Keeping a Creative Sketchbook: Build Your Artistic Practice for a Joyfully Inspired Life

by Emma Block

An inspiring creativity guide for keeping a sketchbook as an artistic practice, with techniques and sources of inspiration for experimenting, drawing, painting, and seeing the world through a colorful lens, from watercolor artist and author of  The Joy of Watercolor Emma Block

Keeping a sketchbook is a wonderfully rewarding pursuit for artists and hobbyists alike. Your sketchbook is a safe place to explore, experiment, try new things, record your progress, and sometimes mess up, and working in a sketchbook, particularly on location, is an innately mindful practice. You become completely focused on the things you are sketching or painting and completely immersed in the atmosphere of the place.

In  Keeping a Creative Sketchbook , Emma Block shares her own sketchbook practice and offers inspiring artist interviews and numerous techniques and practices for beginning or transforming your own. Packed with ideas and prompts to get started, this book helps overcome overwhelm and open a world of joyful creativity. With your sketchbook by your side, you can slow down, be present, notice the little things, enjoy the process, let go of perfectionism, and embrace the blank page, discovering rich new depths to your creativity and finding your artist mindset for inner peace.
 

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Crafts, Self Help

208 pages, Hardcover

Published April 9, 2024

Reviews

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! Excited to be the first to review this on Goodreads:) I just took the live sketching class with Emma Block today--and til April 16 her Patreon is free for a trial period--so I had a great time going over her classes on Patreon while I flipped through her new book. I love that the book is filled with a lot of other illustrators who I love, and is written in an interview format with a variety of other artists. A great addition to my other books by Block.

[Kyrsten Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this book! I am obsessed with Emma’s style and it was really fun to see inside her sketchbooks and learn about her process. I enjoyed all the interviews, paintings + sketches, and advice from the artists she interviewed as well. Read this in two days and I can’t wait to go back and do the exercises Emma taught throughout the book! Highly recommend if you have ever wanted to start a sketchbook but are afraid! She’s super encouraging and gives excellent advice!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been delighted to work through Emma Block’s previous three instructional books on watercolor and gouache. When I heard she was publishing thoughts and reflections on keeping a creative sketchbook I knew I had to pre-order, as she’s one of my favorite teaching artists. Emma focuses on the theme that all ideas are worth exploring and trying out. There are interviews with artists she admires who offer insights into their sketchbooks, and she has also developed sketchbook exercises to deepen creativity and/or to reduce blank sketchbook page anxiety.

The most significant moment for me was when Emma was vulnerable and shared two sketches of on-location painting, one which met her standards and one which disappointed her: “This piece also demonstrates that so much of drawing and painting is actually problem solving. The artist takes in all this complicated visual information and then works out how to translate it onto the page so that it makes sense to the viewer, captures the mood, is visually pleasing, and is true to their intentions. Many of the unfinished sketches in my sketchbooks are just unsolved problems, and when I look back on them, I often learn something I can carry with me for the next time.”

Emma’s methods of teaching have been influential and formative to me, and I’m thankful to have her sketchbook guidance to inspire me.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book arrived this morning and I read it while having my hair done. Loads of wise words, encouragement and beautiful pictures to inspire. I had the luck to do a watercolour workshop with Emma a few years ago and love all her work.

[Nicky Brinsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing book from Emma Block! Loads of information and inspiration. Thanks Emma!

[Nichole Gokie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. Great advice and very inspiring.

[Robin Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the book. Want it.
Pg 63 and 105

[Katey Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Great ideas, advice and honest confessions on developing a dynamic, regular sketchbook. Love this book!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"On-location" art creation isn't really my focus, at the moment, but I still found the book interesting and inspiring, with plenty of useful information for anyone considering keeping a sketchbook and uncertain of where to start. Much of this info is perfectly relevant beyond the sketchbook, too. If you don't like working in a bound sketchbook, you can just as easily do the same type of work on loose sheets or a pad or block of paper, then put them together in a binder, scrapbook, keepsake box, etc.

I particularly enjoyed the interviews sprinkled throughout the book, with other artists sharing how they use their own sketchbooks, tips, etc. and photos of their work. There are a variety of different styles to spark new ideas.

[Tenille Roylance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunningly beautiful and wildly inspiring. Cannot recommend enough.