The Limitless Possibilities of Sketchbooks -- Continuing the Sketchbook Conversation

Thank you to everyone who jumped in the conversation about blogs and blogging both here in the comments and over email. So interesting to hear your points of view. I know there isn't an easy answer, and there definitely isn't just ONE answer. I'm working on MY answer, the one that will be right for me and also, I hope, for you.

My readers are important to me. I want my posts to resonate with you, to inspire you and encourage you. I want them to help you notice and celebrate this world's magic and joy. I am always open to your thoughts, questions and suggestions. Want to see something here on my blog? Want to start a new conversation around and through my posts? Let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email; I look forward to hearing from you.

My blog will probably stay fluid, but right now I know that I want to keep two types of posts going as monthly features (and others that don't necessarily fall into these categories; I plan to keep blogging at least once a week on Fridays). I will continue with The Gentle Nudge Towards Creativity posts because they have been helping to hold me accountable (and, from what I've heard from you, have been a source of inspiration). The other topic I plan to revisit monthly is sketchbooks. I'll share links to inspiring artists, to resources and books. And I'll share my thoughts. I hope you'll share your thoughts as well. Whether you work in a sketchbook or would like to work in one, let me know what would be most helpful or interesting for you in this series.

As always, thank you for being here. Now, on to today's post!


My relationship with sketchbooks is never constant. It is always changing, evolving, growing, contracting. I go through phases of inspiration. I go through phases of style. I go through phases of media.

Sketchbooks are never just one thing. And they don't need to be.

I recently realized that sketchbooks are an open door to limitless possibilities. Possibilities of experimentation and play. Possibilities of new directions. Possibilities of growth.

Maybe all of that sounds obvious, but realizing this, thinking about this, understanding this was a revelation to me.

Throughout the Sketchbook Conversations interviews I said, again and again, that there is no right or wrong way to keep a sketchbook. I tried to show examples of lots of different types of sketchbooks and ways of keeping them. I emphasized the idea that however YOU choose to keep a sketchbook is valid. And yet, in some ways the thought that each of us can use a sketchbook in different ways at different times went a bit over my head.

Limitless possibilities.

Think about it. Limitless. Possibilities.

That in itself is an inspiring idea. Where else do you have limitless possibilities? Where else can you totally be yourself in whatever way you choose without constraints, without criticism?

Of course, we often do put constraints on ourselves, sometimes without even realizing that we are. We have preconceived ideas of what a sketchbook should be, how it should look and what we should do within its pages (and even that it needs to be a book of bound pages -- it doesn't!). And whether we share our sketchbooks with others or not, we do face criticism. Perhaps the hardest of all to buck, self-criticism.

But what if we could leave those things to the side? Let go of any preconceived ideas. Set aside any critical thoughts and just CREATE?

Then we're faced with LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES.

Such a freeing, beautiful, inspiring thought, no?

Don't know how to draw a bird? Spend some time within the pages of your sketchbook -- use pens and pencils and paper and paint and you can learn. How wonderful is that? Your first attempts might not look the way you want them to, but so what. Don't stop with your first attempts. Keep going. Keep practicing. Eventually you will be able to draw a bird.

So, today, I implore you. Open up your sketchbook with the idea that anything is possible. Open up your sketchbook with thoughts of play. Of practice. Of experimentation. No matter what happens on those pages, it's valuable. It's good. It's YOURS.

Be free, my friends.