Sketchbook Challenge : Checkin and Barriers (and a Pep Talk)

It seems like a simple guideline : Sketch for 15 minutes a day.

But it's difficult to find the time in a busy work day. For a few weeks last summer, I was Zentangling in the mornings at breakfast with tea--but it was too easy to lose track of time and be late for work. Just when I'd get into a groove, it was time to leave ... At the end of a busy work day, I'm too tired and exhausted to "produce" anymore, so it IS easier to look at pretty pictures, or spend a lot of time looking at the Flickr photostream for Inspiration. (600 members now and still growing!?! 900 pictures so far. Wow!) Some really amazing sketches by talented people ... then I fret about not being good enough ...

I can find all kinds of things to do to "get ready" like shop for supplies ("Oh--I just need the right journal, or the right watercolor crayons, or the right paintbrush, or the right pens/pencils ...")

So I've decided to set up some different guidelines for myself (still a work in progress).


It used to be that I sketched when I had something to put down. It was always a means to an end--not the end itself. Sketching was part of the process to make something else. This sketch was the idea for this Journal Quilt. For the Creative Cues last year, I often posted photographs. Photos are quick and easy. I can still practice "seeing" color, shapes, patterns, and textures. I also sketched a few things and found out that I liked working with water color pencils. This Sketchbook Challenge puts the focus on the MEANS as THE END.

Find a time to sketch, and stay committed to that time. Not every day, but at least once a week.

Find a PLACE to sketch.
My sewing room has too many distractions. The dining room table? That seems to be working (for now). And I'm forced to limit the time spread out on the table because we eat there.

Make a kit, so that the notebook and supplies are easily accessible and portable.

Part of my problem seems to be paralysis. That blank book, those white pages. What can I do that will be good enough for this group of talented artists? Get over it and DO something! It's not a competition. I don't have to post everything to my blog or the Flickr Group. In the meantime, I'm thinking about all the other techniques and projects I want to do--techniques I'm more comfortable with--those ENDS, rather than the means. I can let that lead what I do in The Sketchbook Challenge Pages.

Baby Steps
Life drawing is still very intimidating to me. That's sort of the default expectation in a sketchbook--you draw. And that's not really how I want to spend my limited free time right now ... Maybe I'll grow into it ... Maybe I can start with baby steps and try 1 a month -- a face, a hand, a foot--rather than a whole body. I can start with simpler subjects -- still life scenes like fruits and vegetables, objects. Just the same, I'm calling in reinforcements : Drawing for Dummies is on reserve at the public library for me. This is a chance to PRACTICE. Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly at first.

Even in photography, I know I have a lot to learn. I also know that I don't want to spend that much time on the computer perfecting an image.


The first thing I put in my Sketchbook Challenge notebook was a list of things Highly Prized to me. I often start with words. The visuals come later. Ideas have to sit and marinate a while ... "In the beginning was the Word."