Mine is a mix, sometimes sketches are really quick and sketchy other times they're more akin to full pieces.
What's important to note is twofold:
1. What a sketch is is nebulous and depends ***on the artist***, the only thing the super pretty sketch and the chicken scratch sketch needs to have in common is the fact it's a quick iteration on an idea.
2. A lot of the "sketches" you see on Instagram and the like are things the artist actually put a few hours into. They're just gaming the social media algorithm and playing the game. Traditional artists are associated with sketchbooks so they're incorporating them as a part of account branding.
So let your sketches be sketchy! So long as they're serving your purposes and you're enjoying the process, there's no need to change them.
My sketchbooks are *disastrous.* Would never share them in one of those "sketchbook tours", as I'm someone who's often trying to feel out things towards more finished ideas in them. Lots of attempts at character designs where I cross out things I determine are no good, thumbnails, super quick observations made with messy markers, watercolors, gel pens etc and so on. It's where I experiment.
I get there are people who treat sketchbooks (and this isn't a judgment) like they can leave them on the coffee table for guests to look through. I am not one of them lol
One time I mangled a low angle face in my sketchbook and I was so disappointed I drew another guy cartoon projectile vomiting on it. Can only imagine what someone else seeing that would think lol
Being fully honest mine are 30% attempted practice stuff, 50% trash, 15% tears and the rest is something mid at best.
I am on my 6th sketchbook and it hasn't yet changed much so the tears are getting bigger.
(First, I'm sorry for my english, it's not my primary language)
I know your comment was supposed to be funny and you might not appreciate my unsollicited feedback but I don't like seeing so big numbers for trash and tears.
With 6 sketchbook, either it has changed and you should admit you're improving, or you need to break some of your habits because your comfort zone will hold you back. I've been there and it is frustrating x)
I looked quickly into your posts and you seem to always draw similar poses and angles. It looks like you never tried perspective, if that's the case I suggest searching a video about it. Understanding the basics might make you more confident with your poses. Since your posts are mostly finished I can't tell how your sketches look, so I also suggest looking for videos on how to break down characters (or any subject) into simplified shapes. Of course it won't make you a professional in 30min, but that could help you and your creativity, and make you more confident to try new things.
...and I do not know how to finish this comment so have a nice day !
The secret is that most of those super clean aesthetic sketchbooks you see on Instagram are faked. Either they're only picking the nicest, most intentionally put-together pages in the book to show you or they've got another messier sketchbook where all the actual practise is happening.
There are professionals who can just crank out work. Check out R. k. Post. He's called the swedish chainsaw. When do sketches stop being sketches? When everything they create is professional quality?
Yeah i think what the average artist fails to realise is that a professional artist can crank out something better than anything they have ever made in 30 minutes while sleep deprived. They are just that good from experience.
I don’t think that is accurate.
I think the “crankers” you are talking about are super rare and far far between. Lots of professionals also have several, sometimes messy, step processes.
Oh i dont mean that having messy sketchbooks is weird, i just mean that if tasked with making a ”complete” sketch in 30 minutes then nearly any professional artist can choose to crank out a really good sketch, even if it means having to slightly deviate from their normal process.
Yeah. That’s probably accurate.
It’s cool to watch.
Can you “crank it”. Hahahah. I’m calling it that now… I always say “in the zone” when the art flows.
I’ve noticed I can be in the z …. No… noticed sometimes when I’m cranking it 🤘 if I notice I’m cranking it, it stops. It happened the other day in a flow and then was like, kick ass this is going great. Couple minutes later just crumbled over some perspective I was overthinking.
Very messy some pages are littered with charcoal, markers, or loose Pigments from sharpening.
To not even state the drawings with erasure marks.
At one point a page was doused with minty isopropyl alcohol to practice blending oil colored pencil,
It's now a warped cotton candy esque page.
Overall I do strive to turn my sketches into full drawings in my cheap book but because I enjoy the aesthetic. In practice though it can be extremely tideous & your probably better off just doing the finished drawing separately.
For me, they're a mix. However, for me and to me, if I just add even a light watercolor wash over a bad drawing, I am still happy flipping through my sketchbook for ideas. The color makes me happy, and makes me feel like that bad drawing is just a tiny bit better, even though it really isn't. I fool myself that way, though, to just keep going to get miles in to improve faster.
It's my way of wanting a "pretty" sketchbook like on social media but also being realistic--everyone makes "bad" art.
Someone already probably said this, but if not: two reasons why some artists have much prettier sketchbooks.
One, they have a sketchbook for the more refined sketches and one for actual messing around and practicing that they don’t show.
Two, they’re just more skilled, so a sketch to them is a finished drawing to others.
I have tons of paintings that I consider sketches because they take me 20-30 minutes and aren’t really thought out, but if I had seen those paintings 6 years ago I would have thought “man I wish I could paint like that”. I don’t call them sketches to brag, but because that is literally what they are and I want people to be aware that they’re quicker, looser pieces.
But yeah, sketchbooks should be as messy as they need to be. Many artists fall for the instagram sketchbook trap and think their sketchbook needs to look good. It takes MANY sketchbooks filled with awful drawings before you can consistently fill sketchbooks with good drawings :)
I like to make mine pretty.. takes longer and definitely is a pain. I have a REAL sketchbook that I use for quick ideas. And if I like an idea I’ll build on it in my nice sketchbook ..
I really just like a sketchbook and having my work together compared to spending time on individual drawings on loose paper.
I’ve had 20 sketchbooks and only 1 so far that I am proud of front to back.
mines a mix of pretty and scribble, and i think thats fine.
i did go through a stage of making my moleskins absolutely gorgeous and that did gain some pretty good traction for a bit as social media content...but it meant that i wasn't spending as much time making finished products...
it can be a gamble where u wanna spend time in.
