Why YOU Should Use a Sketchbook!

[@kayleighshaw21]

11:47 I love how you call each sheet a chance, that's such a great way to look at it ❤

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Yes!

[@maryannprzybycien2013]

I love the painting you did of those cars! Painting things out of the norm is something I like to do also. I'm currently using a Hahnemuhle toned tan watercolor sketchbook for gouache, Neocolor 2's and water-soluble oil pastels. It's 95lbs, 200gsm, and I'm really enjoying it. ❤

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I have one if those, the tan is great. The grey ones are too light toned IMHO.

[@meldixon1918]

Can we take a moment to appreciate how great a roll of masking tape is to use as an “easel” whether for a phone or a sketchbook.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

😆

[@crysodenkirkart]

I used to really struggle with using the most expensive of my supplies, because I thought it needed to be something worthy of the cost, but I had a real wake up call when I started trying to be an artist full time instead of as a hobby. In addition to the things I'd picked up myself, I had inherited all my grandfather's art supplies, and when I sat down to really take stock of what I was starting with, I was hit by how much art he never had the chance to make but could have. I can't help but wonder what was still locked up in all these chalks and paints that now will never see the light of day. I made the decision to use a bit of his media in every piece going forward in the hope that maybe I can still channel some of it, like it's a collaboration. But, I would rather have had the art he could have made. I think about that every time I waver on whether or not to fill up that sketchbook or make that new painting.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Good point!

[@gwensimmons_gigi1629]

Touché Lindsay! Well stated… loved your car graveyard painting. When I find them on my hikes, I wonder how they got them there, and the last story before ditching the cars. Are they part of a crime?? My mind goes rouge… Thanks for posting!😂🎉🥰💜✨🤘🏾

[@thefrugalcrafter]

😆

[@KarenKhen94]

I’m always inspired to use gouache after watching your videos

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I'm so glad!

[@lisaboutin821]

I thought the subject matter from the photo was going to be pretty boring, but watching the whole process and seeing the final result , I absolutely love it. I find your chats and tips have so inspired the whole process for me doing art and freeing me up from angst. Thank you so much Lindsay !

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@marlbboro8091]

Same. I would have never thought to paint that picture and here we are….beautiful as a painted picture.

[@SMCCRADY2]

These sketchbooks will be priceless heirlooms for your future grandchildren!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks!

[@nancyloomis3046]

Yep,....Good topic. I don't have the amount of sketchbooks you do, but still more than I few that I've barely touched. I'm learning that sketchbooks are where we can be totally free...we can show them publicly or keep them like our special diary!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Yes!

[@mymindness]

One of my favorite sketchbooks is just a plain old composition notebook. I can do anything to it, and it doesn’t matter that I’m “wasting” paper because the whole darn book only cost $1! Is it good quality paper? Not even close. But it’s so much fun to play in with collage and acrylic paint. It has also helped me to start using my nice sketchbooks because after playing in it I feel more confident with my skills and supplies.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Love it!

[@katiethomascreativeproduct4216]

I'm at this point with a dollar store sketchbook, I'm loving the fact that there's no pressure!

[@tanglingheadphones]

That first stroke at 3:09 is so satisfying to watch.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks 😊

[@lisacopner1427]

I use the blue 3m tape on this paper, also on Sarah's recommendation, and it works perfectly. It's never damaged the paper 😊

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks for the info!

[@cindihooks8178]

i love that your sketchbooks are kind of like scrapbooking, they are visual piantings of where you are and what your doing

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks Cindi! You are totally right!

[@nadeaner.cowley513]

Fantastic video as always❤ thanks for sharing. Much love

[@Freedommjw]

I like the painting way more than the photograph. Artistic license improved it considerably!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks! I'm not much of a photographer:)

[@marit4660]

Hi Lindsay! Yes!! That's how still-beginner me got started - in sketchbooks 😀. I still love them and the low to no pressure I feel when experimenting in them. They're so freeing! And oh my gosh, Borders!! I miss them. And Blockbuster. Those were the days! 😂

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Yes!

[@missinkyart]

I always have a sketchbook on hand. I find it so helpful for testing out new art supplies and even just for doodles when you feel like being creative plus they hold memories in each page and I think that's really cool, like a diary but filled with artwork.😊

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Glad it was helpful!

