Picking up a sketchbook again changed my life.

At ten years into a creative career as a children’s book illustrator, licensing artist, and online art educator, making art every day was a given. There was always art to make, art to revise, art to finalize and send off to clients. Part of that art, the sketching bit, happened in sketchbooks, yes, but those sketchbooks were Business Only.

Honestly, I felt so deflated when I realized my art had turned into a job, just like any old job, as I got swept away on a wave of deadlines and other people’s opinions about my art. I made art for money. I’d stopped making art for the joy of it years ago.

So I bought a pretty new sketchbook (even though I had several unfinished old sketchbooks lying around), ordered some new supplies (Luminance pencils, Neocolors, and Ecoline brush pens), and set a standing appointment with my sketchbook every morning.

Before emails, before client work, before book revisions, before sending final art files, before checking social media, I spent 15 minutes with my sketchbook. Every day. No excuses.

It wasn’t good in the beginning. I was so used to working Photoshop and having access to the Eternal Undo. Making art on paper again was fresh, in both scary and wonderful ways. Those first marks in a just-for-me sketchbook were tentative and the results didn’t meet my expectations BUT I had fun. So much fun.

I found myself floating along, following the what ifs and the curious flutters, and deeply enjoying the art process in a way I hadn’t felt since I was a kid, joyful and free of judgement.

Process, not outcome. Process is the magic.