How to feed your creativity.

How to feed your creativity? Where and how does a sketchbook practice fit in with this?

I have noticed over the years that artists often speak about sketchbook practice as a thing in and of itself. And I find myself wondering and being curious about what they mean when they speak of having a sketchbook practice? Having given this a little thought and some research looking at other artists, chatting with fellow artists my view is that referring to what is happening as a sketchbook practice is a focus is on the object eg the book rather than the process of how it is being used. Because it seems to me the process of how it is being used is about how to feed and fuel creativity and exploration in art. And the sketchbook (in some cases) is a form of container for that exploration. Often objects and things become imbued with a meaning that is not necessarily helpful and I think that sometimes the way sketchbooks and sketchbook practice is spoken of is one of those things. I think when we talk about sketchbook in this way we may miss an important element of the conversation, that it is less about using the book and more about the process of creative explorations.

Therefore this post is an encouragement to think outside of the container of a sketchbook and consider more broadly what are some of the ways to think about exploration as part of our creative process, as well as the kinds of things we might want to explore.

I am going to start by considering styles of approach.

Little and Often

Little and often: this is an option that is often talked about. And that gets spoken of quite a lot in relation to sketchbooks, that it’s good practice to work in your sketchbook daily. Well if I re-frame that statement in the way I have been talking about then yes, some kind of regular, daily if possible, creative explorations could be very useful. And if we take this broader perspective outside of purely working in a sketchbook then there are many and varied options as to how this can be approached. Some of the explorations that I think lend themselves to a daily practice are listed further down the page under How and What to Explore. But here is a quick example of what a daily practice might mean over a week.

For those times when a daily exploration practice is not possible the next option might be one that you find more appealing.

Challenges and Intensives

The opposite of little and often is some kind of a challenge or to make a commitment to yourself to engage with a creative exploration in a particular way for a specific time period.

For example there are challenges like the 100 Days Project: which is quite simply to do something creative every day for 100 days. My 30 day sketchbook challenge coming up in the summer of 2023 is another example as is Cheryl Taves 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge which is starting soon. And no doubt there are others. You could keep it much shorter than this and commit to something for a week. One of the tasks in the current Art Confidence boost is to do a doodle a day in a sketchbook. These kinds of projects can feel easier. They are time limited and being able to commit to something finite can often feel much less restricting to people and so is less likely to incite rebellion or resistance to the process. There are huge benefits to this approach as the focus that is required for this type of commitment can result in some exciting and interesting learning through the regularity and depth of the exploration.

Narrow and Deep

Engaging with a topic and staying with it for a deep dive and exploration. No time frame and no restrictions on medium or materials or format. Freedom to keep going with something you find fascinating for as long as you find it fascinating the only proviso being that it’s a deep exploration. Examples might be to work with a specific set of colours . To explore and external reference, possibly a landscape form, or a particular scene. The emotion attached to particular place.

How to Feed Your Creativity and What to Explore?

What are the kinds of subject matter lends itself to regular creative explorations? How might we go about creative exploration outside of working in different ways in a sketchbook format, that is some kind of A4 or similar book.

I will begin with some internet based ideas. Researching interesting work of other artists can be a regular practice. Bookmarking artists on Instagram. Building up Pinterest boards of work you like. Turing the virtual into the physical by using a sketchbook as a scrapbook with images of work by artists you like. You could include photos of gallery and museum visits for example.

Photographs are a huge element of my explorations, I take hundreds of photographs of colours, textures, shapes, the play of light and shade on objects.

You could experiment with different substrates, Different types of paper, card, board, fabric and keep all these loose sheets and materials in some form of box, folder or portfolio.

Some of your exploration may be in using digital drawing apps like Procreate on Apple or Artflow on Android. Again stored in Pinterest or another digital notebook.

Making your own book for working in can stretch the creative process to encompass the object as much as the work. Taking old book pages, and other exciting papers to create a simple book can be tremendous fun. And you can keep the book-making very simple by binding your book using straightforward methods. For example I have a binding machine which I have used. I have also punched holes and tied up the pages with string. In a future featured content session I will demonstrate these techniques. In the video below you can see an example of a small journal I made from a trip to France.

An obvious use of a sketchbook is a regular drawing practice and this is something frequently named as something to do in a sketchbook. As abstract artists exploring mark-making as part of your practice can be exciting and useful. Spending time in an environment you know is a source of inspiration and mark making in response to that environment can be incredibly useful to bring into your practice of creative exploration.

Begin a studio practice with play, this could be in a sketchbook or it could also be on sheets of paper, on a never ending painting, using collage, on an IPad using Procreate. This can be intuitive free and exploratory mark making, colour explorations, studies in shape or pattern. Whatever gets your juices flowing.

Exploring by keeping ongoing mood boards. Gathering found objects, mark-making, colour swatches in themes, creating interesting pages in ways that have meaning for you then form a rich resource for you to use as a source of inspiration. It might include images that you print and stick in, it might be in an electronic format. The essence of the concept is the gathering together of moments of noticing and creation in ways that you find useful and exciting and that will be a source of stimulation for you.

You can also use a journal for all of your reflections on your art, art practice and mindset notes. This be in a separate book, in your regular sketchbook or electronically. In fact anything that you you can keep and feel private where you can explore.

Find your own Processes

In all of this I want to encourage you to find your own process and not to let your creativity be high-jacked by someone’s else’s need to be prescriptive about how you use a sketchbook. Ultimately a sketchbook is a tool in an arsenal of many. The end game is to find options to engage in multiple exciting, interesting and exploratory ways of feeding your art, that you can draw on either explicitly or implicitly in your work. Happy exploring!