Author: Alison Hazel   –   Published: December 2024

Sketchbooks How Many?

First Sketchbook

I’d like to talk about how many sketchbooks you actually need as a hobby artist and let me be quite clear, when I started out, I didn’t have even one sketchbook, but that was a few years ago. I picked up my first sketchbook when I happened to be in Walmart one day. I found myself going down the art supplies aisle and I saw a Strathmore sketchbook nestled on the shelf. I thought, “Let me take that home and see how I do.” This was the very first sketchbook I had ever owned in my life. Ever…

I joined Vancouver Urban Sketchers, group and I went to a couple of their meetings with my brand new shiny sketchbook in hand. The other people there had their sketchbooks. They began sharing and thumbing through each other’s sketchbooks to look at the type of work that each of the artists were doing. All I had was blank pages. It was weird. I felt quite behind with my art.

Field Sketchbook

I carried on for several months and then decided to do some what I’m calling “on location” sketching where I went outside and down to the beach. For this coastal adventure, I purchased an A6 sketchbook which is a size that you can put into your pocket as I traveled on the bus down to the beach. I didn’t want to take a big sketchbook because it’s quite windy and the pages can flap about, so I grasped my small A6 sketchbook in my hand.

Watercolor Sketchbook

As the months went on, I realized that as I started to work with both watercolor and coloured inks that these mediums needed a sketchbook with more robust paper in the pages. That’s when I purchased myself a watercolor sketchbook where the leaves are almost like cardboard. They’re very thick and can absorb all the extra moisture so the sheet doesn’t buckle as much when you paint.

Grimoire

I started my grimoire probably three years ago. A grimoire is a sketchbook, or journal if you will, to do with more spiritual practices such as paying attention to seasonal shifts looking into New Age topics which interest me like crystal readings, Moon phases, the Tree of Life and things like that. A grimoire is more of a way to tune into the unseen in life with a little bit of Wheel of the Year and astrology thrown in as well.

Annual Sketch Journal

The next journal that I thought about getting was one which I’m calling my annual sketch journal. These annual sketch journals are wonderful for each year. I started one in 2024 and there’s going to be one for 2025. I use my annual sketch journal for casual sketching here and there. With this sketchbook I don’t necessarily fill all the pages, but I will have the opportunity to go back and see how my art skills have evolved from say, five years ago. My annual art journal is A5 because this is really the size that I love.

I’m currently working towards the end of the annual sketchbook for 2024. This year I’ve not only got sketches in it, but also ideas about where I want to take my art journey, layouts for artworks or some concept art, as in the grid journaling or artist trading card layouts, for example. I also make notes of hex color and Pantone numbers for specific shades that I want to work with in the future and general things like that. In this book I list the artists I admire and some creators whom I follow on YouTube.

Nature Journal

Two years ago I started my nature journal and this is actually a perpetual nature journal, which means that you can use it year after year. My perpetual nature journal is divided into twelve months, and the idea is that you track what happens in nature during the course of any month each year. 

The concept is to note, for example, when the first cherry blossoms bloomed, when the first fruit came, when the ice melted, what the high temperature was or things like that. If I had a garden, I would be able to use this nature journal a little better and follow the development of some plants over the course of the year, but I don’t have a garden. I live in a high-rise apartment and when I look for nature, I go into the city to visit the beaches and walk in the large public parks here in Vancouver.

Perpetual Art Journal

Now my perpetual art journal is something slightly different. This is a larger A3 size sketchbook. What I’m doing in this one is that it’s more of a sketch journal where every day, or at least once a week, I do a mini sketch. Each double page spread covers one week of the year of the 52 weeks. For example, December basically has four weeks and the first seven days of December will have their own double spread.

I’m just drawing what you would call a daily sketch journal piece. This is where I sketch what I did in my day. I’ll add maybe what I had for lunch, coffee I shared with friends, a new book I bought, a movie I saw, where I went, or even art related exercises that I practiced. I don’t always have something for each week, because I mean, one is not busy every minute of every waking day. 

