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The Sketchbook Project: How to Draw Every Day

Written by Milan Art Institute | December 2, 2020

Photo caption: Participating in The Sketchbook Project is an excellent way to encourage your daily sketchbook habit. Image by FerrF from Pixabay.

If you’re like most artists, then you know that your daily sketchbook habit can turn good art skills into AMAZING art skills. The problem for many artists, however, is finding the motivation to draw everyday.

Fortunately, there are ways to get around this resistance. Some artists participate in monthly drawing challenges. Others join urban sketching groups or take up travel sketching. Still others submit their work to various art organizations holding drawing contests. All of these are excellent ways to get your daily sketchbook habit on. 

However, we’d like to humbly submit one more idea for your consideration: The Sketchbook Project.

What Is the Sketchbook Project?

The Sketchbook Project is the brainchild of the Brooklyn Art Library. It is meant to give artists an opportunity to take part in an art time capsule project while at the same time giving them the chance to take part in a worldwide creative movement. (Sounds a bit like the New Art Renaissance, doesn’t it?)

By doing this project, artists are opening themselves up to many opportunities for exhibition around North America. These include installations, popups and exhibitions! The books travel the country via the library’s bookmobile. 

The project has some suggested themes, but those are just a starting point. The sky (and the 5” X 7” parameters) is the limit. You can actually paint or draw anything you want in your sketchbook. You just have to keep the images to the 5” X 7” size.

How to Make This Project Part of Your Daily Sketchbook Habit

You’ll want to go to the Brooklyn Art Library’s website and order one of their 5” X 7” custom blank sketchbooks. Each person who participates in this project gets the same sketchbook.

Additionally, each BAL sketchbook comes with a barcode, which allows the library to catalog all of the sketchbooks that are submitted for the project. 

Once your sketchbook arrives, you fill it up and then send it back. It becomes a part of the largest sketchbook collection in the world!

How Much Does It Cost?

There are two payment options for this project: digitized or standard. The cost to participate is below.

Standard Books: $30

Digitized Books: $65

(If you opt for the digital option, your sketchbook will become part of the library's digital library.)

When Is the Deadline for The Sketchbook Project?

If you’d like to take part in this project, you’ll need to have your finished sketchbook back by August 31, 2021

Other Things to Know

If you want to make this project part of your daily sketchbook routine, you should know a few things:

  • You get to keep your copyrights
  •  Each book is a total of 32 pages back and front
  •  If you want to draw with friends or as a school group, you can get a discount on your books
  •  You can engage with and track your work through this project
  •  Sketchbooks will come from all over the world

To participate in this, go to the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project page for more details. 

Check out some of BAL’s other sketchbooks here

For More Daily Sketchbook and Drawing Ideas, Read the Posts Below:

A Case for Urban Sketching: Why Draw in the Age of Photography? 

Urban Sketching Tips: 5 Best Places for Travel Sketching in Athens, GA

35+ Travel Sketching Ideas to Overcome Your Creative Blocks