I love hearing about people’s passions in whatever they’re into, and since I love Crystal’s work making sketchbooks, it was particularly wonderful to hear how she got into it - and came back after a hiatus. It’s important that we take care of ourselves in the midst of even living out our passions…a lesson I need to learn from her! I do hope you’ll take time this weekend to listen to her wisdom, as well as see the watercolor tutorial later in this post!
Crystal’s links so you can find her: her shop is at Lake Michigan Book Press - if it says “sold out” just email her about what you’re looking for (also find her on Etsy)……I found her old art website that she mentioned - go see it here! And of course join her great Instagram community and DM her with any questions or sketchbook ideas, and catch her on her YouTube channel too.
From one Sketchaday to Two
In 2020, I purchased a sketchbook that I’d looked at online over and over again at Lake Michigan Book Press. It’s a biggie—both in page count and cost—but since we were in the throes of a deadly pandemic that year, I decided I needed something to keep me busy!
The Sketchaday took me until December 2023 to complete, so obvi I wasn’t painting in it every day, but ohhhhh I was so tickled to have finished! Crystal says I was the first to complete a book - so there’s a club of at least two of us who’ve completed such an epic sketching journey! (A flipthrough of the book is at the end of this post.)
By the time I had saved up to purchase another Sketchaday, Crystal had put her business on hold for a while. We kept in touch from time to time while she took care of herself. But when she messaged me that she was back in business - OH how happy I was! It didn’t take her long to get it to me…but quite a while for me to open it because I was….afraid! I knew how much went into my last sketchbook. While I want to do it again, I put it off for over a month. Yes, I’m chicken!
It really is beautiful though. The green cover, the yellow threads…and all that lovely Arches paper to paint on! Know anyone who’s a sketchbook nerd who will want to know about these books? Email this post to them!
Watercolor Tutorial
Below is a video of the first painting completed in the new book less than a week ago, and I’m tickled that the sketchbook has now been broken in…so I need no longer be afraid! (If you prefer to watch on YouTube directly, click here):
Supplies may be affiliate links - supporting my work with a percentage paid to me at no cost to you: Lake Michigan Book Press Sketchaday; House of Hoffman Palette filled with Daniel Smith Watercolors: Duochrome Cabo Blue (BLICK /AMZ/ JACKSONS) Verditer Blue (BLICK/ AMZ /JACKSONS) Hansa Yellow Light (BLICK/ AMZ /JACKSONS) Ultramarine Turquoise (BLICK/AMZ/ JACKSONS) Hookers Green (BLICK /AMZ/ JACKSONS) Sap Green (BLICK/AMZ /JACKSONS) Transparent Red Oxide BLICK/AMZ/JACKSONS Brushes: Escoda Joseph Zbucovic #16 mop Winsor & Newton Kolinsky Sable Series 7 Round #8 (BLICK/AMZ/JACKSONS) Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 2 (BLICK/AMZ) Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Round 4 (BLICK/AMZ/JACKSONS)
Classes included in the coupon code mentioned in the tutorial video: Branching Out (level 2), Trees I (level 4), and Trees II (level 4)
I’m leaving the rest of this post open for all readers - because my passion for getting everyone into using their sketchbooks runs strong!
LIVESTREAM THIS WEEK! On Wednesday 9/17 at 5 PM Pacific, come join the watercolor livecast for paid subscribers. Not subbed yet? The September sale is still on - 20% off!!
Crystal will have an earlyish deadline for deliveries BY Christmas, but she said she’ll have a gift certificate available by December 1st - so you’ll be able to tell Santa - or a bunch of friends and fam - what’s on your wishlist this year! Follow her on Instagram to be notified about the GC, and I’ll try to remember to put a reminder in a December newsletter.
On breaking in a new sketchbook
I mentioned in the video that I was afraid of breaking this one in. I remember how daunting it was to start the last Sketchaday! I had a “vision” for this book to be a portfolio kind of item - a beautiful overview of my mad skills and variety…..and oh did that put the pressure on!
Most sketchbooks aren’t like that - most don’t cost this much! So don’t let anything intimidate you that way. Here’s a few ideas to think about:
Give yourself permission to keep a sketchbook that NO ONE WILL SEE. It’s just for you.
Create in your sketchbook from life whenever possible. Every day if you can. You learn more this way, since you can move around and adjust the angle, you’ll see the various light sources, where a shadow is coming from. Photos don’t give you that info.
