty daunting. Thanks so much for sharing 😄

[@hanchad]

Lovely video Katie, it’s amazing to see how your sketchbook practice has developed over the years. To add to the ideas for our sketchbooks, enrolling on a course can be good, so using a site such as Domestika or Skillshare, then you’ve got a direction of what to draw/create in the sketchbook but not specific prompts? Also I am trialling having sketchbooks for different subjects, so for me this is one for people and one for other things (and I may start an ‘ugly sketchbook’ too). I love the sound of the comic day prompt, something really different but almost ‘useful’ as it’s documenting daily life!

[@KatieMoody]

Thanks so much Han! And thanks for sharing such great tips! The courses on those sites are such a great way to open up our ideas, not just with prompts but with technique and mindset too. I have my life drawing in a separate sketchbook but I really like the idea of having one subject per book - I bet it would be amazing to see the progression from the beginning of the book to the end on a specific subject! 🧡

[@evelynevelyn107]

I keep several sketchbooks at the same time. They are of different thickness and materials and I pick a sketchbook depending on the medium/materials I am using. E.g. a mixed media sketchbook is good for watercolor/acrylic abstracts with markers, a 140-200gsm cotton paper is good for urban sketching with light washes, a 300gsm cotton paper is good for heavy watercolour painting. I started making my own A5 sketchbooks out of A4 art paper as that feels more low pressure for me (the cost of sketchbooks was high and that was hindering me from using it more often). It has made a whole lot of difference to me as since then I am making a lot more art. If you dislike the sewing required in making your own sketchbook, I would suggest investing in a long heavy duty stapler. It’s much faster! I only staple 5 sheets at a time as 200-300gsm paper is thick. I also don’t bother making a cover.

[@KatieMoody]

That sounds like a great way to organise your work in sketchbooks! I have one that I specifically use for my thicker ink experiments - though I'm trying hard not to let that one feel too precious! Really like the idea of making your own, that's such a good way to keep things low pressure! Maybe that's why I enjoyed working in a zine format so much, I know that I can always create another one! Great tip about using a stapler too, thank you for sharing 😊

[@debbiepacko6832]

Great tips,Katie! Thank you!

[@KatieMoody]

Glad it was helpful, thanks so much for watching! 🤗

[@Hanna.k_draws]

Great tips Katie! When I first started painting I started on single sheets of paper but quickly discovered the beauty of a sketchbook and currently working in my number 10 (a very long landscape one which you’ve seen on my IG with your challenges) and a a4 moleskin one which I mostly use for acrylic and mixed media. But I do have to admit I have a rough sketchbook for my doodles and ideas and also very often, if I have an idea for a canvas painting, I’d try it out in that rough sketchbook too! I personally LOVE working in a sketchbook. I store the completed ones in my bookshelf and I find myself flipping through them from time to time. They’re so worth keeping even just to see your own progress. Highly recommend 🙌🏼

[@KatieMoody]

Thanks Hanna! Ooh yes that long landscape one is such an interesting format - it makes me want to try one like that! Also number 10 - that is amazing! I find my previous ones really helpful to flip through for ideas too, it's a good place to remind yourselves of mediums and techniques you've tried before and maybe want to tackle again! Thank you for sharing 🥰

[@nikkimiles]

Thank you Katie for the tips!❤

[@KatieMoody]

Thank you for watching, Nikki! 🧡

[@heathermattern]

These are wonderful tips! Thank you!!

[@KatieMoody]

Thank you Heather, so glad they're helpful! 😊

[@chaotixheart]

This was a wonderful and well thought out video, Katie. Thank you so much for this. I agree with everything you said, and you explained it very well. All types of sketchbooks are valid, and desiring one style over the other is fine, but we must be easy on ourselves ❤. I really appreciate your content!

[@KatieMoody]

Thank you so much Kimī, I really appreciate your kind words! Absolutely - all art is valid and I do think we are too hard on ourselves sometimes! Thank you for watching and for being here 🥰

[@chaotixheart]

@@KatieMoody you are most welcome ☺️🥰

[@9HereticPrincess9]

I'm going to buy some sketchbooks soon after I get a gift card. Thanks for this video! :)

[@KatieMoody]

Enjoy filling them! Thanks for watching 😊

[@9HereticPrincess9]

I also teach expressive art :)

[@9HereticPrincess9]

I adult color and zentangle, and Neuro graphic art. Those are my art types, plus journaling :)

[@KatieMoody]

Oh how wonderful, I've just looked up Zentangle and Neuro graphic art as I've not heard of them before! They look like such meditative creative practises 😍

[@kathyhackney7950]

You're unrealistically adorable 😂

[@tinakoyama8258]

P.S. I only discovered your channel recently, so excuse my comments 9 months late. 😆

[@KatieMoody]

Oh no problem at all! I really appreciate you watching and commenting no matter when the video was published 🥰