YESSS to ugly sketchbooks!!! You inspired me to start an ugly sketchbook like half a year ago because I thought your art was just sooo freee and I want to get there too even if I go through an ugly phase or forever go through one! It's been so much fun just expressing myself and letting go of sharing on social media and I just want to say you are such a light!!!! :D

I am nodding in big agreement about keeping your old sketchbook/friend with you for a bit while starting the new. I feel empty sort of, when starting a new one. The way you called it "moral support of your drawings" - I was like YES!! 🫂💖

I love your intention to stay playful in your sketchbook. I’m trying to do the same thing for the same reasons and you explained your sketchbook philosophy perfectly. I really love your videos, Sophie, they bring me so much joy.

Thanks, I’m also filling up A5 sketchbooks with watercolor and neo-pastels. You inspired me with the messy part. I also want to mess up my next sketchbook. And I want to try the real mixture of pastels and painting, like Basquiat. (I separate the 2). Nice work by the way, happy and sunny, even in winter.

Watercolors and Gouache are the same except one is ideally transparent and the other ideally opaque. When you add Acrylic as a vehicle you get a plastic permanent un-rewettable surface. So it’s only acryla-gouache that doesn’t play well with wc and regular gouache. :)

I have to say, I’m the complete opposite with sketchbooks - I started counting down from the moment I start it, I really look forward to finishing them! They give me a level of satisfaction that finishing other projects just doesn’t, and I’v found that I’m a lot looser and more experimental when I’m in the mindset of “Go go go!” That said, I do get that empty feeling if I just finished a thick sketchbook, you have them for so long and carry them around everywhere that they really do become a companion and hold all your thoughts, hopes and secrets

Oh man Sophie!! I have struggled with sketchbooking my entire life. I would love to have a sketchbook that I have that friend feeling with, but I always end up using them for thumbnails for bigger paintings. Was there a time where sketchbooks felt like a discipline until you started to love them???

I love your content ! You make me get away from my every page is an finish piece sketchbook mindset and finally embracing my messy-ness nature ! I have so much fun and I feel so free now ! Thanks for sharing your view on sketchbook

ooooh there's a lot of good art in this video ☺

big yes to carrying the recently-finished sketchbook around while you get comfy in the new one! i often get sick of sketchbooks with yucky paper (lookin' at you, w+n) and then rush to fill/finish 'em in other ways... like making art on loose bits of paper and sticking them in. it makes my brain feel yucky to leave a sketchbook unfinished, so it's a battle and a half trying to get past that! usually once i find THE sketchbook, i try to keep a couple on-hand. it looks like my favourite one has been discontinued and now i'm trying to find my sea legs again in new kinds. it's not a fun time at the moment for paper testing, but i'll get there! currently my new maybe-favourite is a Clairefontaine plain notebook. the paper is glossy and smooth and a bit thin, so when i use wet mediums on it, it gets that yummy crinkly texture (AND something to do with the paper means that my brush strokes are still there when the paint dries in the most MAGICAL way)... they're pretty cheap and easy to find! big win for me!

I’ve been working on 6 crunchy sketchbooks right now. I’ve done multiples this time to not get attached and be more loose. Jump to one while another dries. Less in my head time.

I think we have sketchbooks that we don’t get on with. I tend to love the cheap ones too.

Awh, another fab video Sophie! ^u^ Your sketchbook videos are always a treat, especially in the morning when I'm still all groggy. They're the perfect pick-me-up! I used to be a terrible one for never finishing sketchbooks; I've so many on my shelves which I didn't even get halfway through, and I hate that. Mostly because now I really like having them as points of reference in my own 'artistic timeline', and the unfinished ones mess that up! XD I'm much more determined now since about 2020 to push through every sketchbook, and I do enjoy finishing them, because I usually have a little stock of cute new ones to choose form next. XD I'm awful for buying so many new books even when I haven't finished what I'm working in haha. I think I currently have about 6 or 7 different ones that are patiently waiting for me to pick them. ^^; I love so much when you use those pastels in your drawings! They looks so creamy and salty at the same time. Do you ever spray-fix them or are they usually okay as they are? I have a couple but I'm always too hesitant to use them in case they smudge or ruin the next page. But anyway! That seaside drawing is so gorgeous! It looks a little like a lino print, which is beautiful. Those washes underneath make it look so magical too; like a crisp morning. I really admire your tenacity to make art, even if you don't feel like it. I know my comment is already a bit of a trek to read, so I'll wrap it up, but this was again, such an inspiring video! Thanks for sharing! 💕

I love finishing sketchbooks because that means I can start a new one. Sometimes, if I don't have a new one to start, I will take a sketchbook older than the one I just completed and add more to every page. I think my excitement around new sketchbooks is because I have a huge sticker collection and I want to put them on something. 🌈✨ Your process of adding color to the page before you start has completely changed how I play in mine. Sometimes when I'm not really ready to draw a thing, I will just play with color on multiple pages and then tomorrow they will be dry and ready to sketch on. 💖

Sophie you might like the Royal Talens sketchbooks! They have smooth cream paper and lay flat! And they’re not too thick or nice

Yayyy! I have a surprise day off so I am watching now while repotting some plants! 💚🖤

I love that mindset - i make an ugly drawing but at least there's a pretty colours - yes! Honestly, I've not finished a sketchbook yet, hopefully that'll change in the future. I love hearing how you feel about sketchbooks - chunky crunchy.. sketchbooks.. sounds like a chocolate bar! I experienced soft fluffy pages too, they are no fun. I wonder what mediums they were made for...

