Why I Love Changing Sketchbook Formats

Sketchbook Tour time. Welcome to Draw Tip Tuesday!

Let's flip through the pages I filled in this Etchr sketchbook, 100% cotton paper, square format.

Urban sketches of a snowy city, experiments with negative space and foreshortening. Quick café drawings, experiments with water‑soluble ink, brush pen and watercolors. Plus the wonderfully messy process behind some favorite spreads.

I talk about the surprises, challenges, and creative lessons learned.

Simply switching sketchbook formats can shake up your habits and spark new ideas.

This sketchbook tour shows successes as well as “mistakes,” and I hope that can change the way you might think about your own sketchbook.

Curious about trying a different sketchbook format, or experimenting with limited tools? I hope you'll try something new too!

Materials:

• Etcher sketchbook (100 % cotton paper, square)

  A premium type of paper. Not easy to get over feeling "precious" about it.

• Water‑soluble crayons (a few colors): Caran d'Ache Neocolor II

  I love how I can create washes with them, and add subtle or bright color while keeping things monochrome

• Pentel Pocket Brushpen

  Quick line work, perfect for imperfect lines!

• Pencil

  For great texture and shading.

• Water‑soluble ink

  Creates fluid washes and background tones (watch this video to learn how to use watersoluble ink in your sketchbook)

• Watercolors

  For background washes and as a versatile material for color in your sketchbook

• Coffee / tea

  part of the ritual that inspired the mood

Videos I mentioned:

• Capture distorted perspective / foreshortening: watch it here

• I mention the full process video of the cafe-drawing, on my Patreon page.

  It contains moments of “ugly phases,” and the little composition lessons I learned along the way. Watch that on Patreon here.

Join the Patreon community to see the behind‑the‑scenes footage and get more inspiration.

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