Lower Stakes

Have you ever bought a new sketchbook? One with nice paper and a beautiful cover? Maybe you had been saving up for awhile and finally got to the art supply store and walked out with the sketchbook of your dreams. You might have carefully written your name and added your contact info — just in case. Then, there at your desk, you find that you have a little anxiety about drawing in this new book. The first drawing you make will need to be perfect, or competent, or at least not embarrassing. You spend an hour or so, crafting this drawing. I mean, it has to be good. You will be seeing it every time you crack this sketchbook open.

A day passes and you draw again. Only this time your drawing does not turn out so well. You weigh the option of cutting out the page but worry about the binding. You think about painting or collaging over your failure. But that will only cause the paper to buckle and ruin the aesthetic when the book is closed. Everyone will see your mistake and know that you are not an artist. Worse, you will know.

Maybe I am revealing too much about myself here because this has happened over and over to me. And I have stacks of mutilated or abandoned sketchbooks to prove it. But I have found a solution. A hack — if you will. I will now share it with you.

Don’t buy that sketchbook. Instead try this. Grab a clipboard or scrap cardboard and a few large paper clips. Then, instead of purchasing a bound sketchbook, get a package of loose drawing paper. Clip the paper to your board and sketch away.

A few years ago I purchased 500 sheets of decent, but inexpensive drawing paper and did just that. I clipped it to a board, 30 or so sheets at a time. Here is what I noticed.

My drawings became less precious. It doesn’t mean that I don’t care, but it took away the perceived pressure to make every mark count towards some magnum opus. When a page felt finished or full, I simply moved it to the back of the stack. Then over time, every sheet got drawn on and I switched them out for clean paper and began again. When drawings came out terrible, I threw them away. No binding to ruin.

I found myself enjoying a new level of creativity and drive once the pressure of the bound book was removed. I bought more clipboards and spread these ‘sketch’ pads around my house so there was one always within reach. I could be messy, try new materials, take notes, draw upside down and so on. I have experimented with paper and paint, pens and pencils. I have collaged and done transfer drawings.

You may ask, “But Chris, what do you do with all those sheets of drawings?” I know. That was a problem at first. Here are a few simple solutions. Put them in folders. Put them in boxes or bins. Or take them to a local print shop and have them bound together. I do all of this.

So it turns out I never really needed that nice sketchbook. I needed lower stakes.