I was never one of those artists who carried around a sketchbook. I was intimidated by the perfection of a sketchbook- the binding, the pages, and the potential of each crisp white page. Would I make something worthy?  In truth, I  was more of a sketch-on-a-napkin sort of girl. I sometimes drew on the brown paper covers of my school books, envelopes, and even my hand. After teaching for 20 years, I returned to school for a degree in graphic design and finally developed a tentative relationship with sketchbooks. Thinking through ideas, compositions, and color schemes and documenting the feedback on projects all in one place helped me tremendously. I see the value of sketchbooks for all creative people: a place to express oneself privately, experiment with ideas, and document what we see in the world surrounding us.

As a teacher, I also found value in those sketchbooks for my students. At the beginning of my teaching career, I avoided sketchbooks. They seemed an unnecessary expense for students. In time, the idea of sketchbooks won me over. Plus, they were buying notebooks for math and science, so why not the equivalent for art? The more we used them, the more uses we found for them! Sketchbooks help students develop creativity, promote self-reflection, and encourage individual expression. Sketchbooks can also help students practice techniques, plan projects, and synthesize their thinking. The Cozy Art teacher has a great blog post that lists all the great reasons she uses sketchbooks in her teaching; find that HERE.

Options for sketchbooks

So, let me talk about physical options for sketchbooks. Buying sketchbooks can be costly, so many teachers opt to make their own; you can find instructions here. Check out this excellent YouTube video on making simple sketchbooks without fancy equipment. Making your own is a fun way to start the year, in addition to being cost-effective. Many teachers make or order custom sketchbooks with a blank cover that students design as a first activity. Two other emerging trends include making your own with pre-printed pages you can insert in advance, and some are created with clips that allow the student to open and insert new pages as needed. A second trend is digital sketchbooks. Some are Google Slide Shows like the one this teacher developed.  If you work at a school with iPads or tablets, you can use Procreate to keep a digital sketchbook. You can find more details on doing that here.

Another possibility is to use a binder which has a lot of possibilities. One teacher shared, “I used to use them when I taught middle school. I actually kind of preferred them. They could keep a pencil pouch with their supplies in them, easy to put worksheets and things like that in it.” Another teacher who opts for binders said, “Every worksheet, sketch, warm up goes in the binder.” Another teacher opts for 3 prong 2 pocket paper folders and describes it as “very budget friendly.”

 Cover examples from Ms. Mack’s Art Classroom. Used with permission, link to her website.

Art Teacher Susan Ludi Shayegi uses painted paper wrapped/glued to chipboard for her students’ sketchbook covers


I used to buy sketchbooks in bulk and have them sold at the school store.  You can purchase bulk from a store like this seller, Beech Tree Pape, with a website and Etsy Shop, which sells sketchbooks like this one.  You can buy 25, 50, or 100 standard kraft brown blank page notebooks for $1.85 each plus shipping. The sketchbooks measure 5 x 7 inches with 75 GSM white pages, suitable for writing or drawing with a ballpoint pen or pencil. Beech Tree Paper will also provide a quote for larger orders and is customizable with more pages or a custom-printed cover.

Other bulk options can be found on Amazon.
36 Pack Blank Spiral Notebook Unlined Spiral Notebook Bulk. It comes down to 1.27 each!
There are 170 Blank Kraft Notebooks for $46.79, roughly 27 cents each! This sketchbook was cheaper today than two years ago!

There is a business called Sketch for Schools, which runs an educational sketchbook program for schools. Sign up for a free sample here (note, you do pay for shipping, scroll down on the page). There are different quality papers and colors; you can have custom books made with varied-toned papers, and you can even customize the covers for various prices. You could ask students to purchase their own, but if you plan to store the sketchbooks in the classroom, having a standard size is very convenient. These options could even slip into a portfolio or storage tote. I can say from experience that store-bought metal spiral-bound notebooks are bulky and challenging to store and tend to fall apart if carted around in a backpack.

*Please note that I have no affiliation with these businesses and am not receiving any perks for writing about them here.

Once you have sketchbooks, now what?

In my classes, sketchbooks became the place to practice, take notes, document work, write homework, execute homework, show research, brainstorm, plan, warm up, practice color mixing, and more. Older students had more complex prompts and expectations. Having everything in one place helps many students stay organized.

Sketchbooks can help create a routine. Many art teachers have students use their sketchbooks to complete a bell ringer activity or a daily drawing challenge to start class. A middle school teacher shared:

I use sketchbooks in place of bell work. We have a prompt jar and when they come in someone will choose a prompt and we will work on that for the first 10 mins of class before we dive in for the day’s lesson.

