Fear of the Pretty Sketchbook

I promise it’s not just me. I like to believe that a LOT of creatives fall victim to buying more and more… and more creative supplies simply because they’re cool or pretty or colorful or yummy (but not actually edible) looking. For creatives who use sketchbooks in any capacity, pretty sketchbooks are our kryptonite! 

Buying MULTIPLE new sketchbooks before reaching the final page of the current one, simply because the new ones are so pretty, is an ongoing EPIDEMIC!

*baritone sing song voice* confession time…

I have never in my life completed a sketchbook cover to cover…………………

I KNOW.

Now before you get carried away and start calling me a fraud and whatnot out the side of your neck, let’s get one thing straight.

My apparent inability to complete a sketchbook says nothing about how much work I’ve produced in my life formally or casually. It’s quite the opposite. My ideas simply cannot be contained!!!!! I have work and ideas spread across numerous sketchbooks, scraps of paper, notecards, procreate files, and an unreasonable number of sticky notes.

The randomness of my idea generation and fluctuating skill level does nothing to quell my need to buy and make pretty sketchbooks. Instead, I just let the pretty sketchbooks collect dust until I have an idea or rendered sketch worthy of gracing its pages. I dream of one day filming a sketchbook tour filled with inspired sketches, aesthetically pleasing layouts, and juicy color palettes! However, this is so unrealistic for how my mind works and defeats the purpose of a sketchbook.

A sketchbook is supposed to be the culmination and home of all your creative ideas. Big or small. Trash or million dollar. Even though my heart knows this, my head rarely lets me sully the pages of pretty sketchbooks with underdeveloped ideas. My tendency to write ideas on any nearby scrap of substrate also doesn’t help my cause. 

But I’m currently working on a way to game my creative system. 

A few months back I started saving my snack and cereal boxes. After I built up a good amount, I spent a couple of hours chopping the boxes down to manageable sizes (read more about my love for this process HERE) that would translate well to sketchbooks. Since then, I’ve been slowly assembling the sketchbooks step by step. 

Don’t worry, once they’re finished, I’ll do a full blog post and video taking y’all through the entire process!

Once finished, the purpose of these snack box sketchbooks will be to see them as lower stakes than a pretty sketchbook, this way I’ll feel better about playing around in them. The ultimate goal is that in 2024 I take advantage of the freedom a sketchbook is designed to offer. 

They are meant for play and experimentation. A visual diary to hold all your creative ideas, thoughts, and emotions. My plan is to get through one of these sketchbooks every month. Which may be biting off more than I can chew seeing as at 30 years old I’ve never completed ONE! 

I want to have a concise place for my creative ideas to live. 

I want to be okay with getting ugly in my sketchbook.

Most importantly, I want to make being creative on a frequent basis a TOP priority.

The hope is that after building a frequent routine for myself in these no-pressure sketchbooks, the pretty ones will be less intimidating, and I’ll be ready to ugly them up! 

In the meantime, I’d like to invite you to completely disregard the grotesque slander I just threw at pretty sketchbooks so that you can go and check out the very pretty Done By Dazia sketchbooks in my shop!