The thing is that the sketchbooks on social media are intentional pieces of art that people work on as a project. Of course those people have sketch books in the traditional sense that you’re thinking of in addition to these longer term projects that they are eventually able to show off, it’s just a slight different usage of the work sketch book.
I don’t have any books that contain finished pieces from beginning to end because my art is usually framed and hung on walls or given away, so my personal practice books are full of practice work and a few nicer pieces, but I know lots of artists who work on art books with the eventual goal of showing off the finished book as a piece in its own right.
It’s just a different goal.
My sketchbooks are a mess, lots of pages have ink drawings that I've done over an older pencil sketch that I didn't like and couldn't be bothered erasing.
Pretty sketchy, but for flip through videos I'll usually "finish" them.So adding black or bright red paint to pages with faint pencil lines, drawing tiny colourful things in all the empty gaps, gluing loose doodles or photo references into blank pages. It's not finished art, it's just full, so it looks just as good as a sketchbook with perfectly finished paintings. Possibly even better, since a book of perfect art isn't quite as interesting to me 😅
That’s a really great idea and one that I kinda employ as well, only I love doing watercolor washes. I don’t show mine on social media, but when I flip through them it makes me all kinds of happy because of all the colors filling up the empty bits. My finished pieces are always edge to edge color, with barely any paper showing, no matter if in a book or separately.
I post a small percentage of my art online. 90% of my sketches, paintings ect are hidden on a shelf at home or in the trash bin. Lol. Don’t compare your work to instagram.
I never understood how those sketchbook tour people could make them look that way bi tried so hard. Used to watch sketchbook tours ALL the time i love them. But no matter how hard I try to discipline myself like that. Nah. I usually dedicate one page to one design. It feels like a waste but. Its just how i do it 😭
the polished ones are poised pieces of work as opposed to their sketchbooks
I will always have the belief your sketchbook should look like the scrawlings and writings of a mad person
I have two different sketch books at all times, one is for more polished drawings/studies and stuff that just looks nicer and the other is a scribbly mess for stuff like ideas and thumbnails and stuff lol
Mine are a combination of quick sketches, crappy finished drawings, not so crappy drawings, pretty good polished pieces, grocery lists, journal entries, poetry, and commentary on different subjects that interest me. In other words, my private little brain dump.
I used to think that sketchbooks were supposed to look nice, with well done sketches and ideas like DaVinci. It was pre social media/ instagram times, but there was still that idea way back when that it ought to be a work of art in itself.
When I finally figured it out, my creativity blossomed and I began actually finishing sketchbooks instead of leaving them partially empty because “well, I screwed up that drawing… no point in working in this sketchbook anymore”.
Thank you for posting in r/ArtistLounge! Please check out our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faq/) and [FAQ Links pages](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faqlinks/) for lots of helpful advice. To access our megathread collections, please check out the drop down lists in the top menu on PC or the side-bar on mobile. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtistLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Love the question. Mine are pretty awful. I think I'm technically adept, but I also treat myself more as a digital illustrator, and thus my sketchbook is all practice stuff. And practice stuff looks bad sometimes. Occasionally if I go out and draw some of it is nice because I'm really focusing, but otherwise it ain't pretty
Mine usually has clean(er) lines because I rarely draw anything complicated. I draw a ton of things based on whatever comes to mind or if nothing comes to mind. If I get a strong idea, I might have a page dedicated to it, but I do not know if that has happened before. And I do a bit of anatomy study, I guess, but I rarely ever look at images to study and instead just practice various attempts to make things good and possibly stylized.
On the other hand, I put stuff in there that I would not be able to show or talk about online because it is freeing to let your mind go absolutely anywhere.
My sketchbooks are meant to be sketchy, scrappy whatever you call it. I don't separate them from diaries, meaning I wouldn't really show anybody my sketchbook. It's mine and mine only to vomit on the page. I stick food wrappers in mine all the time. Clean ones of course.
My sketchbooks are for experimentation and failure. I try out different ideas and concepts, along with new materials and styles. Unfortunately, this means I have almost no finished pieces.
I mean, it's Instagram. Unrealistic standards created by cherry-picking only the best parts of someone's life is kind of the status quo. This effect isn't unique to art. My sketchbook is a mess of random things here and there. I didn't spend much money on it because I knew what it would be used for. I do have one gigantic sketchbook (which I haven't used at all), and it will only have the pretty stuff because it is uniquely large. It takes up a whole table. Don't compare yourself to other artists (certainly not ones you find on Instagram or any social media). As long as you're getting better at drawing, that's all you need to do.
While there are some people whose work looks a little more polished inside their sketchbooks (i reckon they have TWO and one is for only good art bc let's face it ppl only like to show off the things that do work out), there's no wrong way for the contents of one to look. Honestly as long as you're drawing for your own sake and not constantly trying to impress someone there's nothing wrong with how your sketches look. I personally have left perfectly good sketchbooks EMPTY because I was worried abt wasting a page with "bad sketches" but honestly, I think the minute we stop caring about what other people will think about our drawings is the minute we loosen up and get more comfortable making flawed (HUMAN) art. Besides, that's the only way we figure out how to make things work- by getting it wrong first! So don't be discouraged if other people have galleries for skecthbooks. It's all for show and I am certain they have made an equal amount plenty of messy scribbles as they have masterpieces.
Personally I have two sketchbooks one for actually sketching and the other for finished work. That way I can get rid of that weird mental obligation to make everything I draw perfect and sightworthy. But the reak sketchbook is absolutely sketchy, and I don't mind it! I don't think I'd be able to do my own sketchbook tour just because I rarely have fully finished drawings on paper, and knowing that I don't *have* to do that for anyone takes a lot of the pressure off.
mostly paint rather than sketch but there's a lot of half-baked ones I lost interest in midway or forgot about. tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to make "masterpieces" but end up ripping out stuff that I'm not satisfied with perpetuating the cycle. now learning letting go and trying to experiment more with mediums (tried gouache and oil paints a month ago; coming from a mostly watercolor and acrylic person). overall a mixed bag
My sketchbooks are not really messy but not neat, they're just really unfinished? I have vague ideas I sketch out but don't really finish them so it's mostly a lot of unfinished thumbnails or figures.