This is a sketchbook which I began in January 2024 and so far, not every page has a sketch in it yet…

In the future I can, because of the perpetuality of it, go back over the years and see what I was doing that same week in years gone by. When we get into 2025, I will be able to go back to the beginning and look at the first seven days of January and create a sketch of my daily life, what I was doing, whom I met, things we did, what I saw and things like that.

Now this is the biggest sketch journal I own and it is the one I am least likely to complete a sketch in each week. I do get to circle around to it often, but not all the time. The sketches I put into my perpetual annual art journal are usually small, four inches, or 10cm, square. The mini sketches are just little vignettes, if you will, of what I did as I went about my day. It’s really nothing special. It’s more of a memory of how I live my life and what I found interesting that week.

Art Business Journal

Somewhere along the line, I got myself an art business journal. But let me be quite clear, I am a hobby artist, I’m not technically an artist running a business. However, once I started putting some of my artworks for sale through my art shop, it then made sense to have an art business journal where I pay attention to money coming in, money going out and that sort of thing. And to be honest, there is way more money going out then there is coming in. Overall, the software and systems you have to have in place, such as website hosting, Procreate and tech things like a laptop and pencils and what have you are where the money goes.

Let me be quite clear that I’m not an artist in business. My art business journal is more a point of tracking micro, nay nano, growth which may happen as my art gets better. Perhaps in five- or ten-years’ time this will make more sense, but at the moment I want to make sure that I am paying attention to what it is really costing me to do my hobby art.

Travel Sketchbook

The most recent sketchbook that I set up is my travel sketchbook. This is one where, if I go and visit someplace, I do a drawing and some sketches of the area and the experiences I had and mention how much fun it was. So far, I think I only have two sketches in this book, one was a visit to Victoria, BC and the second one was a visit to Mexico earlier this year.

This is not a sketchbook which I’m using all the time, obviously, because I don’t travel all the time. And honestly, I’m not much of a traveler either, so I don’t know when the next time is going to be that I’ll use this sketchbook, but it’s nice to have. It’s a great way to remember where you were, what you did and travel sketchbooks are fun.

AHAtober

I like to do art challenges of which AHAtober is but one. In AHAtober, the AHA is the initials for Alison Hazel Art and then the “…tober” is just because Inktober occurs in October. AHAtober is like Inktober for hobby artists, and for a few years now I’ve been creating my own prompts for AHAtober. I usually have one small sketchbook for each year of AHAtober, and they’re piling un on my shelf.

Grid Art Journal

My grid art journal is the latest one I have in my collection. I have one which is an A4 size and this is my larger one and then the A5 size which is the one I do prefer. You can see more of what I’ve been creating in my grid art journal in this video and some inspiration for your art practice.

Overarch

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you need to go out and create yourself multiple sketchbooks. What I am saying is that as I started to lean into my hobby artist journey three or four years ago, I realized there was a place for different sketchbooks and journals with diverse papers, dissimilar sizes and where each of the sketchbooks have their own special purpose.

If you are just starting out as a hobby artist, I urge you to work with what you have at hand today. If you just have some plain paper at home, start there.

Probably one of the first things you will purchase on your hobby journey is a sketchbook. If you do, I recommend the Strathmore A5 size sketchbook because they’re just great. To have a sketchbook will encourage you to start being creative on a regular basis in your life.

As far as I can tell, all the great artists of the past, had sketchbooks. Even today, the modern artists whom we know and love, work from sketchbooks. 

The sketchbook tends to be a place where ideas originate. It is where you get your first strokes down on the paper and the first mark-making occurs, Your ideas may survive, to become something great later on, or they may just end up being part of you practicing your techniques, shading, colouring or whatever. Either way, I do think as a hobby artist, you will benefit to have at least one sketchbook if not many more.

I’d love to know how many sketchbooks you have and whether you have sketchbooks which are designated for different types of sketching, such as I mentioned in my every expanding sketchbook collection.

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Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

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