What is a Sketchbook?

What is a sketch book?

When writing this article, I realized that a sketchbook is something incommensurably more than just a set of sheets sewn into a block.

What is a sketchbook and how is it different from a notepad?

A topic that once excited me too: what is a sketchbook? What’s the difference between a sketchbook and a simple notepad? Let’s figure it out.

A sketchbook is nothing more than a notebook for your ideas, sketches and thoughts. This is your home, your cozy workshop, on the pages of which you can reflect in the form of sketches or notes. Your personal temple.
The sketchbook pages are empty, without rulers and cells, they are also called “unlined”.

Notepad is the same in essence, only it was originally for notes and, as a rule, there is a page line to make it more convenient to write.

There is another difference between these concepts – paper.
If the notebook means thin paper for writing in a ruler or a cage, then the sketchbook can be made from any paper, from thin translucent rice paper to thick watercolor paper, the density of which can reach 300-600 grams.

But if you start drawing sketches in a notebook, it will automatically become a sketchbook.

Thus, any notebook (and even a newspaper) can be called a sketchbook if you use them appropriately.

The boundaries between the concepts of “notebook” and “sketchbook” have long been erased in my head, because I don’t have a separate notepad for writing or a sketchbook for drawing, but I have a faithful companion who is always with me.

Hereinafter, I will use the words “sketchbook” or “notebook”, meaning the space for my sketches and ideas, the space for my creativity.

The sketchbook is my faithful companion.

Notepad or sketchbook, the essence is the same – a notebook with paper sheets. But they have different purposes of use, hence the different names.

What are the sketchbooks?

In the store you can find a lot of sketchbooks created for a specific task.
For example, a sketchbook for graphics and writing. Sketchbook for watercolor. Sketchbook for markers. Sketchbook for acrylic and mixed media. Sketchbook for pastels and pastel pencils. There are even sketchbooks for wine tasting.

In each of these areas, sketchbooks can have many formats and types of paper inside.

You yourself can come up with a sketchbook for yourself, for example, for shoe impressions and write notes on this topic in it, drawing your favorite Nike models along the way. And you can collect it from old newspapers and magazines, glue photos of shoes inside and make short captions to them.

As you already understood, a sketchbook is a tool for certain tasks that you yourself come up with for it.

Artists use sketchbooks to draw. It is convenient when the work is collected in one place. You can have a separate sketchbook for flowers. A separate sketchbook for architectural sketches. A separate sketchbook for the sea. And these drawings cannot be called sketches – full-fledged paintings, masterpieces, nothing else!

Engineers and inventors use the sketchbook more like a memory card. We record our ideas and tasks in a notebook so as not to forget anything and free our head from endless thoughts.

I use classic and large notepads , write everything in my head there, make sketches. I am not a system person and I write diagonally or backwards, but this helps me free my mind, see the essence in the chaos that is happening around and walk towards the goal consciously.

So, in this article, we shed light on what a sketchbook is and how it differs from a notepad.

Share in the comments what meaning do you take in the word “sketchbook”? Do you use it yourself or just choose the right model? Do you write or draw?