Do you put an elephant’s worth of pressure on yourself to only fill your sketchbook with beautiful drawings or paintings?

Yup, I used to do that too and because of it, I was a card-carrying member of the Sketchbook Avoiders Club. It’s tough when you’re inundated with beautiful sketchbook tours on Instagram and YouTube. You start to feel like you’re not a good artist if you can’t also create a flawless sketchbook.

Here’s your reminder: That’s not true!

Sketchbooks are as varied as the artists who draw and paint in them. Yes, some artists set out to create flawless sketchbook spreads. But guess what? Other artists, me included, approach their sketchbook practice from a more playful perspective.

I’d even put on my imaginary lawyer pants and argue that an artist will learn more about their art making process from taking a playful approach and just filling up sketchbook pages instead of worrying about perfection (which does not exist anyway!).

Easier said than done, I know, but like most things, you just need to take one small step to get started with your playful sketchbooking approach.

Here are a few low pressure, and even pretty darn calming, ways to fill up those sketchbook pages.

Texture

One of my favorite ways to start a new sketchbook or to loosen up when I’m feeling uptight in a sketchbook is texture and mark making. Also see: Ways to fill pages when you aren’t feeling creative but still want to show up for your sketchbook practice.

Grab your favorite art materials and see what kind of marks and textures you can create! Or grab long-neglected art materials and try mark making with them. Got a new brush or new markers? Your sketchbook is the perfect place to test them. Curious about a new color combination or a new way of layering paint? A sketchbook spread is inviting you to explore those too.

I make plenty of unsightly messes exploring texture and mark making in my sketchbook, but I uncover plenty of “hey I wouldn’t have thought of that before” goodness too.

Simple Shapes

If there’s one thing I’m gold-star good at (other than helping artists grow and explore, obviously) it’s overthinking exactly everything, including my sketchbook practice. For me, a gentle way to flow past my overthinking and get some paint on a page is to start with simple shapes. The simpler the better. This is essentially one step up from mark making and texture play.

My go-to simple shapes are fruits and veggies, especially those that I grow in my garden.

Take a look at these tomatoes. I’ve just painted lots of loose and wonky circle shapes in pretty tomato-esque colors and then added tiny leaves and stems. Simple. Easy. Satisfying as heck.

I also love drawing and painting pears in my sketchbook.

The simple shapes make the whole experience low pressure and lend themselves to playful sketchbook experiments with texture, mark making, color, and layering.

Foliage

Leaves represent another lovely way to fill a sketchbook page while exploring color, texture, and layering. The shapes are a tidbit more complex than our friendly fruits and veg but they’re still approachable and provide room for experimentation.

I find that it’s fun to start by painting foliage from reference photos and then continue painting foliage however I want, totally disregarding what nature says about how leaves are shaped and colored.

Flowers

From foliage, flowers are the next logical step. We’re getting a tidbit more complex again, but we can still rely on simple, fun-to-draw shapes. Use your trusty BFF art materials, but you can also feel confident that these simple shapes provide the perfect playground for new art materials or techniques too.

I’m constantly capturing snaps of the flowers in my garden and in any garden I visit so I’ve always got stacks of floral inspiration for my sketchbook sessions. You can also pick a few flowers and bring them into your studio for reference or even grab a bouquet on that grocery store trip to pick up the 5 things you forgot to pick up two days ago.

Flowers are endlessly inspiring for artists and once you’ve drawn or painted a few of them, you can start letting your imagination do loop-de-loops.

Birds

Even if you aren’t bird-obsessed like me, I submit that birds are the perfect sketchbook subject matter.

Bird shapes invite simplification and characterization. There are nearly endless color combinations to explore. You can capture so much movement if you try drawing birds from video or from life. And if you look closely, you’ll find so much mark making inspiration in their feather patterns.

So many ways to explore drawing and painting birds!

But just in case birds aren’t your jam…

Sketch Your Favorites

It’s helpful to have your own list of go-to sketchbook subject matter so you’ll never have another “but what do I draw???” moment again.

What subject matter do you find most relaxing or fascinating to draw or paint in your sketchbook? You’re invited to return to that subject matter over and over again, artist.

Embrace everything you love about making art and you’ll find it easy to fill up sketchbook after sketchbook.