Consider a themed sketchbook. I’ve got a couple going at any given moment; it gives me the excuse to take time to pull it out. “I’m studying this thing, I need to get on it!” is a great reminder to me to sit down and fill out another page! Here are some of the books I have going:
* Pen and ink urban sketching, no color
* Wash and ink urban sketching
* Inktober, World Watercolor Month - if it’s a month-long challenge it often warrants its own sketchbook
* Black and white linear drawings, square format. Common border on all, some images break out of the box. I found a no-name watercolor one that’s terrible for painting but lovely for pen.
* Ideas for big projects - things I know I can’t get to right now but one day I will flesh them out. Usually a mixed media cheap book of some kind.
* Colored pencil book - Stonehenge of course. The square books seem to be my jam the last few years. And while I’m thinking of it - I link to several shops when I give you links, but of late, Amazon prices have been skyrocketing! I haven’t found much that they beat anyone for price lately. Dang tariffs.
* Marker sketchbook with ideas for videos. A little one and a big one. Yes I’ll be doing another marker video soon - did you know Olo has 96 new colors coming!? They’ve got a pre-sale going on, 10% off, if you see any colors you simply gotta have! Revamped hex chart will be coming eventually once my markers arrive in December…
* Graphite drawings as I work on the drawing book I’m writing. Oh, you didn’t know that’s comin’? It’s going to be a drawing book for adults - especially those afraid of trying. Full of all the encouragement you get from me in classes and videos, with all you need to know broken down into bite-sized bits. I’ve been sharing some of the ideas and tutorials with Patrons if you want to follow along.
* A drawing prompt book, technically not a sketchbook, but it’s got 301 Things to Draw and it gives me nudges to draw things I’d never thought of drawing before. I’m making myself go through it daily, even drawing the prompts that make me scratch my head. :) If you follow my Daily Sketches posts, you’ll have seen some of them…I had to draw lace recently, and that was so fun!
What subject do you love? Or have a lot of? Create a sketchbook with all your houseplants, art supplies, wooden spoon collection, birds that visit your feeder, dog’s toys…..you get the idea. A sketchbook filled with what you love!
What to do if you mess up a page
I don’t know that I have any sketchbooks with NO messed up pages. If there was a perfect one, it’d be an illustrated journal or something, not a sketchbook.
But I do understand the gut-wrenching feeling you get if the sketchbook is proceeding well, then there’s suddenly one drawing you want to run through a shredder then burn the tiny pieces. It’s like humility decided to take your pride and crush it like a bug!
If the sketchbook has LOTS of drawings that I like and one really bugs me, I’ve been known to pull it out. With some books it’s not hard to remove it without harm to the binding….but don’t go looking for a sketchbook that’ll let you use that excuse. Early in my career I had a spiral one that kept losing pages one after another - it had a nice hard cover and I just didn’t think it ‘deserved’ to have those sketches in it! By the time I reached the last page, the 30 page book had….3 left. It’s on my shelf of completed sketchbooks, but….to be honest it’s only there as a reminder of my pride and shame. I won’t let myself do that again! I’d rather see my own growth and progress from the months I worked in that book than to see such a skinny one.
What to do with completed sketchbooks
If you’re a sketchbook nerd like me, you go through a lot of them. One day when I’m gone, I have no idea what someone will do with them all! But for now, I have a little ritual.
The sketchbooks go on a shelf with the other completed books, as seen in the video, and I tie a ribbon onto the spiral spine or tuck one end into the book. I have a nice cacophony of ribbons from all the sketchbooks, and it’s a wonderful reminder of the years of work put in to get me to where I am today.
As I’m working on writing my own drawing book, I recently had reason to spend a weekend going through all those sketchbooks, page by page. I looked for seeds of ideas that could be worked into the book, taking photos and making notes about which chapter they might go into. It’s like having my own encyclopedia!
And if I ever get ‘discovered’ (ha!) perhaps some gallery will do a retrospective and put my sketchbooks in glass cases. I almost think I should write in them that these are never to go under glass; sketchbooks are made to flip through, so I hope people thumb through them all! :)
Thanks for reading Sandy's ArtStack! This post is public so feel free to share it with your friends who love sketchbooks…or are afraid of them and need this help!
Flipthrough of Sketchaday #1
This was shown to patrons at the time, but it’s public now - to help nudge me toward getting moving on Sketchaday #2. There’s a playlist of all my Sketchaday paintings here.
Pop into the comments
A few idea-starters:
* Which of the three videos did you watch? I don’t expect anyone to do all three!
* What’s your sketchbook routine or process?
* Are you working in one (or several) sketchbooks regularly, or just periodically?
* What have you done with completed sketchbooks?
