Sketchbook tour - studies, inspiration, experimentation…
I have been following Sarah Burns’ adventure for a couple of years now. I have grown so much in my gouache practice thanks to her teaching and video (I have even taken the leap and did her gouache subscription - which was wonderful and I am still planning to one day write about the experience), I have started going plein-air painting more, and she has also inspired me a lot in my art practice in general. So when my local art store finally had some Stillman&Birn sketchbook, I bought a spiral bound Nova series in beige (a 6×8 in - 150 gsm mixed media paper - 50 pages). Sarah loves the sketchbook for gouache and I thought “let’s give it a go!”
I started the sketchbook beginning of September 2024 and finished it end of July 2026… almost two years later. So what took so long?
The bumpy road…
The first days - The naïve optimism
Obviously I started using the sketchbook with gouache, because that was what it was meant for… right? The first page was quite OK even though I quickly realized that the paper did not like water that much. I couldn’t use my usual wet-into-wet technique for the first layers, and I had struggles blending my colors. I decided to continue but the next page was very frustrating. I just couldn’t understand how to deal with water on the paper. A quick value studies in fountain pen + Tombow & white gel pen / white colored pencil worked quite well though. But I was really fixed on the fact that this sketchbook was the perfect sketchbook for gouache that I went straight back into gouache… And got frustrated again! I slowly tried to change my approach to gouache to fit the sketchbook: fewer layers, thicker paint. It sort of worked but did not bring me much joy… Weridly enough I was using this same approach in other sketchbooks and loved it, but it just didn’t click on that one. I also had this weird pressure that I needed to produce beautiful gouache studies in this sketchbook, impressive landscapes. Almost as if part of me was trying to replicate Sarah’s sketchbook into my own…
The next couple of weeks - Experimenting-ish
After a couple of days I decided to explore the sketchbook with more supplies. I put it next to the couch and would just grab it in the evenings, while chatting or watching TV shows. During those couple of days, I used it mostly to reproduce some images I found on Pinterest or to work on my anatomy skills by copying some drawings from my “Morpho” book (morpho anatomie artistique by Michel Lauricella). I used a mix of ink (from my fountain pen), watersoluble colored pencils, Tombows, waterbased markers and even some colored pencils. I really started enjoying the sketchbook more!
While filling in some waterbrushes with ink, I also used the opportunity to test my ink brushes on the sketchbook! That was messy but a lot of fun.
Beginning of 2025 - Back to gouache?
For a couple of months I didn’t use the sketchbook anymore. And then for some reason I went back to it at the beginning of 2025… with gouache! And I didn’t like much the paintings that I did (they were a part of a chaotic 100-day challenge…). After that I went though a difficult phase with the skechtbook. I did a couple of ink sketches that I really liked (some sketches from life with just an ink brush and a white acrylic marker). But mostly I did not like much of what I created during these months. I tried using a variety of media (neocolors II, watercolors, etc.). I experimented with new subjects (like dancers). I did some one-line drawing challenges. I experimented with non-waterproof inks. Nothing really seemed to work!
May 2025 - Finding solace? or not…
Suddently in May something clicked and after drawing a rose with colored pencils (which worked soo well on that paper!) I found some love for the sketchbook again! I went back to my morpho drawings with a mix of ink and watercolor pencils, played some more with inks and white highlights, had a lot of fun with studying expressions and testing out some new watercolor pencils and Inktense pencils. It was great!
But after two weeks it was again difficult. I was trying portraits but they didn’t turn out as I wished, the proportions on my morpho drawings were off (not all but enough that I gor frustrated again). Some of my inks didn’t behave so well on the paper (mostly my Pentel sepia - which actually struggles on most papers… probably because it’s dyes and not pigments?). Then suddently in September my fountain pens clogged and just didn’t flow well. Even my low-pressure sketches of our indoor plants turned frustrating because of the ink flow. I received a new fountain pen for my birthday but it would just not flow nicely.
October 2025 - the end of the frustrations?
In the following months I would just go back to the sketchbook once in a while, mostly for quick studies from Pinterest. First female faces, then dancers, then birds and more. I didn’t like everything but I just fell so much more comfortable creating. I tried some new supplies, had fun with or without colors. Everything came more easily! I did some quick evening sketches on my couch. I took inspiration from Pinterest, from pictures I had taken, played with movements, with textures, with subjects, with some more mixed media. I even decided to put some clear gesso on some pages to try acrylic and acrylic gouache and experiment with self-portraits (more on that in a coming post!). And just like that, without really noticing, 20 pages were gone and I reached the end of the sketchbook…
Final thoughts - love… but not for gouache!
So… Do I like this sketchbook? Yes, I love it! I’m actually quite sad that it is over and I look forward to having a new one. I think I prefer it over the Hahnemühle toned sketchbooks but I am not sure (could be also the learning curve of the Hahnemühle one, and the fact that I only had a small one that I used plein-air). But do I like it for gouache? Actually no! I tried for so long to do what I thought I should do in the sketchbook because an artist I look up to used it that way. But that’s not how art works! You have to find what brings you joy and use your supplies in a way that suits you - not because they should be used that way (and of course Sarah never said that everyone should use the sketchbook for gouache, that is just how my brain read the whole situation).
I enjoyed the sketcbook for its format (not too small - so I had enough space to experiment / not too big that it would be uncomfortable to carry it around the apartment), the hard cover (so much easier when I’m sketching on the couch or in bed), the spiral binding (I usually don’t like those, but again it made me just easier to fold it and use it on my lap), the paper color (just a perfect warm tone, that makes using white a delight). I really loved it for ink, colored pencils, pencils and all sort of water-soluble media (pencils, markers, Neocolors II). It was also fun to use it with acrylics and some mixed media, though not my first choices for the sketchbook!
It has been a very bumpy road, with lots of ups and downs, failed experiments and doubts, but it was also a very interesting reflection of my overall art jounrey during these two years. This sketchbook has seen me experiment with my supplies, make some low-stake art when I was feeling very low creatively. It has been a faithful companion for the past two years and I am so grateful that it was there to pick me up exactly where I was. Did I create masterpieces in it? No. But it was such an important part of my journey. The quiet learning, the random experimenting, the evening studies, the sketches… they may not look like much but they bring a lot, and it is never a waste to do them.
I hope you find some inspiration and allow yourslef to have playful, study skecthbooks! Not everything needs to look good, to be creative, to have a purpose or to be shared!
