My continuing sketchbook saga

I have a confession to make: I’m sick of my current sketchbook—the Crescent Rendr.

This sketchbook, which I’m more than half way through, is too big even though I thought I wanted a larger sketchbook after the last smaller one, and the paper is unsatisfying. It might be good for Copic markers—alcohol ink doesn’t bleed through the paper which is amazing (and the reason I bought it) —but it’s not so great for anything else.

Watercolor and gouache smear rather than soak into the fibers, and I just don’t like the feel of it on my hand. It feels kind of coarse--but it actually has no texture.

And…yes, I admit it, my disillusion with the current one might also have something to do with the allure of a newer and better one currently waiting for me on the shelf. It holds all the shimmering possibilities of just the right size and feel.

If you keep sketchbooks, you understand.

There’s just nothing like the possibility of a new blank sketchbook. Maybe this time it will be the perfect one: perfect size, layout, binding and paper…

Especially the paper.

So why don’t I just stop working in the Rendr and start in on the new one?

Well, for two reasons.

First, I do tend to lose interest about half way through, but there’s only one thing I hate more than a sketchbook I no longer love—and that’s a sketchbook on my shelf that is only half filled.

In the past I kept multiple sketchbooks—one for travel, one for urban sketching, one for journaling, one for art journaling, one for practice…so I could have different kinds of sketchbooks for different purposes. But that kind of made me crazy—always looking for different books, figuring out what to take where, what book I felt like working in.

And it took forever to fill any one of them. So many empty sketchbooks waiting to be filled.

I decided not too long ago to work in just ONE sketchbook for all the art things, which I fill in random order according to purpose (and I also keep one Everything Journal for planning, journaling and notes, but that’s different).

Now that it’s just one book at a time, I promised myself that I would finish each book before moving on to the next.

The second reason I’m not giving up on the Rendr until its complete is because I know better.

I know that there is no perfect sketchbook

Especially for different purposes. But that doesn’t mean I won’t keep looking and falling in love with the next best sketchbook—where’s the fun in that?

I’m not going to make the mistake of believing the new model will solve all my art problems.

And it’s not like I’m unhappy with the work I’m doing in the current sketchbook. Progress is happening and I’m overall pleased with the contents.

So I’ll just keep going—

With more abstracts like these:

With more urban sketching:

An illustrated life page or two now and then…

There’s so many ways to fill a sketchbook.

And the truth is—it’s really not about the sketchbook itself much at all.