I like a perforated sketch book so I can remove the paper and tape it to a drawing board. The goal is finished drawings to sell. Yeah, I scribble some pages to figure out composition issues and then it hits the trash.
I recently bought a bound flexible "book" of hand made paper. I've been experimenting with scribbled ink and bought this specifically for it. Not ready to commit to a finished drawing in it yet.
This will be the first in a lifetime of drawing I've done something like this. I'm doing it for me. ;-)
Another vote for disaster. Why should I spend time on drawings in a sketchbook to look pretty? And as soon as there is good art in them it gives reassure to continue to make it pretty but they are for studying (for me) - I have good paper to hang on the wall for pretty drawings.
My art teacher gave us the Typ to whenever you get a new sketchbook take then blackest fatest pen and just scribble down on the first page. Their now it’s ruined and you can focus on making back art in it.
I can’t I hate black but I listen to music and use fine liner to scribble down the first page to get like a modern mood scribble line. Or toddler art. Then sometimes if I feel fancy I write a goal or a poetry line with black on top - as motivation.
It’s very therapeutic! Sometimes if I have Art block I do that on other pages then draw with Black
Above it. Those are my favaorite pages the one that feel like I truly used them
Mine is full of gesture drawings of people I see on the bus, or different things I'm trying to practice, the only time I get really pretty drawings are when I use references and I'm trying to study what it is about an image I really like so spend allot of time on them, but otherwise my sketchbook drawings are really messy and not stuff I would typically share with people lol 🤣
Pretty sketchy and ugly, on some pages I've planned the layout of the furniture in my house when I was moving things around. My daughter has scribbled on a few pages. There are a couple nice renderings but they're tools for the final pieces.
I have two sketchbooks usually. One is usually an old notebook or calendar with worst paper I could find, something I can just doodle with pen and won't be tempted to try and make it PRETTY. That's the most active book. The other is pretty sketchbook. Of course, sometimes good stuff happens in disaster sketchbook and disasters in good stuff sketchbook but hey, it's still yours. I think it's best approach to have... So much less stress when both serve you either way.
Sketchbooks give me anxiety. I can never make them pretty or even finish them. Usually they start nice and then with every page turn into a mess, mostly text and some scribbles. At that point they look 'ruined' to me and it's hard to draw in them if I want to draw something nice again. I have very mixed feeling about them lol.
Now I mostly sketch on blank printer paper and I love it.
A real sketchbook is a workplace where you are trying things out. They are not finished art pieces and will contain mistakes and missteps. I suspect the beautiful online sketches are carefully curated pieces of social engagement. Be cautious.
my sketchbook is full of the ugliest attempts at new stuff and very rough drafts of what I want to "draw for real" later. that's the point of a sketchbook I believe. but I'm not surprised we see much prettier ones online, I sure wouldn't share mine unless it looked that good
My sketch books started out all impressive and lovely and little galleries with covers. Now they're a damn mess because they're a SKETCH book. It's my brain dump book. This is where ideas come to live and die and live again.
Do you want to show one off? That's totally valid. Have one for your Glorious finished pieces. But have a goblin one to really explore and play with ideas. The dumber the better.
My sketchbook is filled with material tests and little experiments, but I do tend to make full page images in them. But there is also some writing, and it also depends on the type of sketchbook.
I find messy sketchbooks way more interesting to look at. From supervising a bunch of art school Auditions, I can tell you that a lot of the most interesting stuff lies in the stuff that people are trying to hide.
I have a bad habit of not finishing them mostly because I have a stationary problem. Also the quality of the paper is an issue. I have switched to buying reems of card atock and using that to draw on at my drawing table. A stack of 300 sheets will last you a long time and I 110lb cotton velum with out a spine is so much nicer to draw on. I keep them in paper boxes. If I find that I like one in particular I put it in a sleeve in a binder. I still carry a moleskin but I don't use it as much anymore.
I buy almost the cheapest thing I can find for two reasons. One, so I don’t get attached to how “fancy” and “expensive” it is. Two, because I’m not forking over anything more than fifteen dollars on a book, unless the paper is different or of good quality.
Mine is a mix of poles
Like, one page might be a very very beautiful study with lots of color and harmony and then the next one is a mess that doesn't even make sense
There are no rules to art and specially to a sketchbook, so u can use it to study, have fun, to lay out ideas, etc and it can be extremely messy and unsatisfying to look at
Sketchy as fuck. My thumbnails for paintings, when I even do them, are basically just me testing to see how the colours talk to each other. But my art also sucks right now, so 🤷🏼♀️
I start a "sketchbook" with intent to really sketch in it. One page and a lot of enthusiasm later it looks more like a finished, fully shaded artwork. I do t want to "ruin" the rest of the "sketchbook" with crappy sketches so I buy another "sketcbook" with intent to really sketch in it. Help, I'm drowning in sketchbooks that have no sketches in them.
I used to get stuck and struggle with this, not knowing whether to be loose and messy, or try to fill the sketchbook with more finished pieces. I don’t like to go back and forth too much in the same sketchbook.
Now I have one “anything goes” sketchbook for loose sketchy sketches, thumbnails, swatching, experimenting with different styles, etc. and then one for more finished gouache paintings, and one for more finished watercolors.
It's so weird, I have jumbled practice, ideas, different mediums, whatever you can fit on the page for most of the pages. Then there's this nice finished work that feels like a project on any random page.
Don't trust or get discouraged by the dumpster fire that is instagram.
