OTM #29: Sketchbook

Lately, I’ve missed the freedom of having a sketchbook. I used to fill out at least a page every day in high school. I’d take the time to sketch in classes and then color when I got home using my fancy Copics. There was something freeing about it; there isn’t an undo button like there is when I draw digitally, so I’d be forced to exert confidence with each and every line. After a while, I started to care less and less about making a perfect drawing, moving in favor of filling out the page with as many sketches and ideas as I possibly could. It brought me solace.

Now, though I have a physical sketchbook, it doesn’t feel the same as high school. I left all my fancy pens and markers in my hometown, leaving me sketching with only a black BIC pen. It’s still just as fun, but I realized that I missed the clutter of colors scattered across pages. Something had to be done about this, I thought. I need the solace of a sketchbook again.

So, I’ve started to use my same old sketchbook methods but digitally, now – I cover a huge canvas in as many doodles as I can, finished or unfinished. Mind you, this is a very unconventional method for digital artists; usually, it’s good to fill out one canvas with one drawing to preserve a higher quality. But for me, it’s fun to watch one canvas build up art over time. Every drawing is small in perspective to the whole canvas, alleviating any pressure I feel about creating a “perfect” drawing. It’s like a time capsule, a way to look back at my state of mind as I draw through each week, and I didn’t realize how much I missed that simple feeling until I started again. Below, you can see two examples (there’s even some old OTMs on these, haha)! 

They’re a little messy, a little disorganized, but there’s so much love in them, and that’s what makes me happy. It’s fun to just go crazy and draw to my heart’s content all on one page, rather than focus on what used to make me scared about art (a perfect portfolio piece, dozens of hours sunken into one piece, extreme detail and technical skill). If you’re an artist and stuff like that’s been giving you some extra stress, maybe it would be fun to wind down with a massive sketch canvas, too! Have a great week!