Successful Creative Habits: Keeping a Sketchbook

From the day you went to art school you were told to always keep a sketchbook with you, to draw every day, to draw from life as often as possible. Do you? Do people you know? It’s been eleven years since I moved to New York City and I can tell you the most successful artists and designers I know keep sketchbooks, draw often and write down their ideas in notebooks; habitually.

 

Here is a photo of the numerous sketchbooks I currently work in. I have a dozen more unused books stacked under my drafting tables and in a supply cabinet. You could say I have a compulsion, maybe I do, but it’s a productive one. It wasn’t always this way, in art school I had only one sketchbook. I did my five sketch requirement per class each week, but I never ever filled a sketchbook. Then I got out in the real world with a real design job, and oodles of curiosities and ideas that had nothing to do with my job. Pretty soon I had more jobs; freelance jobs, personal projects; more ideas than one sketchbook could handle.

 

You can’t grow ideas without fertile ground. If you want to think outside of the box, don’t ever put yourself in one. You can see above, I have a Fashionary sketchbook for fashion designs, I have another at work. Fashionary makes a sketchbook with watermark croquis so you can get to designing faster. I have a large 14″ x 11″ sketchbook where I glue down fashion trends and details I’m in love with. (Old school right? don’t worry, I have folders of digital versions too.) That book is too big to travel with, so there is an envelope in the back of the Fashionary book that holds traveling ideas. I have an 8″ x 5″ Moleskin sketchbook for desktop quick sketches when I’m exploring concepts for large paintings. I have a medium sized watercolor sketchbook for travel sketching and life drawing. and I have a tiny pocket sized Moleskin paperback sketchbook that stays in my bag at all times for writing down ideas, notes, doodles and on the spot Pinterest doodling. I most recently started sketching and note taking in a grid notebook. My architect brother loves them, I never cared for them until one day they just really made sense for problem solving and Design Thinking.

I use grid paper to mind map strategy of my process and procedure. See here I’ve sketched directions for myself as I sew a design. This way, I’ll remember how it went together. If anything goes wrong in the process of prototyping, I can back track and find a resolution much faster. The truth is, you think all the info you need is in your head. It’s not, well not at once or all of the time. Neurologists have proven that we can only hold about seven pieces of information in our minds at once, I call this Congestive psychology. Mental congestion leads to creative blocks, frustration and ultimately an atrophication of cognitive problem solving. Mental congestion is 100% preventable.

If your brain can’t think past seven steps, you just aren’t going to get very far. Much like my first sketchbook experience, you’ll only need one book and you won’t have very many things going on in it. If you want to make a creative career out of being creative, you absolutely need to be able to chase those ideas down a rabbit hole. So what holds people back?

Fear: fear of making a bad drawing. Fear of having stupid ideas. Fear of wasting time and paper, paint, materials. You know that anxiety that comes when someone asks to see your sketchbook? This is why you only draw in your book when you know it’s going to be a GOOD drawing. So you wait, you wait till you feel really inspired or till you’re good enough to draw GOOD. Say these things out loud to yourself. Don’t they sound silly? Your sketchbook is a place for raw, fledgling ideas, good and bad drawings, and half formed thoughts. You don’t have to show it to anyone. If someone looks in your book and is disappointed, that’s their fault not yours.

No Time: Life is so busy, you’re lucky if you have a moment to yourself, much less bang out a doodle or note every time you have an idea. Here is a harsh reality; everyone has 24 hours in a day, why are some people more productive than others? Well they don’t have kids, they don’t have the job I have, they don’t…. You just have to make the time. How much TV do you watch? Can you wake up an hour earlier for some self time? It’s all about developing habits and making the time for what’s important to you. Habits are hard at first but they do become automatic if you are gentle with yourself and keep at it. It wasn’t easy for me to doodle everyday, or be confident enough to write down every thought I ever have. Now that I do, it’s automatic and nothing is stupid about it.  Some really great things have come from unearthed random thoughts.

Your personal brand is your thoughts, no one thinks like you do. No one connects the dots in the same way you would. If you don’t get those ideas out and in front of you you’ll never see them for what they can be. Write it down, collect images that say something to you, even if you aren’t sure what it is yet. Unearth the patterns of your thoughts, move them around and find your voice. It’s the only way to have a unique vision that will get you hired. Also, it’s just really fun once you get going!

What are some “AhHA” moments you’ve had with a journal entry or a sketch? Did you find something you wanted to say in a completely random way? Share your experience in the comments below. If it led to a great project, post the link, I’d love to hear from you.