Ten Minute Artist Weekly Edition: Using Sketchbooks
Adam here! Welcome to the free ✨ weekly edition ✨ of Ten Minute Artist.
I write page-a-day guide that offers fun prompts, encouragement, and thoughtful perspective for every stage of the creative journey to help creators advance their practice in 10 minute increments. Drawing lessons from creative legends, industry experts, and my own experience of rapidly breaking into international publishing from a third world country.
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This Weeks Ideas: On Sketching
01: Suitcase For Ideas
In suitcase for ideas, we discuss a sketchbook as a space for creativity to thrive—whether through playful experiments, careful research, or casual scribbles. Like packing a suitcase, it starts small but grows with daily use, becoming a rich collection of ideas and “souvenirs” from your creative journey.
By recording, reflecting, and exploring without judgment, your sketchbook becomes an invaluable source of inspiration for future work.
02: Red Pencil
One of the ways to tangibly extract value from your sketchbook is by taking notes. Reader
had a great comment about asking your sketch book questions in this one.“… what might you write in your sketchbook alongside something you have already created, I would say how about questions. That is, we can also go back through an old sketchbook and ask or write ourselves questions. What was it about this drawing that was important to me? Why did I spend however much time on that particular sketch? How come? Then what? And even what did I draw after that and is there any connection? Would I draw it again? Did I incorporate it into another drawing later on? And so on. Thank you for this post, it really made me think! Next step, is to go back through an old sketchbook and do! -
”
03: How To Play in a Sketchbook (Paid)
Your sketchbook is a space for freedom and play, not perfection. Like Roger Federer’s approach to tennis, where every point—win or lose—was just part of the game.
Some will be misses, others breakthroughs, but none define you. By embracing this mindset, you can let go of fear, explore with curiosity, and keep turning the page.
04: What Real Talent Is
True progress comes from embracing effort and persistence, especially in hard things. Avoiding difficulty is not only impossible but detrimental to growth. Real talent lies in showing up daily with focus and drive, linking small, consistent actions to big dreams. When urgency meets patience, habits form, and transformation happens.
“This idea that we are meant to run from, pain, or run from, difficult things, and find the most leisurely and completely frictionless existence possible, is such a lie.
It’s not just a lie because it’s not possible, but if it were possible, that would kill you the most”
-Jon Batiste
05: The Blank Page
Starting is the hardest part, but you can overcome the blank page with simple strategies. Treat it as a warm-up: make a random mark, draw what’s in front of you, or pick something from a prepared list of ideas. Serialize your work by building on previous drawings, or use go-to prompts like illustrating what you’re grateful for. The key is to start, even imperfectly—because a bad page can be improved, but a blank one can’t.
And another thing,
I learned… that a Black Friday Sale, is not about a discount.
It’s about the chance to tell people what you can do for them, the discount means people will take some time to hear what you have to say. Being able to say what it is you’re offering is the opportunity of Black Friday as a seller. (And we’re all selling something)
💎 Your success rate of selling as an illustrator or newsletter writer, is the ability to tell the right people what you can do for them.
PS: Some other things I’ve written about sketchbooks
Some Things I’ve Noticed:
The Hillarious
has a short sale.The world we want happens with other people not platforms -
- made a comic about Sadness and Creativity, and announced some future events.
- wrote Dear New Story Idea
Have you met Thigpen? Or
Beyond the bookshelf with
I created a chat thread for you to say hi to everyone!
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That’s so kind of you to mention me ❤️
Adam! Your picture of the tennisplayer is super!