The goal of this Sketchbook Challenge
Making art helps us feel more centered, connect with our soul, and share visual ideas in a way that words can’t express. Maybe you lead a busy life. And perhaps kids/work/chores/responsibilities/name your business takes so much time that there’s nothing left for…YOU.
If you want to reconnect with your inner child to nurture your creative soul and you don’t have a lot of time, TinkerSketch is here to help. The goal of this challenge is to make time (even if it’s just a tiny bit) to celebrate your creative self through hands-on making.
The benefits of keeping a daily art habit
- Improve your skills
- Try and explore new ways of art-making
- Land on new ideas that wouldn’t have emerged otherwise
- Have fun
- Model creative thinking for your child (if you’re a parent or teacher)
- Celebrate the imperfection of your ideas
- Think creatively
- Give yourself the gift of time
How to Join us
Interested in joining us?
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- follow TinkerSketch on Instagram
- Sign up below to get weekly prompt reminders, directly in your inbox.
Time Commitment
If you accept this challenge, you will set aside just five minutes each day aside for making, creating, and experimenting with your ideas. If you have extra time, you could always dive in for longer, but your minimum commitment is five minutes each day.
There are so many ways to do this. For example, you could:
- Wake up a little earlier than usual, brew a pot of something warm, and curl up with your sketchbook for a few minutes before the rest of your home wakes up
- Carry a sketchbook in your bag and pull it out when you’re waiting in line
- Designate “creative time” where you and your child draw in sketchbooks side-by-side
Fear of Failure
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
The point here isn’t to create a masterpiece but to unleash your creative energy. Your creations don’t have to be works of amazing art, and in fact they probably shouldn’t be all that spectacular, especially if you’re pushing yourself to try something new, experiment, and be bold. Be confident with whatever you create, knowing that you’re on a journey to feed your creativity.
Recommended Tools
First, you’ll need a sketchbook or somewhere to store your creations. Second, you’ll need some art supplies, and for this, almost anything goes.
Sketchbook Tips:
- Size: Find a size that fits your situation. If you think you’ll take your sketchbook on the road, find something small enough to travel in your bag
- Paper: Choose paper that is heavy weight and designed to withstand water and wet media. Look for the weight of paper in terms of how many pounds it is: the higher the number, the heavier the weight. Something over 70 lbs. should do the trick
- Spiral or book-bound: Do you think you’d enjoy a spiral-bound book or traditional binding more? We recommend spiral binding because the pages lie flat easily. Some people like traditional binding more because they can design/paint/draw a double-page spread without having a gap between the pages.
- Strathmore: One of my very favorite sketchbooks is the Visual Art Journal for Mixed Media by Strathmore. The pages weight is 90 lb. and you can get this book in a number of sizes. My personal favorite for on-the-go is 5.5″ x 8″. If you like to work big, they have one that’s 9″ x 12″.
- Stillman & Birn: A friend just gave me a Stillman & Birn Zeta series and I love it. The paper is 180 lb.
Pen Tips
- Pens: Get yourself a few pens that you love to use, and be sure to have at least one waterproof, archival pen in the mix so that you can paint over your pen lines without worrying about your drawing bleeding with water. Micron Pens are a designer favorite, and they come in tons of sizes and colors. This all-black set includes a few different pen sizes and this brush-tip set includes six different colors. Sharpies are another wonderful choice with so many options to choose from.
Other supplies
Experiment with everything from acrylic paint to rubber stamps to nail polish. The world is your creative oyster.
Support on Instagram
We encourage everyone who joins the challenge to jump in and share your creations on Instagram with the hashtag #tinkersketch, and please tag us at @tinkersketch. If you can, leave supportive comments on other participants’ images. Since it can be hard to put ourselves out there, it’s always nice to receive a friendly pat on the back when pushed outside our comfort zone.
Next Steps
- Print out or bookmark the list you see at the top of this page. Each day has a new prompt that will inspire you to make something.
- Interpret the Prompt: You can interpret the daily prompts however you want. “Drips” to one person may mean flicking watercolors off a toothbrush and to another person it might mean covering a page in marker and then leaving the page outside on a drizzly morning. You can take them literally or not — this is completely up to you. If you’re really at a loss, leave a comment below and we’ll help you noodle through it.
- Make stuff: You could put all your ideas into a sketchbook (it is called a sketchbook challenge, after all), loose leaf paper, post-it notes, or something else.
- Share it! This challenge can be a totally private affair and you never have to let a soul know that you’re working on it, or you could share your creations with others. I’m a private person, but I find that sharing things like this actually motivates me to work harder. If you’re up for it, we invite you to share your daily sketches on whatever social media platform you love most. Simply tag your image or post with #tinkersketch, and you could also ping us at @tinkersketch to let other people know about the challenge
- Tell others. If you could use some back-up, share the Sketchbook Challenge calendar image from this post on Instagram or with a friend, and encourage others to join you on this fun, creative journey.
- Support others. Take a moment to cruise around and look at other images that are tagged with #tinkersketch, and leave a supportive comment to build community and basically make someone else feel great about the effort they’re putting into their creative journey.