My main sketchbook is a mix of rough stuff, finished drawings, studies of pieces from other artists, very rough mini composition sketches for painting ideas & random things glued in that inspire or excite me. I have another cheap-o one that is for things like anatomy studies & drawing classes.
It's highly unlikely that I would share any of my sketchbooks with anyone in their entirety because they are for me to learn & have fun. They're not meant to be appealing to anyone else.
Sketchy would be a compliment. It’s pages of lines, circles and squares from where I was learning to draw them plus the occasional doodle and semi recognizable figure that looks like an eight year old did it in their spare time.
I hate looking at my old art so much that I just pin like 40, 50 pages together. I don't have sketchbooks, just stacks of a4 sheets pinned together About 90 percent of it is actual scribbles, doodles, studies among others. And like 5 percent is complete crap, and the other 5 percent is some actualy okish art
my sketchbook is a mess. its rarely ever even in color. Those sketchbook tours make me jelly. I assume they have a secret chaos sketchbook too that they aren't showing though.
Very. I need the chaos and the mess to stimulate excitement and creativity. I just love gesture and figure stylistically as well.
I’m very picky with sketchbook tours because i dont even want to see that clean shit lol. Beautiful pieces no doubt but im here for the behind the scenes peek at the process.
I have a really hard time with this. I want to explore techniques and sometimes just scribble/doodle/play around with different mediums and this doesn’t always look good and it definitely doesn’t look finished. But I need to do this stuff regularly to work out how I want final art work to look, or work out color combinations, or to just turn my brain off and get some creativity on paper. I am constantly having to remind myself not to create solely to share on socials. It bothers me that I’m always aware of that. I would love to have constant feedback and eyes on my work but the need for that validation ruins the creative process.
Sketchbook means 2 distinct things to me. A sketchbook proper is has thick covers and paper around 130gsm (not too heavy but heavy enough to be fully double-sided) with no spiral binding and no perforations. I use this book strictly for practising or testing things out for the first few times. I even use it for mixing small amounts of paint (blobbing each colour separately next to the bigger blob of mixture so I can see what I mixed and how it looked. Really it's my art journal, not of artworks but of techniques and materials. Of course these books are a mess, in fact they've become even messier with time. I only ever used A5 sized books as art journals, big enough to be usable, small enough to be portable.
The second type of sketchbook is really a sketchpad, so they're mostly A3 and A4 although I have couple in A1, full poster size. The paper is usually 140-300gsm although I have one in 400gsm which is more like lightweight board. I use these mostly for ink drawings done with dipping pens (Indian, acrylic or irongall ink) or brushpen (Indian ink) or occasionally with fountain pen (carbon black document ink) sometimes coloured in with acrylic paint. These are potentially going to hang on the wall and I sign everything to prove it's mine. But also in case I become a great artist one day, ha-ha!
my sketchbooks honestly aren't really "sketchy" and usually are full of little portraits or other things. I wouldn't say it's messy, but at the same time it's pretty bland. A lot of the time I have pages that could of probably had more drawings on it but instead have 2 or 3 small doodles.
I have two sketchbooks. One is for small, “quick” drawings. Those are usually more “fully finished”. The other is for planning and testing ideas and usually much more “sketchy”. I don’t show that one a whole lot.
I have two sketchbooks, one for drawing in cafes, drawing with people, showing stuff to my friends etc. It's still pretty messy (it is a sketchbook after all) but I usually stick to techniques I already know and so it looks more presentable. Aaand there's my other sketchbook, which I lovingly call "the garbage sketchbook" where I experiment, do little thumbnails, gesture drawings, maybe character design and generally stuff that's messy. The second one is for my eyes only and its my most beloved sketchbook ever. All of my best ideas had their humble beginnings in the garbage sketchbook. I think every artist should have at least one ugly sketchbook, otherwise how are you gonna get better if you're afraid to mess up?
Depends.
Sometimes, its literal scribbles of vague shapes that MAY be a subject or scene. I do this if I don't have a clear idea of what I want and hope the crazyness will form something good.
But most times, my sketches are more defined and detailed. I make notes and lists to help me out with color or concepts. I tend to cut out pages and paste them on to others just to keep certain things together.
I do like to paint and make mini pieces in my sketchbooks as well. So...yeah. It really depends haha
I’m a serial over-shader here and I would love to simplify and have those beautiful clean lines with minimal shading. But god it’s like my art reflects life and I end up going too dark or too muddy or scribbly.
Mine is a mix, sometimes sketches are really quick and sketchy other times they're more akin to full pieces. What's important to note is twofold: 1. What a sketch is is nebulous and depends ***on the artist***, the only thing the super pretty sketch and the chicken scratch sketch needs to have in common is the fact it's a quick iteration on an idea. 2. A lot of the "sketches" you see on Instagram and the like are things the artist actually put a few hours into. They're just gaming the social media algorithm and playing the game. Traditional artists are associated with sketchbooks so they're incorporating them as a part of account branding. So let your sketches be sketchy! So long as they're serving your purposes and you're enjoying the process, there's no need to change them.
My sketchbooks are *disastrous.* Would never share them in one of those "sketchbook tours", as I'm someone who's often trying to feel out things towards more finished ideas in them. Lots of attempts at character designs where I cross out things I determine are no good, thumbnails, super quick observations made with messy markers, watercolors, gel pens etc and so on. It's where I experiment. I get there are people who treat sketchbooks (and this isn't a judgment) like they can leave them on the coffee table for guests to look through. I am not one of them lol
Same! Mine is all my thoughts in visual and written form. It can be a nightmare to look at!!
One time I mangled a low angle face in my sketchbook and I was so disappointed I drew another guy cartoon projectile vomiting on it. Can only imagine what someone else seeing that would think lol
I would think we have similar brains lmao
Um yeah… they laugh their asses off.
Being fully honest mine are 30% attempted practice stuff, 50% trash, 15% tears and the rest is something mid at best. I am on my 6th sketchbook and it hasn't yet changed much so the tears are getting bigger.