[@marlbboro8091]

Wait a minute! What a beautiful ceramic palette ❤

[@thefrugalcrafter]

It's from etsy, link in description

[@leighrogers1383]

Thanks for your inspiring and motivating video Lindsay. I live in Thailand and have taken a trip down the country to escape bad air (burning season). I have brought a sketchbook and small pallet of watercolours with me. I’m really enjoying filling it and it will be a great memory of my trip…different birds, landscapes…and lots of other nice memories 😊

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You can do it!

[@ChantelleArts]

I love working in sketchbooks so much ☺☺

[@thefrugalcrafter]

That's great!

[@eileenmichaud5898]

I love this painting. Just goes to show you that anything can be made beautiful even old cars along with the stories that go with them. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I totally agree!

[@Anonymoi]

Did you get that sketchbook at Artist & Craftsman Supply in Portland? Either way, I love that store. They’ve been there since I was in college in the ‘90s. I also recommend Stonehenge Kraft as a nice brown-toned paper. Unlike most kraft paper, it’s 100% cotton and archival like regular Stonehenge paper. Fairly pricey, though.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I did!

[@pokey3010]

Excellent words and painting. Thank you

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You are very welcome

[@moodyandtheartist]

That’s a really cool ceramic mixing palette!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I think so too!

[@bettyjorodgers8552]

That was coooooool. Thanks

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks 😊

[@PatriciaPageMosaicArtsCrafts]

Great advice Lyndsay, awesome painting 👍🏾

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@ArtandDiamondsWithEskies]

Thank you for the incredibly important food for thought. I do all of my preliminary drawings and sketches in my sketchbooks and I'll do finished graphite pieces but I've never tried to do a full piece in color and one of them all though recently it crossed my mind. You have absolutely inspired me to do exactly that finish some pieces and some sketchbooks.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Yay!

[@JanetBuol]

Gosh this is lovely. I really need to learn how to work with my gouache. You make it look so easy. I've only eer done sketchbooks, so I am onboard with you. My first thought was always that these pieces of paper that were piling up and scattered, needed to be in a book.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You could bind them!

[@dianahoward7226]

This really is so encouraging and inspiring! Thank you!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I'm so glad!

[@monica-NJ-123]

I love how this turned out , I have qouache paints but only used them once , you make it look so easy , thank you for sharing 😊

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You are so welcome!

[@paulah317]

I have the same toned sketchbook and tape rips it. I'm disappointed in the paper thickness BUT asbi keep using the paper I'm liking it more. I'm putting thicker gouache on it, not thin washes. I'm liking it for color pencil too. There's a silver lining in everything!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Good to know!

[@mgeiser6951]

Inspirational! Thank you - best wishes from 🇬🇧

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks for watching!

[@jilllusey7001]

Great video and great advice given. Well done.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Glad it was helpful!

[@JoAnneSmith-di8ok]

I love my sketchbooks. I appreciate what you said here. I try to live in the moment with my art work. The reward is when it is finished and I can say, " Wow. I did that!"

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Well said!

[@gertietheduck]

I really love how your painting looks on that paper!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks!

[@kassaArt]

I absolutely love your painting 😍

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thank you so much 😀

[@teresafuller3912]

Need is relative! 😁

[@thefrugalcrafter]

😆

[@mjpete27]

Hullo Lindsay, I am so impressed by your attitude on the sketchbooks you have and are working in! You are truly inspirational and so generous towards the art created within your sketchbooks. I have so few completed sketchbooks and I have no channel to record videos for either! I am glad that you are sharing your ideas and work in your sketchbook. I am a project sketchbook user and so as I finish the project I set the book aside as it is done, yes that is a very wasteful practice. I have a few challenge sketchbooks that I started and fizzled out, I believe that I would enjoy just starting to use those sketchbooks again and if I finish, good if not, well I will get some practice in whatever medium I choose to use! You are truly inspirational and a very kind person too! I have cherry picked parts from car graveyards so I have seen quite a few out here in California! I guess that these car collections are everywhere in America where distances are so much larger than say European countries. I remember a story about a comedian who was in France and just could not believe Italy was only 2 hours away! In the US you can drive for DAYS and not even come close to a border of another country, sometimes not even another state! Depending on the terrain, here’s to your lovely car graveyard painting. Thank you for sharing this amazing artwork and video with all of us.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks so much!

