This week I’ve turned my blog over to my readers (again — this summer 12 of you shared your gardens here). Today, though, instead of gardens, I have 6 brave, creative women sharing glimpses into their sketchbooks.

I love peeking into the creative practices of other artists and I hope you’ll enjoy today’s post as much as I have.

Laura Bray:

As both a textile artist and a writer, I use sketchbooks to collect inspiration, so they are filled with little bits and bobs that spark my creativity. I use sketchbooks for everything from designing an embroidery pattern to creating a mood board for the latest short story I am writing. In this photo, I'm sharing my Botanical Wonder Sketchbook. It serves as both a garden journal and a personal almanac in which I record the weather, when things bloom year to year, the animals that visit my gardens, natural dye recipes, successful (and unsuccessful harvests), and food recipes.

When I want to create a botanical embroidery pattern, I need only pull out my sketchbook to reference a favorite flower. If I want to write a short story that takes place where I live (the Pacific Northwest), I can reference the sketchbook for weather descriptions or maybe my character will eat potatoes, fresh from the garden, with butter and salt and pepper? While I could certainly simply make written notations about some of this information, the watercolor sketches I include serve to ignite my creativity further than simple words could.

Connect with Laura on Substack.

Michelle Goggins:

Since taking Anne’s Skillshare class, Develop a Sketchbook Practice, I have eased up on myself about trying to have a perfectly beautiful sketchbook. Now I allow myself to play, explore, and make a mess - it's so much fun! I love to draw things around me, but I never strive for realism. My favorite sketchbook supplies are a black Pitt pen and watercolor markers in a Canson mixed-media sketchbook.

Connect with Michelle at her website: MG Doodle Studio.

Karen Houlding:

Over the past 2 years, I have filled multiple sketchbooks! It’s my place to capture nature observations that catch my eye, then research and learn about them! I practice the Pick One Principle - on any outing I enjoy all that I discover, but ask myself, “What stood out today, or what would I like to learn more about?” Then, I sketch one item (plants and flowers are my favorite) and include notes about the experience and facts that I have learned!

My sketchbook contains pages created from Pacific Northwest camping & kayak vacations, pressed flowers from daily walks, backyard discoveries, Skillshare classes, nature journaling workshops or simply watercolor swatching and line drawing. There is no pressure to create art -- it’s all about experimentation, combining my love of learning and art, using different supplies and creating memories.

I have a small canvas messenger bag with a zippered pouch of drawing tools that I can slip my sketchbook into at a moment’s notice for local walks or travel. I also keep supplies ready-to-go on my creative table so that I can create in my “pockets of time”, adding bit by bit to pages so that I feel like I’m moving forward on projects.

When I look back through my sketchbooks, it sparks a sense of wonder and memories and I find I remember details and facts much better!

Sketchbooks from Karen Houlding — Karen Houlding’s Sketchbooks

Connect with Karen at her nature blog: I Am Chasing Butterflies and on Instagram: @iamchasingbutterflies

Aleta Jacobson:

What I like about sketchbooks is the loose feeling of creating. It’s not so precious. I feel like I can just throw lines and paint around. Sometimes things turn out wonderful. Sometimes, not so much, but it doesn’t matter because of the freedom sketchbooks afford me to create, play, and sometimes fail.

Sketchbooks are also a log. A journal of exploration and playing. We can explore our tools and mix them up to create new things without fear that we are wasting paper.

Connect with Aleta at her website: Aleta Jacobson Artist

Jana R. Johnson:

Like many artists, I’m somewhat a sketchbook enthusiast — most I’ve purchased, some I’ve received as gifts. I’ve also made a couple with random scraps of watercolor and printmaking paper and even made a small leather bound sketchbook using online tutorials from Peg and Awl.

As a professional artist, my sketchbooks are used for making color swatches, doodling, drawing portraits, painting watercolors, testing block prints, plein air landscapes, floral and botanical studies and note taking at workshops. I also like to have a small sketchbook in my bag to keep myself entertained while waiting, looking for something to draw nearby that catches my eye. Some sketches take take just a few minutes to draw, while others are hours and sometimes days of work.

I also use my sketchbooks to compose images for larger paintings. Usually though I don’t do much preliminary drawing before painting since I often work out my composition with my viewfinder or camera / cell phone lens. Occasionally I’ll sketch a thumbnail of a possible painting before starting, but more often I just jump right in and draw onto my prepared substrate.

Sketchbooks are a great record of my artistic growth and it was fun to see some of my oldest ones as I pulled them out to share.

Connect with Jana at her website: Jana Johnson Artwork

Karen Lowry Reed

I started my blog sewandsowlife way back in January 2009. My daughter-in-law, Dawn, came up with the name, reflecting my dreams of living a simpler life in Vermont. She recognized the connection between the gardens we grow here and my love of stitching.

"Sew and sow life" took on more meaning for me, when a few years ago I began my adventure into natural dyeing. Dyeing fabric with plants grown here at our "bit of earth" and stitching with them has created an even deeper sense of place for me and my studio has truly become a sanctuary. Creating dye vats is influenced by so many factors...both those we can control and those we cannot. Mother Nature takes care of the growing conditions for the plants and I do what I can in the processing. We work as partners, she and I.

Keeping careful notes helps me keep track of things that would otherwise drift off into the ether! Here is a spread documenting my most recent dye vat featuring tansy, which I must point out is an invasive species! I am sure to harvest the blossoms before they go to seed, then we cut the plant way back to the base to keep things under control.

A spread from Karen Lowry Reed's Dyeing journal

Connect with Karen at her website: Sew and Sow Life

Thank you Laura, Michelle, Karen, Aleta, Jana and Karen for sharing your sketchbooks with us today!

And thank you to each of you reading these words. I’m glad to have you here as part of this community of creativity and JOY.

Do you keep a sketchbook? If you do, how would you describe your sketchbook practice? What materials do you like to use? What subject matter do you include? If you don’t, have you ever wanted to start one? What’s been holding you back?

I enjoy including YOU in my posts with conversations in the comments and plan to continue my Reader Conversations series. Don’t be shy; chime in below.

For even more sketchbook inspiration, be sure to visit the Sketchbook Conversations series I published on my old blog. The series included 48 artists who share about their sketchbook practices.

If you’re looking to start a sketchbook practice, my free sketchbook guide will help you begin your creative journey. Find it here.

Sharing Inspiration: Join Me for a Tour of Reader Sketchbooks