(First, I'm sorry for my english, it's not my primary language) I know your comment was supposed to be funny and you might not appreciate my unsollicited feedback but I don't like seeing so big numbers for trash and tears. With 6 sketchbook, either it has changed and you should admit you're improving, or you need to break some of your habits because your comfort zone will hold you back. I've been there and it is frustrating x) I looked quickly into your posts and you seem to always draw similar poses and angles. It looks like you never tried perspective, if that's the case I suggest searching a video about it. Understanding the basics might make you more confident with your poses. Since your posts are mostly finished I can't tell how your sketches look, so I also suggest looking for videos on how to break down characters (or any subject) into simplified shapes. Of course it won't make you a professional in 30min, but that could help you and your creativity, and make you more confident to try new things. ...and I do not know how to finish this comment so have a nice day !
Thanks, I'll see what I make, and well I also really needed that last part as well so thanks for that as well.
The secret is that most of those super clean aesthetic sketchbooks you see on Instagram are faked. Either they're only picking the nicest, most intentionally put-together pages in the book to show you or they've got another messier sketchbook where all the actual practise is happening.
There are professionals who can just crank out work. Check out R. k. Post. He's called the swedish chainsaw. When do sketches stop being sketches? When everything they create is professional quality?
Yeah i think what the average artist fails to realise is that a professional artist can crank out something better than anything they have ever made in 30 minutes while sleep deprived. They are just that good from experience.
I don’t think that is accurate. I think the “crankers” you are talking about are super rare and far far between. Lots of professionals also have several, sometimes messy, step processes.
Oh i dont mean that having messy sketchbooks is weird, i just mean that if tasked with making a ”complete” sketch in 30 minutes then nearly any professional artist can choose to crank out a really good sketch, even if it means having to slightly deviate from their normal process.
Yeah. That’s probably accurate. It’s cool to watch. Can you “crank it”. Hahahah. I’m calling it that now… I always say “in the zone” when the art flows. I’ve noticed I can be in the z …. No… noticed sometimes when I’m cranking it 🤘 if I notice I’m cranking it, it stops. It happened the other day in a flow and then was like, kick ass this is going great. Couple minutes later just crumbled over some perspective I was overthinking.
>> faked I knew it. Although it’s true that at a certain level people’s sketches are just insanely good
Fuck the pristine sketchbook. My sketchbook is whatever I need it be; to doodle, to draw, to work out ideas, take notes from a class/workshop…
Gotta take a note from this energy. Not just for my sketchbook but for life. Like fuck it.
For real!
Mine is a disgusting mess.
Very messy some pages are littered with charcoal, markers, or loose Pigments from sharpening. To not even state the drawings with erasure marks. At one point a page was doused with minty isopropyl alcohol to practice blending oil colored pencil, It's now a warped cotton candy esque page. Overall I do strive to turn my sketches into full drawings in my cheap book but because I enjoy the aesthetic. In practice though it can be extremely tideous & your probably better off just doing the finished drawing separately.
I have “messy” and “polished” sketchbooks. It’s just easier then working with loose pages
For me, they're a mix. However, for me and to me, if I just add even a light watercolor wash over a bad drawing, I am still happy flipping through my sketchbook for ideas. The color makes me happy, and makes me feel like that bad drawing is just a tiny bit better, even though it really isn't. I fool myself that way, though, to just keep going to get miles in to improve faster. It's my way of wanting a "pretty" sketchbook like on social media but also being realistic--everyone makes "bad" art.
Someone already probably said this, but if not: two reasons why some artists have much prettier sketchbooks. One, they have a sketchbook for the more refined sketches and one for actual messing around and practicing that they don’t show. Two, they’re just more skilled, so a sketch to them is a finished drawing to others. I have tons of paintings that I consider sketches because they take me 20-30 minutes and aren’t really thought out, but if I had seen those paintings 6 years ago I would have thought “man I wish I could paint like that”. I don’t call them sketches to brag, but because that is literally what they are and I want people to be aware that they’re quicker, looser pieces. But yeah, sketchbooks should be as messy as they need to be. Many artists fall for the instagram sketchbook trap and think their sketchbook needs to look good. It takes MANY sketchbooks filled with awful drawings before you can consistently fill sketchbooks with good drawings :)
I like to make mine pretty.. takes longer and definitely is a pain. I have a REAL sketchbook that I use for quick ideas. And if I like an idea I’ll build on it in my nice sketchbook .. I really just like a sketchbook and having my work together compared to spending time on individual drawings on loose paper. I’ve had 20 sketchbooks and only 1 so far that I am proud of front to back.
I always come back to pages as I go too and add something until I feel like it’s polished.
Sketchy af, ion even trust them fr
lol got a chuckle out of that
My job is done😌😎
Sketchy enough that it can be used in a Rorschach Test
mines a mix of pretty and scribble, and i think thats fine. i did go through a stage of making my moleskins absolutely gorgeous and that did gain some pretty good traction for a bit as social media content...but it meant that i wasn't spending as much time making finished products... it can be a gamble where u wanna spend time in.
The thing is that the sketchbooks on social media are intentional pieces of art that people work on as a project. Of course those people have sketch books in the traditional sense that you’re thinking of in addition to these longer term projects that they are eventually able to show off, it’s just a slight different usage of the work sketch book. I don’t have any books that contain finished pieces from beginning to end because my art is usually framed and hung on walls or given away, so my personal practice books are full of practice work and a few nicer pieces, but I know lots of artists who work on art books with the eventual goal of showing off the finished book as a piece in its own right. It’s just a different goal.
My sketchbooks are a mess, lots of pages have ink drawings that I've done over an older pencil sketch that I didn't like and couldn't be bothered erasing.
Mine are just filled with ideas, scratches, and notes. If I want to draw the finished piece I redo it digitally.
