I’ll admit that I have serious sketchbook envy. Lately, it seems like the only time I can make drawing in my sketchbook is when I’m traveling. When I was traveling to Taiwan, China, and Seattle in recent months I was traveling on my own most of the time without my family so it was easy to prioritize drawing on a regular basis. Now that I’m back home (for a while) drawing on a regular basis has been really hard to do.
There’s something incredibly intimate about seeing an artist’s sketchbook, you’re basically looking at a visual diary, taking a peek into an artist’s mind. When I look at an artist’s sketchbook I feel like I’m seeing their guts, their completely uninhibited creative self, totally naked and exposed. Sometimes, I like the sketchbooks better than the finished work because there’s an honesty to sketchbooks that sometimes gets hidden in finished pieces.
Which is why producing a batch of sketchbook videos has been so much fun. Not only did I get to see a score of diverse approaches to sketchbooks, but listening to an artist explain what their sketchbooks mean to them, and a sketchbook’s role in their creative projects was fascinating.
Eventually, I want to produce a course on sketchbooks for Artprof.org; it’s on our ridiculously long to-do list!
Clara Lieu 
One of your best posts. Sketchbooks travel easily. I have a couple from my Jamaican trips,from
years ago. I can make paintings from the sketches.
If I don’t get to make paintings or sculpture, working in my sketchbooks relieve my guilt.