There’s something undeniably magical about an artist’s sketchbook. It’s not just a collection of drawings — it’s a living document, a visual diary, a companion. Unlike polished works hanging on gallery walls or printed in portfolios, the pages of a sketchbook are raw, unfiltered, and deeply personal. They contain the quiet moments of creation — the scribbled ideas, the near-misses, the accidental masterpieces — all jostling together in the margins.
Some pages are beautiful. Others are messy, experimental, and wonderfully chaotic.
And that’s precisely what makes them fascinating.
Behind the Curtain of Creativity
While social media tends to showcase the best of an artist’s output, the sketchbook remains a more private space. It’s where the real thinking happens. Where mistakes are not only allowed but welcomed. Where half-finished thoughts rub shoulders with notes like “try again, but better” or “what was I even doing here?”
We spoke to several artists who kindly opened their sketchbooks to us — not just the curated spreads, but the full, glorious truth of them.
Lina Torres, a textile artist, uses hers to glue in fabric scraps and thread colour tests. “It’s like a stitched diary,” she says. “There are pages that are just lines of red thread. It helps me remember moods.”
Avi Jones, an illustrator and street artist, treats his sketchbook like a confessional. “Some of my best ideas start as jokes in the corner of a page. I talk to myself in the margins — and sometimes I argue back.”
Maureen Lee, who works in watercolour and poetry, admits, “There are tear stains on more pages than I’d like to admit. But there are also pages full of silly frogs wearing crowns. Both are valid.”
What unites these artists isn’t perfection — it’s presence. Their sketchbooks are a celebration of the creative process, not just the result.
Mistakes, Margins, and Magic
There’s joy in discovering that other artists also draw five versions of the same flower petal. That someone else tried – and failed – to draw hands. That you’re not the only one who accidentally spilled coffee on a page and turned it into a mushroom cloud (true story).
Sketchbooks show us that mistakes are not detours — they’re the path.
So today, we’re asking:
What’s living in your sketchbook?
It doesn’t need to be pretty. It doesn’t even need to be finished. We’re looking for the odd bits, the scribbles, the accidental creatures that came from two overlapping doodles and a smudge. If you’re brave enough to open the pages and share something real — we’d love to see it.
✏️ Share Your Sketchbook With Us
Would you like to be featured in a follow-up story? Send us a photo of a favourite (or disastrous!) page from your sketchbook, along with a few lines telling us about it.
Whether it’s hilarious, heartfelt, or completely chaotic, we welcome it.
👉 Submit your page via the submissions thread on the site, or email us at support@ourartsmagazine.com
Let’s pull back the curtain together. Because behind every masterpiece… is a very messy page.
