Ruining My Sketchbooks

I had a quick meetup planned with a relative doing a college tour, and I picked up small gift for him. He and I have always connected over art and creativity, so I bought him a simple sketchbook; hardbound, decent paper. Something to keep his sketches and story ideas in.

But then I remembered the six or seven good quality, hardbound sketch journals I’d picked up over the years, sitting on a shelf where I keep my art books. Every last one of them absolutely bereft of sketches.

And I know why. It’s that first page. That first, pristine page always waiting for something wonderful. Guess I’ve always been too nervous (or too cheap) to mark up the first page of these pricey little leather-bound journals with anything less than perfect. Because if you ruin the first page, the whole book is trash.

It’s irrational, of course. And it’s mildly infuriating when I calculate how much money I’ve blown on unused sketch journals out of fear of ruining them.

I worried that same fate might befall my young friend and decided to ruin the first page of his new art journal for him.

Nothing elaborate; just a quick, cartoony Frankenstein monster — a famously imperfect character — done in ink and watercolor. I hope it’ll be inspiring, and a nice memento of our visit. More than that, I hope it will give him leave to fill the rest of the book, whenever he feels like it, without fear of ruining anything.

The byproduct of all this is that it made me pull those stodgy old sketch journals down off the shelf and start putting artwork and ideas into them. I don’t know how I got caught up in that perfection trap so many times, and for so long, but I cannot wait to ruin those things.

If you’d like to see me ruin my friend’s sketchbook, there’s a video link below.