Crunchy sketchbooks are the best!

I have just stumbled upon your channel, and it spoke to me. I have no idea what it is saying, but I love your messiness and creativity, and even your colours which in my own life I probably would never go for, but in your sketchbook... Those oranges, pinks, pastelles... I love it! I just simply love it. As if someone turned on a song like "Walking On Sunshine" or something, and everything around started singing and dancing. Love it. Cheers from Serbia. :)

Love this vlog ❤ I'm in bed with covid ATM and your words inspired me to do a bit of ugly sketchbooking 😊 It also made me more exhided about finishing my (way too big, not watercolor friendly and SPIRAL SPINE) sketchbook I've been working on with too long breaks! I'm more excited about starting the new sketchbook that I bound last week, because now I'm motivated to set some "rules" about it being for ANY doodles, ideas and sketches without hesitation. I also got your travel journal book for inspiration so thank you for sharing and for your always positive attitude 🤗

You mentioned how you use to be more ridged with your sketchbooks and made more finished work, I would love a video where we get to see the comparison in your work then vs now. Maybe you could give some advice on how you learned to loosen up more. After going to art school I am trying to relearn how to be more creative and playful so hearing about your journey would be very inspiring!

loved this video! can't wait for the sketchbook tour, really enjoy your use of colour and different media.

Lol you were walking across the screen near the end of the video and the first thing I thought of was “omg she has really good posture… wish that were me” 😂keep going you are inspiring better posture everyday (but also very inspiring art as well)

i actually handmade about a bunch of sketchbooks for myself back in 2018, and i'm almost through them all and it's so bittersweet

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on keeping and finishing a sketchbook. There is something exciting about choosing and starting a new one💛

I used to be a biologist in a lab. In grad school, I was always so excited to finish an old lab notebook and start a new one. The old ones were always full of frustration and failure. New ones held more hope for success of new ideas. Now my sketchbooks have replaced my lab notebooks, and I'm always sad to finish an old familiar friend. I try to remember the feeling of hope of a new lab notebook when I start a new sketchbook, but it's more daunting to me. I think I enjoy the process of art a little more than I did science, even though I have less confidence in my art. Whatever that's worth. I've loved watching your videos lately and am trying to incorporate some of your fun, silly play into my sketchbook. I'm almost done with my current one now and am even more sad to finish it! 😂

I am equally as excited to start a new sketchbook as I am to finish one. Can’t wait for the tour of this big boi!

I'm super duper excited for the sketchbook tour 😍

Thank you for sharing - and for reminding me to be messy! I love watching you create…the colors are just lovely 💕 I’m looking so forward to the sketchbook tour and to see what you decide for your next sketchbook! Be well, Sophie

You can't have light without the dark nor beauty without the uglies! I really enjoyed this video, thank you. (DebbieDrawsFunny recommended your channel😉)

Congrats on finishing another sketchbook! I relate to a whole lot of what you’ve discussed. I also finish and then rarely look back😆🫢I need to do that more. But the good news is there’s always a surprise gem or two that I forgot was in there and it sparks a new idea and inspiration✨💫And it feels so weird starting a new guy when you’ve built a whole imagery world in the last sketchbook. But I’m always stoked looking at a fresh new guy wondering what the future holds in store and what surprise future gems await 😮🤩Thank you so much for sharing this lovey doodles and self portrait, and plein air drawing sesh with us!

Love how you are free to try new things, i know its a really challenching to star from scratch and seeing you go with the flow is an inspiration, and hi from the other corner of the world, Mérida, in México!

Thank you for this lovely « blather » as you call it. Motivating me ❤

I love working in a sketchbook so much that I rarely create a painting outside of it these days! I love the A5 size the best because they’re like a regular book containing a story.🥰 LOVED this video Sophie, it’s so inspiring and I related to everything you said. Gorgeous art too!

I start in the middle and then the first page and the last😀 And then work round it I like to trick myself over obstacles 🧙‍♀️🎨👩‍🎨

This is a very inspiring video! Thank you!😊 Love how you use colors! It is so exciting to start a new sketcbook! I also love my sketchbooks I work in two right now. A tiny one for everywhere I go and a bigger one for at home. (Have you tried out the Royal Talens artcreation sketchbooks? Low price, thin smooth nice paper.. a bit yellowish.. comes along with the most medias...) ✨🌸

8:08 That's the problem with some of my old sktechbooks that I didn't finish. They are there in my shelf, not finished and sad... ahaha it's just that what ever I draw in them is so old, it's just not my actual me and I can't relate with them anymore. But still feel bad for leaving so may pages free! As a child I felt bad whenever I huged a toy and not all of them, now I feel bad if I leave sketchbook unfinished haha Wish you a nice day

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Thought farts! 🤣😂