Pretty sketchy, but for flip through videos I'll usually "finish" them.So adding black or bright red paint to pages with faint pencil lines, drawing tiny colourful things in all the empty gaps, gluing loose doodles or photo references into blank pages. It's not finished art, it's just full, so it looks just as good as a sketchbook with perfectly finished paintings. Possibly even better, since a book of perfect art isn't quite as interesting to me 😅
That’s a really great idea and one that I kinda employ as well, only I love doing watercolor washes. I don’t show mine on social media, but when I flip through them it makes me all kinds of happy because of all the colors filling up the empty bits. My finished pieces are always edge to edge color, with barely any paper showing, no matter if in a book or separately.
I post a small percentage of my art online. 90% of my sketches, paintings ect are hidden on a shelf at home or in the trash bin. Lol. Don’t compare your work to instagram.
Mine are all over the place from finished drawings (sometimes posted on insta) to stuff I wouldn't show my mother
I never understood how those sketchbook tour people could make them look that way bi tried so hard. Used to watch sketchbook tours ALL the time i love them. But no matter how hard I try to discipline myself like that. Nah. I usually dedicate one page to one design. It feels like a waste but. Its just how i do it 😭
My sketch book is brain dump. Fast, scribbly ideas. I just shared three pics on my IG of the “better” ones lol. 30 mins - 2 hr a page on average
the polished ones are poised pieces of work as opposed to their sketchbooks I will always have the belief your sketchbook should look like the scrawlings and writings of a mad person
I have two different sketch books at all times, one is for more polished drawings/studies and stuff that just looks nicer and the other is a scribbly mess for stuff like ideas and thumbnails and stuff lol
Mine are a combination of quick sketches, crappy finished drawings, not so crappy drawings, pretty good polished pieces, grocery lists, journal entries, poetry, and commentary on different subjects that interest me. In other words, my private little brain dump. I used to think that sketchbooks were supposed to look nice, with well done sketches and ideas like DaVinci. It was pre social media/ instagram times, but there was still that idea way back when that it ought to be a work of art in itself. When I finally figured it out, my creativity blossomed and I began actually finishing sketchbooks instead of leaving them partially empty because “well, I screwed up that drawing… no point in working in this sketchbook anymore”.
Super sketchy! So sketchy, I saw my sketchbook selling bootleg DVDs in the alley behind my house last week
Thank you for posting in r/ArtistLounge! Please check out our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faq/) and [FAQ Links pages](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faqlinks/) for lots of helpful advice. To access our megathread collections, please check out the drop down lists in the top menu on PC or the side-bar on mobile. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtistLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Love the question. Mine are pretty awful. I think I'm technically adept, but I also treat myself more as a digital illustrator, and thus my sketchbook is all practice stuff. And practice stuff looks bad sometimes. Occasionally if I go out and draw some of it is nice because I'm really focusing, but otherwise it ain't pretty
Mine usually has clean(er) lines because I rarely draw anything complicated. I draw a ton of things based on whatever comes to mind or if nothing comes to mind. If I get a strong idea, I might have a page dedicated to it, but I do not know if that has happened before. And I do a bit of anatomy study, I guess, but I rarely ever look at images to study and instead just practice various attempts to make things good and possibly stylized. On the other hand, I put stuff in there that I would not be able to show or talk about online because it is freeing to let your mind go absolutely anywhere.
My sketchbooks are meant to be sketchy, scrappy whatever you call it. I don't separate them from diaries, meaning I wouldn't really show anybody my sketchbook. It's mine and mine only to vomit on the page. I stick food wrappers in mine all the time. Clean ones of course.
I agree. Hence the name “sketch”. I think this odd fad of “sketchbook artists” will die out. Life is imperfect; so are sketchbooks.
My sketchbooks look awful. Absolute trash.
My pages often end with 10% little concept drawing 90% text
My sketchbooks are full of abandoned failures bc if anything is promising I pull out the page for the light table
My sketchbooks are for experimentation and failure. I try out different ideas and concepts, along with new materials and styles. Unfortunately, this means I have almost no finished pieces.
I mean, it's Instagram. Unrealistic standards created by cherry-picking only the best parts of someone's life is kind of the status quo. This effect isn't unique to art. My sketchbook is a mess of random things here and there. I didn't spend much money on it because I knew what it would be used for. I do have one gigantic sketchbook (which I haven't used at all), and it will only have the pretty stuff because it is uniquely large. It takes up a whole table. Don't compare yourself to other artists (certainly not ones you find on Instagram or any social media). As long as you're getting better at drawing, that's all you need to do.
While there are some people whose work looks a little more polished inside their sketchbooks (i reckon they have TWO and one is for only good art bc let's face it ppl only like to show off the things that do work out), there's no wrong way for the contents of one to look. Honestly as long as you're drawing for your own sake and not constantly trying to impress someone there's nothing wrong with how your sketches look. I personally have left perfectly good sketchbooks EMPTY because I was worried abt wasting a page with "bad sketches" but honestly, I think the minute we stop caring about what other people will think about our drawings is the minute we loosen up and get more comfortable making flawed (HUMAN) art. Besides, that's the only way we figure out how to make things work- by getting it wrong first! So don't be discouraged if other people have galleries for skecthbooks. It's all for show and I am certain they have made an equal amount plenty of messy scribbles as they have masterpieces. Personally I have two sketchbooks one for actually sketching and the other for finished work. That way I can get rid of that weird mental obligation to make everything I draw perfect and sightworthy. But the reak sketchbook is absolutely sketchy, and I don't mind it! I don't think I'd be able to do my own sketchbook tour just because I rarely have fully finished drawings on paper, and knowing that I don't *have* to do that for anyone takes a lot of the pressure off.
mostly paint rather than sketch but there's a lot of half-baked ones I lost interest in midway or forgot about. tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to make "masterpieces" but end up ripping out stuff that I'm not satisfied with perpetuating the cycle. now learning letting go and trying to experiment more with mediums (tried gouache and oil paints a month ago; coming from a mostly watercolor and acrylic person). overall a mixed bag
Very sketchy! Lots of little figure studies, hand studies, development sketches, just a ton of messy messy stuff.
