I sketch/doodle/ponder/research … in my sketchbook every single day. Sometimes I have to wake myself from my sketchbook slumber and do some real artwork!

But there is often value in those sketchbook doodles, whether it is just to share them with you here or to move you to the next step.

These started out as a way to use up the leftover watercolor paint in my palette. I had a sketchbook nearby and I just filled my brush with what was leftover and painted circles and squares on the pages. I loved the colors, and because I had carelessly slapped down the paint, colors ran into one another creating these beautiful patterns.

It was quite a while before I picked up that sketchbook again but when I did the colors were like magnets for my fine point pen and I just started making markings around the blobs of paint.

Most of them turned into flowers (because I love flowers) but each day I was so motivated to return to these blobs of color to see what I could turn them into.

Sometimes they turned into little purses and bags.

And other days they turned into faces.

The more marks I made the more blobs of watercolor paint I needed. And so I obliged. (Okay so sometimes I just opened my watercolor paints just to create the blobs and I bypassed the real work I was trying to do again.)

Then I thought, maybe this IS the real work. Maybe this is what I am supposed to be working on.

I should have known better. Of course there was value in the time I thought I “wasted” in my nightly sketchbook meanderings. I should know by now that that is where my best ideas come from- always !

So my message to you is this.

If you do not own at least 1 journal , your first step is to get one. You can find some nice handmade ones here ; )

Second, work in it - every single day. Oh I know, people always say that, BUT IT IS SO TRUE.

Third, if you are still stuck, look forward to my next online class coming up very soon - it’s all about ideas of what to put in those sketchbooks.

In the meantime, until my class comes out, get yourself a sketchbook - just start. You can watch this time lapse video for some motivation/inspiration.

Talk to me, leave a comment below!