[@lisayoder5686]

This is great! I love it, it is one of the things that I admire about others that I can never get myself to do. Just anything from every day life...but this video HAS inspired me to pick up my one of my (also too large of an unused collection) sketchbooks and supplies that I have been too secretly afraid to actually 'ruin' with my work. Thank you for sharing 😀

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You can do it!

[@drbettyschueler3235]

I have a sketchbook for each of my kids and I'm working on ones for the grandkids. After that, I guess I'll be making them for all the great-grandkids lol.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Aww, sweet!

[@juicytulipboutiqueandartis8051]

Great video, lesson and message ❤ thanks a bunch! Love n light

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You are so welcome

[@128titanic]

Hi, Lindsay. Thank you for your video. ❤

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You are so welcome!

[@jennw6809]

A sketchbook is great because it's a lot like a photo album -- you can actually grab it and look at your work, show it to people or just reminisce. How often do you get your art out of the portfolios or boxes or however you store your loose sheets? Not to mention it's soooo much easier to store than stacks and stacks of paintings.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Yes!

[@yelsyels]

Love it!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks!!

[@pokey3010]

This was fun to watch and learn so true about old cars in the woods here in Maine. Very amazing unique painting, thank you. Oh, are you going to have a pencil class in your teachable classes? I know I am years behind with your classes so much renovation here at our house and I've been sick and husbands surgeries, EEKS always something! Someday I will catch up.. I just thought I would sign up if you were going to do a pencil class.. You are encouraging me to get my sketch books out and at least do that, with whatever I can get out of my closet.. LOL Thanks so much

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I am launching my Creative Colored Pencil Class tomorrow!!! So excited!

[@pokey3010]

@@thefrugalcrafter Whoopeee!!! Thanks so much, excellent teacher!! 🥰🤩

[@barbaramoore3081]

I love this! It looks like something I might see, and your painting was wonderful!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@olderendirt]

I enjoy hearing your philosophical ideas while you're creating. I'm really liking this painting, too. Thanks for sharing.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

You are so welcome!

[@Ann-ey1tw]

I was amazed that you said you spent a lot of time mixing a brown. I do that a lot! What did you use? I can never remember what combination I used the last time and it takes a minute to make it again. But you’re so experienced-you make me feel so normal! Thanks!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I mix opposite colors so regardless and green or I will mix orange and add blue.

[@adaportnoy]

hello Lindsay( I hope I can call you Lindsay), I absolutely love all stuff that you are doing. ❤May be it's a wrong place to ask about brushes, but if you can, please, to explain about brushes: numbers on it(some have 2 numbers); different types of synthetic hair; what shape you suggest to use for different drawings; stiffens; what brushes you suggest to use for different paints - watercolor, gouaches, acrylic, oil. thank you very much🥰 (sorry for my English)

[@thefrugalcrafter]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5zNmn9qpbqHj5Isi=yZX44V5IjGoGcE7V here's a video all about brushes!

[@adaportnoy]

@@thefrugalcrafter thank you!

[@MariaDeesy]

Lindsay maybe your next course can be Gouache 😃 I would love to learn how to paint better using it.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

It's like you read my mind:)

[@MariaDeesy]

@@thefrugalcrafter 👏🏻🥳

[@MaryYoungblood-xy8vg]

And we hit 102 degrees yesterday in Arizona! Too cold for you to paint outside and too hot for us!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Too bad we couldn't average our temps!

[@JA-ed1tj]

QUESTION: Lindsay, will you place a link for the person you mentioned in the video? Not Sara. I know Sara Burns' site. She has wonderful videos of Scotland and painting.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Was it James Gurney? youtube.com/@jamesgurney?si=ea3ybW5jPYPH6pmx

[@bloomhavenstudios]

It’s Shannon Green. She mentions her at 14:57.

[@queenria7]

This is off topic, sketchbook wise, but I'm just so curious: a car graveyard in the woods?? I'm in densely populated Europe and never heard of such a thing. Do some people in the US just let their cars rot in the woods? And the woods are randomly littered with old cars?