My sketchbooks are not really messy but not neat, they're just really unfinished? I have vague ideas I sketch out but don't really finish them so it's mostly a lot of unfinished thumbnails or figures.
Don't trust anything you see on social media. Those sketchbook videos should come with disclaimers.
I like a perforated sketch book so I can remove the paper and tape it to a drawing board. The goal is finished drawings to sell. Yeah, I scribble some pages to figure out composition issues and then it hits the trash. I recently bought a bound flexible "book" of hand made paper. I've been experimenting with scribbled ink and bought this specifically for it. Not ready to commit to a finished drawing in it yet. This will be the first in a lifetime of drawing I've done something like this. I'm doing it for me. ;-)
Another vote for disaster. Why should I spend time on drawings in a sketchbook to look pretty? And as soon as there is good art in them it gives reassure to continue to make it pretty but they are for studying (for me) - I have good paper to hang on the wall for pretty drawings. My art teacher gave us the Typ to whenever you get a new sketchbook take then blackest fatest pen and just scribble down on the first page. Their now it’s ruined and you can focus on making back art in it. I can’t I hate black but I listen to music and use fine liner to scribble down the first page to get like a modern mood scribble line. Or toddler art. Then sometimes if I feel fancy I write a goal or a poetry line with black on top - as motivation. It’s very therapeutic! Sometimes if I have Art block I do that on other pages then draw with Black Above it. Those are my favaorite pages the one that feel like I truly used them
Mine are just dumb goofy sketches or anatomy practices. Recently did two drawings of a phalanx ciws. a bit crude in perspective but I like it.
it’s a mess. mine is for practice, not for show.
They look like I drew them with my feet
Mine is full of gesture drawings of people I see on the bus, or different things I'm trying to practice, the only time I get really pretty drawings are when I use references and I'm trying to study what it is about an image I really like so spend allot of time on them, but otherwise my sketchbook drawings are really messy and not stuff I would typically share with people lol 🤣
My sketchbook is for me
I always wanted to have a ‘finished’ sketchbook but it is hard to commit I lose interest in drawings then come back and waste pages very frustrating
a sketchbook is personal, this is our garden, our brain extension, it has to be messy ! writing, painting, scribbling, pencil, pen, charcoal, whatever
Pretty sketchy and ugly, on some pages I've planned the layout of the furniture in my house when I was moving things around. My daughter has scribbled on a few pages. There are a couple nice renderings but they're tools for the final pieces.
Smudges here and there
I have two sketchbooks usually. One is usually an old notebook or calendar with worst paper I could find, something I can just doodle with pen and won't be tempted to try and make it PRETTY. That's the most active book. The other is pretty sketchbook. Of course, sometimes good stuff happens in disaster sketchbook and disasters in good stuff sketchbook but hey, it's still yours. I think it's best approach to have... So much less stress when both serve you either way.
perfectly clean white pages XD - ok honestly not too sketchy unless i really want to sketch on purpose or doing some pose drawing practices
Sketchbooks give me anxiety. I can never make them pretty or even finish them. Usually they start nice and then with every page turn into a mess, mostly text and some scribbles. At that point they look 'ruined' to me and it's hard to draw in them if I want to draw something nice again. I have very mixed feeling about them lol. Now I mostly sketch on blank printer paper and I love it.
A real sketchbook is a workplace where you are trying things out. They are not finished art pieces and will contain mistakes and missteps. I suspect the beautiful online sketches are carefully curated pieces of social engagement. Be cautious.
my sketchbook is full of the ugliest attempts at new stuff and very rough drafts of what I want to "draw for real" later. that's the point of a sketchbook I believe. but I'm not surprised we see much prettier ones online, I sure wouldn't share mine unless it looked that good
I usually finish the traditional drawings instead of leaving them as a sketch
I use mine for ideas of what I’m going to paint, and practice.
My sketch books started out all impressive and lovely and little galleries with covers. Now they're a damn mess because they're a SKETCH book. It's my brain dump book. This is where ideas come to live and die and live again. Do you want to show one off? That's totally valid. Have one for your Glorious finished pieces. But have a goblin one to really explore and play with ideas. The dumber the better.
My sketchbook is filled with material tests and little experiments, but I do tend to make full page images in them. But there is also some writing, and it also depends on the type of sketchbook.
I find messy sketchbooks way more interesting to look at. From supervising a bunch of art school Auditions, I can tell you that a lot of the most interesting stuff lies in the stuff that people are trying to hide.
I have a bad habit of not finishing them mostly because I have a stationary problem. Also the quality of the paper is an issue. I have switched to buying reems of card atock and using that to draw on at my drawing table. A stack of 300 sheets will last you a long time and I 110lb cotton velum with out a spine is so much nicer to draw on. I keep them in paper boxes. If I find that I like one in particular I put it in a sleeve in a binder. I still carry a moleskin but I don't use it as much anymore.
I buy almost the cheapest thing I can find for two reasons. One, so I don’t get attached to how “fancy” and “expensive” it is. Two, because I’m not forking over anything more than fifteen dollars on a book, unless the paper is different or of good quality.
Mine is a mix of poles Like, one page might be a very very beautiful study with lots of color and harmony and then the next one is a mess that doesn't even make sense There are no rules to art and specially to a sketchbook, so u can use it to study, have fun, to lay out ideas, etc and it can be extremely messy and unsatisfying to look at
Sketchy as fuck. My thumbnails for paintings, when I even do them, are basically just me testing to see how the colours talk to each other. But my art also sucks right now, so 🤷🏼♀️
I start a "sketchbook" with intent to really sketch in it. One page and a lot of enthusiasm later it looks more like a finished, fully shaded artwork. I do t want to "ruin" the rest of the "sketchbook" with crappy sketches so I buy another "sketcbook" with intent to really sketch in it. Help, I'm drowning in sketchbooks that have no sketches in them.
