How to Fill More Sketchbook Pages
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Do you have a sketchbook (or 6) that you wish you used more? We all do! If you are looking for some straight forward suggestions about how to work in your sketchbook a bit more often, read on!
I have found the greatest success at filling up my sketchbook by applying these 2 simple tips:
1️⃣ Use a small sketchbook
2️⃣ Use a limited palette of colour pencils
Yes, it really can be as simple as that to fill more of your sketchbook pages (with a lot of ease and fun!)
Let me explain.
One of the reasons that we don't fill up our sketchbook as much as we might like is that we have to make too many decisions. Another is that we are often unconsciously worried that what we draw won't be good enough.
That second concern (worrying about not being good enough) is a story for another day. For now, let’s just remember it’s called a sketchbook for a reason - it’s not a masterpiecebook.
When it comes to the problem of all the decision making, my 2 simple suggestions solve pretty much all of those issues.
Firstly, a small sketchbook is far more approachable than a large one. We have already reduced the burden of expectation in terms of time and scale of project.
Secondly, the small sketchbook is easy to toss into your bag/pocket and grab at a moment's notice, wherever you might be.
The next set of choices we would have to make are around medium and colour. Deciding in advance that you will use one medium and limited colour range is more of a relief than I thought it would be. And at the moment I am loving my coloured pencils.
Coloured pencils are an obvious choice because they are dry. That makes them less messy, easier to transport with the sketchbook and generally very user friendly.
But I love the rainbow… I need All The Colours, I hear you say.
I love all the colour too, but too much choice is paralysing.
We might think a wide array of colours is a glorious luxury but it can just be overwhelming enough to get in the way of enjoying filling a page. Even when you pick a colour and start using it, I find it's all too easy to start second guessing your choice, and that self doubt is a slippery slope I choose not to be on if I can help it.
Limited Colour Palettes can be More Effective - Here’s Why and How
Using a limited colour palette is often advisable anyway, for a more professional and harmonious result. Sometimes, All The Colours together can be far too much.
Less is more.
Simplicity offers much. And of course, necessity is the mother of invention. You might find yourself being even more creative within the constrained colour palette and creating a far more interesting image than you might have with infinite choice.
How to Mix Colours Using Coloured Pencils
A limited colour range doesn't mean you only have access to those colours. Oh no - you can mix new colours by layering the coloured pencil. It’s actually a lot like paint.
Nuanced variations of colour combinations are possible by layering multiple colours in different orders, and varying the types of marks you make. Many happy hours can be spent exploring what is possible with just a few simple supplies.
How to Choose the Colours in your Limited Palette
There are many different ways to go about this. In fact that in itself is reason enough to stick to the limited palette for a while once you’ve chosen it.
Here are a few approaches you could try but of course, the possibilities are endless.
Instinct
Select your colours purely by instinct. Take out your pencil box and choose the first 6 colours that call to you. Just be done with it and work with what you’ve got. What a fun challenge!
Start with Primary Colours
You could start by trying to choose a couple of variations of the primary colours, ie something sort of pink/red, something sort of yellow, something vaguely blue. If you have lots of colours available to you you will be able to come up with all sorts of combination if you take a broad view in selecting from each ‘colour family’.
Use a Colour Wheel
Grab a colour wheel and choose in a more academic fashion using the tetrads, triads, split complementary etc as marked on the wheel. For an online version try https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel
But for what it is worth, I would say don’t overthink it.
Playing with online colour scheme generators can be fun for a bit, but it's also a big distraction from the tactile fun of actually sketching. It can also make you start to feel that choosing colours is something you can get ‘wrong’.
You can’t choose wrong. It is your sketchbook so trust yourself to choose colours - the computer doesn't know better - it's just a tool for generating suggestions.
Base your Colour Choice on Your Favourite Subjects
If you know you love painting and drawing landscapes perhaps you choose earth tones.
If you like drawing people you might want to choose something that will make skin tones easier to achieve.
Consider Value in Your Colour Choice
While you can achieve different values (ie lightness and darkness) by varying the pressure when you lay down the colour, I think it is helpful to try and choose light values and dark values in your limited palette. Perhaps a very dark blue/brown/purple and a pale neutral cream/yellow would be useful in the mix.
Remember you can also change your mind after a page or so. Constraints are meant to be helpful guidelines, not life sentences.😂
Bonus tip for Filling More Sketchbook Pages
I do have one more bonus tip.
Predetermining your sketchbook and medium is so successful that you may as well go ahead and predetermine a subject.
This is what I did for a recent series I created on a trip to the beach.
Originally I started just with the limited colours and the tiny sketchbook because that is all I brought. But that still left me with a blank page that I could fill with an unlimited choice of subjects. I did come up with a few things to draw and enjoyed that the pages all used the same 6-8 colours or a subset of them.
But I started filling the pages so much faster when I didn't have to come up with a subject because I had already decided to do tiny landscape studies. That was so much fun.
I’m all for working in a series.
It is the foundation of my own art practice and it is the basis of the Happy Painters’ Hub membership.
Every month I choose a subject (or one of the members does) and we paint a series together.
We always do some sketching and create a little sketchbook series too. That’s how this little Beach Moods in Coloured Pencil series came to be (that you can see in the images above).
Click here to investigate The Happy Painters’ Hub membership
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