Which Sketchbook Do You Actually Need?

In Part 1 we talked about what to put in a sketchbook. But before you can do any of that you have to pick the right one for the job, and that is not something anyone can tell you upfront. It takes trial and error and paying attention to what you actually need versus what you thought you needed.

I did not arrive at my system from a guide. I built it by using books until I understood what was missing.

I started with a store bought travel journal. Pretty cover, structured prompts, a checklist for every city and half a novel worth of writing per page. The paper could only handle ballpoint pen and I prefer gel pens and archival inks, both of which need paper that can actually hold them. I used what worked, stripped out the rest, and eventually just made my own.

Cover of the Travel Diary I made

Five to ten minutes of writing at the end of the day or first thing in the morning. Space for a drawing or a photo. Room to tuck in a receipt, a ticket stub, something picked up off the street. Fast, functional, mine.

I also tried an accordion sketchbook once. I had been doodling on a long receipt in Berlin and loved the stream of consciousness feel of the continuous surface, so I decided my next book would be an accordion. Found one at the Fabriano store in Florence and grabbed it. Hated it in practice. Too awkward for plein air work and the images sat blocky beside each other instead of flowing the way the receipt had. Good information though. Now I know.

The system I actually use built itself through trips like that. Here is what it looks like now.

The designed travel diary

Comes out at the end of the day or first thing in the morning. It is for capturing the feeling of a place before it fades. Not documentation. Memory. I do not take it on every trip anymore. When I studied in Florence I was painting eight hours a day in the studio and just had a medium sketchbook and a plain notebook with me. The journal suits trips where I have breathing room to reflect.

The travel sketchbooks

For working. Color, observation, reference, watercolor. On a trip where I am out moving around all day I will carry a pocket sketchbook for when I stop, and a medium one for the slower hours. On a trip where I am specifically there to work I will bring a large and a medium. Paper weight matters here, thick enough to hold gel pens, archival inks, watercolor, whatever I am working with that day.

The purse books

Almost never bought at home. Right now I have one from an artist in Berlin sitting in my bag. I pick them up in the cities I visit, usually from a local artist or a small shop, and they become part of the trip before I have drawn a single thing in them. Sometimes they become sketchbooks. Sometimes notebooks. I decide when I open them.

The kraft coil

Lives in my workspace mostly, though it travels when I have works in progress that need sorting out on the road. Compositional thumbnails, project ideation, the visual thinking that happens before a painting exists. Not a precious book. A thinking book.

The watercolor roll

Not a sketchbook but part of the system. Two eight pan tins, six brushes, a small pad, a folding water cup, tape, a cloth, a pencil, and bookmark sized paper for making bookmarks. Grab and go. Whether it comes on a trip depends entirely on how much room is left in the carry on. If space is tight I swap it for a small eight pan tin and a single brush and that is enough.

You can work in any book. The paper might not suit what you are doing but you can work around it. The point is to pay attention to what keeps frustrating you and adjust from there. That is how a system builds itself.

That is how you end up with ten sketchbooks and no apologies.

Jackie

Next up, Part 3: what to do with it all after, including the completely valid answer of nothing.