This can provide the teacher with valuable time to take attendance and get everything ready.

Process Work

High school art teacher Jodi Brzezinski uses sketchbooks daily. She shared, “I teach my student to bind their books to use all semester. We do a daily journal/creativity exercise, project planning, and daily reflections.” Brzezinski has 82-minute periods, and her creativity exercises are similar to bell ringers. Her students also do mind mapping and process development; the sample below is from her class.  Another use she mentioned was a place to write project reflections. A reflection could look like answering a simple question like, “What was the biggest challenge you encountered on the project?” Reflections are a great way to demonstrate writing in your curriculum. Other teachers report sketchbooks for substitute days and early finishers.

I would assign graded sketchbook work weekly. Sometimes, the sketchbook work was classwork, often a process tied to a project. The illustrations below demonstrate how a student first developed an idea in their sketchbook and then brought it to life in the project. The final image spells out ducky in sign language. Other times, I used sketchbook work as a warm-up, homework, or creative exercise. My advanced students also tended to use sketchbooks for their own pleasure. The Advanced Placement exams require showing process work as part of the exam, reflecting a trend in art education in the value of process work.

Early Finishers

Sketchbooks can be an excellent way to keep earlier finishers busy and productive. Retired Art teacher Karen Elaine Shaffer shared:

I introduced my students to pen-and-ink mandalas and worked on them for a few days until they got the swing of things. Thereafter, we moved on to another class project, with the mandalas not being finished. It was used as a project they could return to in their sketchbooks after finishing work. It seems to do well.

Practice Makes Perfect

When a new teacher complains that the quality of student work is underwhelming, it’s often because they don’t do enough practice work to lead up to the final version. It’s rare for any of us to do something well the first time around, so have students practice first. Before students work on my Positive Negative Symmetrical Animal Designs, they need to create three different animals to practice drawing in their sketchbook. This practice in their sketchbook should focus on building the drawing using simple shapes and emphasizing symmetry. It’s mandatory and graded.

Homework

I do assign homework to my students starting in their first class, Intro to Art. It’s light but worthwhile. I like to weight the sketchbook componant fairly lightly. If a student doesn’t do them at all, it alone won’t alone cause them to fail but will drag their grade down, often a letter grade. The work isn’t busywork; it’s tied into all the projects. I also explain practice in drawing is not unlike practice for sports. You don’t just do one good quality jumping jack and call it a day, right? That’s not going to build your muscle and endurance. It’s the same with art skills. Consistent practice builds technical proficiency, fosters creativity and self-expression, develops problem-solving and cognitive skills, boost confidence and self-esteem, and enhance emotional intelligence and mindfulness.

Storage

Storing these sketchbooks can be a challenge as well. I’ve usually asked students to bring to them every art class but some teachers store them in the their art rooms. Here are a variety of solutions art teachers have dreamed up and implimented in their classrooms.

Image 1, Art teacher Brad Sweet has found this system effective. “Each table has two carts. Each bin on the cart is for a class period and the top right bin has basic supplies like colored pencils.”
Image 2, Art Teacher Julie Nakashian use milk/storage crates that are color coded for each period.
Image 3, Art Teacher Maribeth Miller uses a fmetal file cabnit to store her students sketchbooks.
Image 4, Vanessa Diaz uses totes she purchased at Target (bough several years ago) that fit nicely in a shelf she uses.
Image 5, Art Teacher Maria Green Bowser is tying out this idea of labeling the page sides with the student to make locating
sketchbools quick an easy for students.
No picture, but art teacher Joshua Joy Cawiezell puts his stores his students sketchbooks in the free mailing boxes you get from USPS and color codes them by table. “I have a set of boxes for each period. The boxes are taken out and put away by a monitor from each table during each class.” He says this is not a stratagy he developed byt picked up from other art educators.

Several teachers mentioned having a helper pass sketchbooks out every day. One teacher shared “It helps because everyone just comes in and sits down and I can start instructions while the helper is still passing if I need to.”

However you opt to utilize sketchbooks, the most important thing is to make reaching for the sketchbooks a habit for you and your students. Here are some other storagge ideas from art teachers.



How do you use sketchbooks in your art classes? Share in the comments!

Resources for sketchbooks:

What Should Be in a Sketchbook? · Art Prof
Artist Sketchbook | Why Starting from Sketch is Key to Better Art
14 Creatives Offer a Rare Chance to See Their Beautiful Art Sketchbooks
Sketchbook Prompts created and shared with permission from Kayleen Parker