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New Sketchbook Syndrome

This is a phenomenon you often hear about when it comes to drawing in sketchbooks. Sketchbooks are not only a tool these days. They often are a piece of art themselves. People want them to look good. And they especially don't want to start a new sketchbook with a bad page.

So there is advice out there about how to overcome this fear of ruining a new sketchbook with a bad first page. One tip is to start somewhere in the middle. If you then ruin your drawing it's at least not on the first page. For me this doesn't work, because I date my drawings and want them to be in chronological order. And then, sooner or later you have to tackle that first page and still don't know if it will turn out good or not. Another tip suggests to use the first page to paint your colour palette or the tools you are going to use or something like this. Well, if this is useful to you, why not.

I would simply say, chose a subject that is familiar to you, something you know you are good at.

But in the end, I see it like this: The first page is just one of many to follow. They won't all be great, they won't all be bad. You'll end up with a collection of good and not so good pages anyway. Don't single out the first one as the one that must be great.

Comments

  1. Linda B.1/12/2018 5:34 pm

    good points! i sometimes use the first page to just do the date, what i plan to use the book for ('drawings of 2018') or topic; mostly words with a little frame or something, hard to mess up. Also gets me started with a purpose.

    ReplyDelete

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