Sketch-booking As A Professional Creative
As a professional illustrator (still feel like a fraud saying that even after 8 years…) - having a sketchbook is such a vital part of my creative process. I want to let you in on the reasons why and how I use them in my practice.
So, Why Does Sketch-booking Still Matter In A Digital Age?
For me, a sketchbook will always be a safe space — a place to explore new ideas, make a mess, experiment freely, and plan projects without any pressure. These pages don’t need to be shared with anyone. They can exist just for you, away from deadlines, client briefs, or expectations.
What I love most is seeing how ideas take shape over time. Flipping through a sketchbook offers a visual glimpse into the creative mind — a mix of quick sketches, rough concepts, colour swatches, and fragments from daily life or travels. These pages reveal the process behind an idea, not just the polished outcome — and often, that’s the most interesting part.
I’ve been keeping sketchbooks for years, and there’s always one within reach if I need it. Sure, I go through phases where I don’t use it as much as I’d like, but I’ve always got one ready to grab and scribble in. I love being able to look back through older sketchbooks and see how my work has evolved — how my thinking has shifted, how my techniques have matured, or how I’ve explored different materials along the way.
How Do Sketchbooks Support My Professional Work?
Whenever I start a commercial project and need to provide rough initial concepts, my first thought is always to reach for my sketchbook. There’s something about putting pencil to paper that helps me think more freely — ideas tend to flow more naturally when I’m not confined by the structure of a screen. Once I’ve got a solid foundation of ideas, I’ll then move over to my iPad to refine and render them digitally, which are then easier to send directly to the client.
For me, the tactile feeling - the scratch of pencil on paper - is a vital part of the creative process. Interestingly, I’ve found that many clients really enjoy seeing this early-stage thinking. There’s something engaging about showing the rough beginning of an idea. Sharing sketchbook pages at this point not only communicates your direction but also invites the client into the creative process. It helps them see how ideas are forming, even if they’re still rough around the edges.
Digital vs. Analog
Don’t get me wrong — my iPad is absolutely essential for creating the work I do professionally. It’s efficient, flexible, and perfect for delivering polished results to my clients. But there’s nothing quite like pulling out my paints and making a glorious mess in my sketchbook. Whether it’s layering textures, scribbling with pencil, or experimenting with ink washes.
I work comfortably across both digital and traditional media, but they hold very different spaces in my creative practice. My sketchbooks are where my personal work lives. Even though I sometimes plan out client projects in them — quick ideas, thumbnails, notes — the actual paintings and drawings in them are for me. They’re not for presentation, approval, or revisions. They’re a space where I can create without the need for someone else’s opinions and changes.
And while I’d love to do more client work traditionally, there’s also a practical reason I don’t: clients request changes — and once you’ve laid down paint or ink, there’s no ‘undo’ button. Unlike digital, traditional materials don’t allow for easy edits, and that just doesn’t fit the back-and-forth nature of commercial projects. So my sketchbooks remain free from edits, built just for exploration, experimentation and a space to try out whatever I want!
Don’t aim for perfection in your sketchbooks, sketch your ideas and don’t worry too much about the outcome and if you think you don’t have time, I promise you do. Whether it’s 5 mins or 5 hours you can draw something I promise you! Include notes, quotes, and collaged elements to spark creativity! Sketch-booking is a tool not a task and such a important part of my creative process!