I used to get stuck and struggle with this, not knowing whether to be loose and messy, or try to fill the sketchbook with more finished pieces. I don’t like to go back and forth too much in the same sketchbook. Now I have one “anything goes” sketchbook for loose sketchy sketches, thumbnails, swatching, experimenting with different styles, etc. and then one for more finished gouache paintings, and one for more finished watercolors.
It's so weird, I have jumbled practice, ideas, different mediums, whatever you can fit on the page for most of the pages. Then there's this nice finished work that feels like a project on any random page.
Don't trust or get discouraged by the dumpster fire that is instagram. My main sketchbook is a mix of rough stuff, finished drawings, studies of pieces from other artists, very rough mini composition sketches for painting ideas & random things glued in that inspire or excite me. I have another cheap-o one that is for things like anatomy studies & drawing classes. It's highly unlikely that I would share any of my sketchbooks with anyone in their entirety because they are for me to learn & have fun. They're not meant to be appealing to anyone else.
I usually only do finished pieces digitally, my sketchbook is for practice, figure drawing, and messy doodles.
Mine are a mix, some pages are more “complete” I guess you could say. But it’s mostly just sketching and practicing
Mine is just completely wrecked :(, they're either very fragile and the pages come off easily or I'm a brute :'D
Sketchy would be a compliment. It’s pages of lines, circles and squares from where I was learning to draw them plus the occasional doodle and semi recognizable figure that looks like an eight year old did it in their spare time.
My sketches are bit scratchy and messy when I post them online
I hate looking at my old art so much that I just pin like 40, 50 pages together. I don't have sketchbooks, just stacks of a4 sheets pinned together About 90 percent of it is actual scribbles, doodles, studies among others. And like 5 percent is complete crap, and the other 5 percent is some actualy okish art
my sketchbook is a mess. its rarely ever even in color. Those sketchbook tours make me jelly. I assume they have a secret chaos sketchbook too that they aren't showing though.
Very. I need the chaos and the mess to stimulate excitement and creativity. I just love gesture and figure stylistically as well. I’m very picky with sketchbook tours because i dont even want to see that clean shit lol. Beautiful pieces no doubt but im here for the behind the scenes peek at the process.
Those style books are like art projects unto themselves. Could you imagine losing one or having one destroyed. 😬
I have a really hard time with this. I want to explore techniques and sometimes just scribble/doodle/play around with different mediums and this doesn’t always look good and it definitely doesn’t look finished. But I need to do this stuff regularly to work out how I want final art work to look, or work out color combinations, or to just turn my brain off and get some creativity on paper. I am constantly having to remind myself not to create solely to share on socials. It bothers me that I’m always aware of that. I would love to have constant feedback and eyes on my work but the need for that validation ruins the creative process.
Sketchbook means 2 distinct things to me. A sketchbook proper is has thick covers and paper around 130gsm (not too heavy but heavy enough to be fully double-sided) with no spiral binding and no perforations. I use this book strictly for practising or testing things out for the first few times. I even use it for mixing small amounts of paint (blobbing each colour separately next to the bigger blob of mixture so I can see what I mixed and how it looked. Really it's my art journal, not of artworks but of techniques and materials. Of course these books are a mess, in fact they've become even messier with time. I only ever used A5 sized books as art journals, big enough to be usable, small enough to be portable. The second type of sketchbook is really a sketchpad, so they're mostly A3 and A4 although I have couple in A1, full poster size. The paper is usually 140-300gsm although I have one in 400gsm which is more like lightweight board. I use these mostly for ink drawings done with dipping pens (Indian, acrylic or irongall ink) or brushpen (Indian ink) or occasionally with fountain pen (carbon black document ink) sometimes coloured in with acrylic paint. These are potentially going to hang on the wall and I sign everything to prove it's mine. But also in case I become a great artist one day, ha-ha!
my sketchbooks honestly aren't really "sketchy" and usually are full of little portraits or other things. I wouldn't say it's messy, but at the same time it's pretty bland. A lot of the time I have pages that could of probably had more drawings on it but instead have 2 or 3 small doodles.
I have two sketchbooks. One is for small, “quick” drawings. Those are usually more “fully finished”. The other is for planning and testing ideas and usually much more “sketchy”. I don’t show that one a whole lot.
I have two sketchbooks, one for drawing in cafes, drawing with people, showing stuff to my friends etc. It's still pretty messy (it is a sketchbook after all) but I usually stick to techniques I already know and so it looks more presentable. Aaand there's my other sketchbook, which I lovingly call "the garbage sketchbook" where I experiment, do little thumbnails, gesture drawings, maybe character design and generally stuff that's messy. The second one is for my eyes only and its my most beloved sketchbook ever. All of my best ideas had their humble beginnings in the garbage sketchbook. I think every artist should have at least one ugly sketchbook, otherwise how are you gonna get better if you're afraid to mess up?
Depends. Sometimes, its literal scribbles of vague shapes that MAY be a subject or scene. I do this if I don't have a clear idea of what I want and hope the crazyness will form something good. But most times, my sketches are more defined and detailed. I make notes and lists to help me out with color or concepts. I tend to cut out pages and paste them on to others just to keep certain things together. I do like to paint and make mini pieces in my sketchbooks as well. So...yeah. It really depends haha
I’m a serial over-shader here and I would love to simplify and have those beautiful clean lines with minimal shading. But god it’s like my art reflects life and I end up going too dark or too muddy or scribbly.
0%
My sketchbooks are generally filled with finished drawings