Lessons from a Sketchbook Habit
Insider #142 with some good reasons to keep a visual journal of your life
Dear Insider Reader,
(This post was originally written for paid subscribers. The safety blanket of subscriptions allows me to process my deep thoughts and put in the time to craft my best words. If you like reading it, why not become a subscriber?)
This is my 142nd email to paid subscribers - the patrons who support my work as an independent writer and artist. Some of you have been around this whole time. Others have joined in various points of this beautiful journey. For 142 weeks, I have thought about when thinking about the best ways to express my best ideas. As the social media ecosystem crumbles in front of our eyes, this relationship with you is more crucial than ever. Thank you for being here.
Today’s post is going to all readers because paywalls take the fun out of doing this work. Good ideas ought to be shared with the most number of people possible. It is my privilege to communicate with nearly 15000 readers.
Today’s post is about keeping a sketchbook habit. A lot of people think sketchbooks are only for artists. But a sketchbook habit has benefited me not only as an artist. It has made me a better human. A sketchbook is a visual journal - a space to express yourself outside of words, in this world where so much runs on words but the words themselves don’t mean very much.
Today’s post is full of words asking you to not use words so much. Ha.
The SneakyArt (Insider) Post is the Sunday edition to share deeper thoughts from my journey as an artist and writer.
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An Invitation to Spend Time
A sketchbook is an invitation to spend time at a location and observe the mundane events of public life. Time and attention are an invaluable currency. Spend them wisely, and they will teach you about yourself - your curiosities, your interests, and the superpowers that lie hidden within you.
Reader, are you a people watcher too? Tell me about a person from your world.
A Reason to Be
I was early in my sketchbook habit when we moved to a small town in the middle of the American Midwest. I felt like an outsider. It felt like everyone was staring at me wherever I went. So I kept a tight grip on my sketchbook when I sat down in the park, at the farmer’s market, in the local cafes. It was my crutch. It allayed my social anxieties as an immigrant and gave me a reason to claim space in a world that was utterly alien to me.
Reader, this sketch is from 2018. Can you tell how, over the years, I have reduced the lines in my pages? More, with less.
Room for Magic
I never know what I will draw when I leave the house. I trust the process. I do not know where I will sit or what I will see. I trust the process. Sometimes I do not know the subject of the scene even after my pen hits the page. I am still trusting the process.
The process of spending time and paying attention runs on trust. On the idea that if you begin a good thing, and leave room, something magical will happen.
When I started a sketchbook habit, I did not even know how to draw. I was chasing a curiosity and hoping to learn. I did not know what I would draw, or how the pages would look after a week, a month, a year. I was trusting a process that had not proven itself to me yet. It begins as faith, and over time the faith turns into trust. Like magic.
Reader, in your field of work or play, do you leave room for magic?
The Visual Journal
We are an increasingly text-based society. Every day we consume more and more media as words - texts, emails, articles, memes, books. Every day we communicate ourselves with friends, family, and co-workers, using the written (or typed or tapped) word.
But words are so easy to misunderstand. Words are notoriously bad at meaning things. Words are bad at … being words.
A sketchbook is the visual journal that allows me to express myself without losing my thoughts in the translation to clunky, cumbersome words.
Keeping a sketchbook has taught me that a whole lot of life exists outside of words. Observation and mindfulness produce thoughts and feelings that cannot be expressed because sometimes the right words do not exist. Sometimes the right words would take too long to find. Sometimes it is not worth the effort to find them.
Reader, do words fail you sometimes even when the feelings are very real?
Dear reader, have you begun something without knowing where it might lead? Did you simply trust a process? And did it lead to something good? Whether it was art, or words, another hobby, or something else entirely, share your good experiences and good ideas in the comments.
Thank you for giving me a space in your inbox. I am honoured to have a portion of your time and attention every week.
What I’m learning, with my own sketchbook journey, is that it’s a way for me to shrug off the mantle I often put on of control, striving, and perfection.
When I sketch instead of write what I see, it’s not — impressive — I usually struggle far more, at first, because I’m not as skilled or practiced at drawing as I am at writing. Because of that, though, I’m far better at trying new things, playing, and learning from missteps.
In the end, my sketchbook asks me to go deeper with less at stake than I feel with my writing. And it’s a new way of seeing that can only make me a better writer, I’d think.
Loved getting to read through this. Keeping a sketchbook has become a true miracle for my mind and the way I see the world. It’s become a daily habit and I can’t imagine what I did without it.