Rules for Workbooks

Rules I have accidentally made to prevent myself from drawing

Ongoing experiments in size & paper

Rules I accidentally created about drawing in my workbooks

1. I have to draw or write in the sketchbook so that drawings are in a linear order - time must not be disjointed in my workbooks. So if I have two current workbooks going, I can never draw in either of them because drawing in one will automatically mess up the time line in the other workbook. Therefore I must not draw.

2. I have to separate planning & writing from drawing. Therefore I cannot open my journal to put things init as they occur to me, as I almost certainly have brought the wrong type of workbook with me. Therefore I must not draw.

3. My workbook has to be the perfect size and the perfect shape with the prefect paper. If it isn’t perfect, I will probably get angry with it and stop drawing in it and throw it away. So I better not start drawing in it, that would obviously be a waste of time if I am going to throw it all away anyway. Therefore I must not draw.

4. Some drawings are just so super sketchy - just warming up drills or exercises, not even proper drawings and shouldn’t go into a workbook. So I will never improve my skills through doing plenty of bad, doodley, sketchy drawing. Therefore I will never make the perfect drawings I would prefer to see in my workbook. Therefore I must not draw.

5. If I do manage to make a good drawing in my sketchbook, I will be able to feed the Instagram beast with it. So I never relax while drawing and I am always thinking ‘will be good enough to post?’ and my skin is crawling with exposure anxiety as I try to draw. So it is completely logical to avoid drawing and avoid that horrible feeling. Therefore I must not draw.

But I want to have a sketchbook because because I want to spend a lot of time drawing. Looking at the world with this sort of concentration changes my brain in ways I like very much (and it improves my drawing).

Drawings from the garden, hopeful statements & copying

So I need new rules about workbooks, and frame them up as experiments - experiments that will fail.

So now each sketchbook is an experiment I am conducting on how to: change my vision, change my skills, creating drawing habits.

Or an experiment in: when to draw, how to work, what paper I want to work on, what size I want to work on.

Or an experiment in what to draw, what medium I want to use, what colours I like.

Did I say the phone wrecks sketchbooking? All those moments in coffee shops or waiting for something, which used to be sketch book moments, are gone. The immediate pleasures of sketch booking are weak, weak dopamine hits compared to the sledgehammer of phone dopamine. But oh my dear, the long term joy of being present while you are drawing! The satisfaction of growing and growing the rare and valuable skill of drawing! And the satisfaction of going over your sketch books years later, when you are 61, and watching your past self fight and struggle to overcome all the things and just draw.

My elaborate and very visual planning on the left (I hate having planning and drawings in the same books), spiral warm ups inspired by Linda Barry on the right

To re-grow my sketch book life, I am setting myself a certain number of pages to fill in a week. And I am allowed to just stick something in my book, that counts as work. A scribble counts. Everything counts, and nothing matters.

This sketch turned into a sculpture

New rules about workbooks

1. Every sketchbook will be a failure, because they all are anyway.

2. I will be carrying a Traveller’s Notebook in my bag every day. It will always be the wrong size (far too narrow) and imperfect and I am just going to keep drawing in it till the end of the year even though it is imperfect.It is also a pain to open up and start drawing in, because it needs multiple clips in order to lay flat. But it does work have seperate inserts, one for planning and one for drawing, so I always have the exact type of book I want to work in with me, even when they are always exactly the wrong size.

3. And keep a Hahnemule Nostalgie hardcover workbook for drawing in the studio. It does have the right paper for me and opens flat beautifully. The time line will not be perfect!

4. Watch out for your phone. Your phone has obliterated boredom and strangled inspiration.

5. Any workbooks that die from lack of attention will be disemboweled and pasted into the studio workbook.

6. Photos of the insides of my workbooks will NEVER be posted on Instagram (OK, except after 5 years or something). The poison of feeling my workbook is a place where I have to meet the approval of a selfish algorithm and the passing fancies of addicted scrollers will not be ingested by me.

Copying Korean masters in the Hahnemulle Nostalgie workbook

However, I feel fine about putting photos from sketchbooks on Substack. Instagram feels like a declarative platform - Look at me! I did this! And the putting up of a shiny surface to be judged.

Whereas Substack feels like a place where people are exploring; exploring what they are thinking about, where their interests lead them now. And the interiors of workbooks interiors fit right in with that.

Evidence of my younger self, who kept on trying.