drawanyway.com

One of the reasons I set up Drawanyway was because I felt I was never drawing any more. Well, I’m glad to note that I have nearly used up the old, half-full sketchbook that I grabbed when I needed to start producing daily pictures for the site. It’s time for me to take a visit to that hallowed and fragrant nirvana, the stationery shop.

Much as my message generally is that it’s fine to draw on all kinds of surface, from chewing-gum wrappers to your own skin, I can’t deny that a sketchbook has its place. Sometimes, when you want to draw a ‘proper’ picture, you need to turn to the high-class surroundings of a nicely-bound book with heavy weight pages. Just as you might pull yourself together, start walking with great posture, and speak in a more refined manner when you visit a posh function, so your drawing rises to the occasion when the surroundings indicate that the stakes are high. That’s the theory, anyway.

But (let’s flog this metaphor for all it’s worth) sometimes the party in elegant surroundings can have the terrible effect of intimidating you. And sometimes, a beautiful new sketchbook can do the same. All those blank pages. And the first page is the worst, because it sets the tone for the rest of the book.

I know this feeling very well, but frankly, it’s the wrong attitude. A sketchbook is NOT about finished pieces. It’s a jotting pad, a place to work out ideas. It’s perhaps unfortunate that some artists have published their sketchbooks (and very lovely they are too), giving the impression that a sketchbook can be as professional-looking as a coffee-table art book.

I bet those artists were very selective about which pages they published.  Probably the final tome was put together from many years’ worth of sketches.

Anyway, I’m rambling. What I meant this post to be about was my top five tips for beating the fear of the blank sketchbook, and here they are:

1. Decide from the off that your sketchbook will be private. You won’t be showing it to anyone. So it doesn’t matter if your first drawing is rubbish.

2.  Buy a cheap book, not a fancy one. Sure, make sure the paper inside is of decent quality, but a workaday outer cover will help you feel that it’s nothing special.

3. Don’t start on the first page, just pick a random inner page and start drawing. Or never draw on the first page.

4. Carry on drawing on scraps of paper, but stick them into a book when you’re pleased with them or feel it will be useful to refer to them again. That way, you still get the benefit of having all your drawings in one place, but you don’t have to shell out for an artist’s sketchbook. You can use a bog-standard scrapbook, a ring-binder, or even stick your pictures over the pages of an old, unwanted book.

5. This one came anecdotally from a teacher of mine: she knew of someone who used to apply a light watercolour wash over each page, producing a nice background for his drawings. That way, the first mark he made in the new book was mechanical, and carried no fear. And the first drawing he did no longer felt like he was treading on virgin snow.

Soon I’ll be posting about different types of sketchbook, but for now, tell me: do you feel the fear of the blank page? How do you get over it?