I want to share a quick tip with you today. This can help you when you’re afraid of getting started in a new sketchbook, or if you want to experiment more, or if you just want to save money on supplies: Try making your own sketchbooks.
Here’s the video version of this post:
If you can’t see the video above, click here to watch it: Quick Tip: Self-made Sketchbooks
Ever since I started my sketchbook practice again a few years ago, I make my own sketchbooks. I use easy techniques that get quite good results, and I’m not as precious with my sketchbooks. You know, sketching should be for fun, for testing techniques and trying things out. Many people expect perfect drawing on every page, and that builds up a lot of pressure. I completely lost the fear of my sketchbook when I started to look at it as a tool, and as a safe space that’s meant to be experimented in. And what helped me massively is making my own sketchbook with easy bookbinding techniques.
DIY Sketchbooks can be customized with whatever paper you need, and you can even vary the binding technique and cover, and of course the size.
What I like to do after I finish making a new sketchbook is I immediately make a mark in it. So I add my name and my email, in case I lose it. And if it’s a nature journal, the first page is usually filled with small landscape thumbnails that are for warming up. I like to sketch the weather because there’s always something to observe.
And I find that this way I can jump start immediately without having to think a lot about what kind of great art should be in the sketchbook.
I have different sketchbooks for different purposes, one for nature sketching, one for testing colors, one for plein air landscapes. And they all look different, and I can experiment with formats and layouts without spending a lot of time in art supply stores or online. Here are some of them:
If you’re interested in making your own sketchbook, I have shared a free tutorial on Youtube where I show how I bind a hardcover with a nice cross-stitched back. I used to make all my sketchbooks this way, and the technique has served me well. Since then, I’ve learned a few new tricks and different ways to bind my sketchbooks, for example I now sometimes make softcover sketchbooks that I really enjoy, and smaller leporello books. If you want to learn how to make a sketchbook with these techniques, I have a new video class about making your own sketchbooks where I demonstrate how to do this with easy tools and simple techniques.
All in all I’m massively enjoying making my own sketchbooks, I can use whatever paper I want, I save a lot of money, and I like that I feel less intimidated of starting my sketchbook because I made it myself. In any case, basic bookbinding is a great skill to learn, and I hope you’ll give it a try.
I hope you found this quick tip useful, and I’d love to hear if you have tried to make your own sketchbooks before!