[@JA-ed1tj]

In rural areas, some people do. Car hoarders, they just can't seem to let them go.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Yup, it's weird, usually they are in woods near a farm. The farmers would just move the car once it was too old to run to the woods ans let it rot. Sometime people collect cars with the intention of fixing them or using them for parts and they get too many to deal with.

[@queenria7]

@@JA-ed1tj & ​ @thefrugalcrafter -- thank you both for replying! I suppose the good thing about this is that artists get inspired, haha. 😄 I actually love Lindsays painting, especially the colors. The whole scene looks so much nicer than on the photo or in real life. 🥰

[@reginaperkins8255]

This came out great, you can’t see the warping in the video.

[@susanacarracedo5433]

I have many used sketchbooks so it lets me see how I've progressed, and dare I say it? improved over the years. Lindsay, do you go back and redo an old sketch, or refine it somehow?

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I do, ifi am not feeling creative I look at old sketches as if I am critiquing a student and try and improve them. It's a good practice I think ND I can deal with the ugly pages in a sketchbook that way.since I have so many books going at once I often have much older sketches at the beginning inning 😆

[@marit4660]

PS I love the cars!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks 😊

[@cottonwoolclouds]

As 150 gsm is a good paper weight, (80gsm is for copies, anything above 200gsm is classed as board, or for crafters, card) I checked equivalents. Apparently, 150 gsm is equivalent to 100lbs, so if it feels like 60lbs to you something is wrong! I hope you haven't been 'had', I should be wary of that! Love your sketchbooks, which aren't like most sketchbooks at all, certainly not like mine, they are far too professional!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I think it's legit but 100lbs can vary a lot between papers depending on the parent sheet. GSM is standard at least. 300gsm is what my 140# Watercolor paper I and the pounds is less than half of the gram number. It's fine. I probably had too high expectations.

[@deepowers3117]

I loved watchin Have lost comment to cyber space 4 times already. Have to come back when feeling a little better. I did manage to do the thumbs up, though.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Thanks for trying 4 times, yikes!

[@jennw6809]

I have no idea how some folks like Stillman & Birn. I bought one, never again. I used it for color mixing experiments, and even that wasn't a great use, because it makes all watercolors look bad! I don't think Sarah can get the Strathmore products easily where she lives. OH ALSO, who uses permanent green? NOT ME

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I like their beta mixed media books, I filled two of those but this us the only other one I've tried. Maybe I'll do a review after I use it more. I want to love it.

[@grannysmithart]

how would this paper work for colored pencils or graphite sketching?

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Fairly well I think

[@vickimerritt2832]

Confused about your use of the term sketchbook for watercolor, in my world, most sketchbooks are for dry or mixed media and even the top name and grade sketchbook do not hold up well for wet media. Please clarify

[@thefrugalcrafter]

This is a mixed media sketchbook and you can buy or make sketchbooks with watercolor paper too. There are many to explore. I love it!

[@wanderingstar5673]

😇

[@MSKCCooke]

You didn't mention "this" sketchbook other than the pages may be too thin to do double sided, so maybe it didn't get in you r way after all?

[@thefrugalcrafter]

No, it was fine to use:)

[@Linda-qq5mg]

Leave it to you to create such a good painting out of some old cars! Now all they need is

[@Linda-qq5mg]

Some for sale signs!

[@thefrugalcrafter]

😆 good luck. One is missing wheels and the pickup bed!

[@marlbboro8091]

The Himi jelly green is also like that. A weird one. And there are two of them.🤢

[@marlbboro8091]

Me - cars in The woods - ‘wonder what crimes were committed? who was murdered? who abandoned the cars here?’and then sadness for my imagined victim.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Noone, I know who owned these, he's a peach:)

[@annettefournier9655]

Thank goodness the buds are coming onto the trees. 6 months of brown and gray is almost too much to endure.😟

[@thefrugalcrafter]

I agree!

[@judyoger]

The people who did the cars, may have a title loan on the cars and are hiding them from repo. Though if they don't run, I would just let them repo. If they had a clean title they could sell to a junk yard for a couple of hundred bucks. They law may be looking for these vehicles.

[@thefrugalcrafter]

Oh no, I doubt it. They are very old and I know the person ho owns the property. He is a tinkerer and had lots of stuff tucked in the woods. 😆

[@bksnow125]