(10/100) Some Thoughts On Getting a True Sketchbook Habit.

I want to use my sketchbooks.  I have many and none of them are full, and many of them not used at all. And so for that very reason, for a 100 day art challenge I chose to do daily work in a sketchbook.  But even after completing that challenge, and this month trying to continue  a daily sketch habit with the goal of completing an empty sketchbook (containing 35 leaves), it's still not coming to me naturally.  So it's time to work out why.  What do I want to do sketchbook work for?  Well some obvious reasons are:-

1. To improve my art skill level.
2. To experiment, try new ideas, techniques and  different media.
3. To make observations, make studies from life.
4. To play and 'doodle' and discover my likes and dislikes.
5. To increase my visual vocabulary, explore different ways to make line, shape and texture.
6. To study master works.
7. To make notes of what inspires me.
8. To study colour, make colour notes. 
9. Try out compositions and ideas for paintings.

All these things I had in mind.  I know how valuable a sketchbook can be in forwarding a personal vision and helping to gain the ability to express it.  

So what is holding me back? 

1. I'm still afraid of the blank page and I'm not allowing myself to work freely and allow any mess that may come from that.
2. All too often I come to the page and have no idea of what to place there.
3. I am not spontaneous in my art practice.  I haven't discovered the usefulness of having an idea and jumping into the sketchbook to explore it.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but I'm struck by number 3.  This is where I'm really not getting it. It's the exploration of ideas that is missing.  All I need is a scrappy notebook and a way of scribbling things down.   The sequence is from ideas to notes to visual thinking, this is what comes FIRST, and from there to working things out according to what is needed to express that idea more fully;  e.g, for this idea do I need more skill in representing a certain animal, or perhaps I need to work out some colour combinations to find what best expresses the mood of an idea more powerfully.  To work this way, from idea first to sketchbook studies and experiments seems to be where I've got this thing completely the wrong way round. 

These thoughts have come about from my last two days of forcing myself to get something into my sketchbook. Not knowing what to do I opted for some studies of leaves from a couple of my houseplants.  But I was wondering what use it all was if I don't want to do realistic, representational painting.  I enjoyed doing the studies, I tried to be as accurate in shape and colour as I could and it was such a pleasure to look so closely at the marvel that nature holds in a leaf.  But I still felt this was not helping me progress forward in my art making.

So now I'm writing this and coming to some understanding about the whole thing.  How I move on from here I'm not yet sure, but I know I will have to come at it differently.  Play with ideas, and then work it out.