Old Sketchbooks- Trash em or Stash em?

[akitsukino]

My family had to leave a house we had called home for over sixteen years. I'm a sentimental doof, so one thing I made sure to keep were all of my old sketchbooks. But now that we're in a new smaller place I can see how much space they're really taking up. I might have to move again soon and I can't guarantee I'll be able to bring them this time. I really think it might be best just to trash them all, but I'm hesitant. I tried doing the Kon Marie thing and seeing if I would feel happy looking through them all, but I didn't.

Looking through all of those sketchbooks just reminded me how much I've been spinning my wheels all these years. Over 14 sketchbooks (hundreds of pages) and a lot of them are just anatomy studies. I wanted to get into an art school bad when I was in high school so I completely dedicated myself to nothing but studying anatomy and maybe some perspective. I remember how miserable I was getting doing this and not drawing what I really wanted. Looking those drawings is like watching a downward spiral of my art confidence problems. The only thing that makes me want to keep some of them are the small places I saw actual progress. It's like an up and down of improvement and stagnation.

I can be really sentimental so there's objects (and habits) in my life that I should have tossed years ago but just couldn't . Out off all the drawings I saved the ones I want to keep the most are the terrible drawings from elementary school I did when I was blowing my allowance on Copic markers that I didn't really know how to use. That was when I remember having the most fun.

Either way, tossing those sketchbooks into a trash can still seems a little unceremonious. I guess at the very least I could recycle them, but I'm still not sure. What do you think? What do/ did you do with your old sketchbooks? What do you think are good reasons to keep or toss them? What would be a good way to get rid of them if I do decide to toss them. Thoughts?

[Kelheor]

I am not drawing traditionally for a long time and all the artworks I am keeping are those I love most! They have a special folder and live in the closet.
I sorted everything else I had, picked the sketches that were still useful and made a photo/ a scan of them. Then got rid of the paper. I keep these photos on my PC for times I might need them, to reuse them for further redrawing when I am out of ideas or something =)
If you are sentimental, you can do the same - leave those you love the most, scan the best of the rest, you can even make a video! But basically, "if they don't sparkle joy", make a small ceremony thanking them and then recycle

[Kann]

If you're not feeling happy while looking through them, I think it's better not to keep them. You can always look through them again and keep the ones where you saw the progress, while trashing the rest of them.

[joannekwan]

My parents downsized so I had to give away or recycle a bunch of old work. The only ones I really regret getting rid of were the stories I drew around age 10. I did however save the stories I drafted in high school, and I like having them around to look back on for nostalgic value, and to maybe glean possible story elements I can recycle.

So I guess the only works worth saving for me are old stories. Not much point in saving standalone run-of-the-mill figure drawings with no sentiment attached.

[ToxicRamen]

I do my very best to store my old sketchbooks since my mom would probably want me to throw all of my old art away.

[punkarsenic]

STASSHHHHH i love my old sketchbooks

but thats just my personal experience, i have a lot of affection for my old sketchbooks as i can use them to track my development and also reminisce on completed projects. but it sounds like your sketchbooks might be making you feel miserable? in which case, id say trash all but the best two

but before that!!! stomach going through them one more time with a scanner or nice camera, and scan / photograph all the good life drawings and other stuff - maybe even scan the entire sketchbook and make digital versions if you want. thesell be really great for a portfolio - not just useful for art school, but also art jobs. thats also why you should keep the best two; to show to potential employers and the like.

Either way, tossing those sketchbooks into a trash can still seems a little unceremonious. I guess at the very least I could recycle them, but I'm still not sure. What do you think?

i have a friend who did an entire project on like, memory & the rainforest and made two whopping sketchbooks worth of work. for her final piece, she shredded and pulped it all and made an entirely new sketchbook. in the pulp was a lot of ink and bits of fabric, so the paper is grey and delicate, but its also a really cool artefact in its own right.

What do/ did you do with your old sketchbooks?

the big boys are stacked on a shelf in my closet, the small boys on my bookshelf. my oldest sketchbooks, from highschool, are really atrocious and ill throw them out this summer when i move - maybe burn em if im feeling like a ceremony. but i kept them to cut all (aaaaaaall) the extra blank pages out for further use.

What do you think are good reasons to keep or toss them?

reasons to keep:
- projects youll revisit
- good examples of your practice
- places to store test pieces
- sentiment <3
- to remember what you did & how you did it

but then i approach my sketchbooks largely as workbooks for various projects; i have my sketchbooks for each of my comics, my sketchbooks for my college projects. theyre full of research, tests, and thumbnails rather than life drawing and standalone sketches. i do most of those in little A5 sketchbooks, though i do that very rarely these days tbh.

reasons to throw:
- reminds you of bad shit
- contains bad shit
- ran out of space

What would be a good way to get rid of them if I do decide to toss them

i like ceremoniously burning things, but be careful! theres also the pulping thing i mentioned earlier. besides that, i dunno, id just bin em

[frgmnt]

"If it doesn't bring joy, get rid of it" is generally a very good rule.
I used to be a firm believer in never throwing away any of my old art. Granted, I did get rid of some vent art from my teenage years that was bringing up some of my worst memories, but I considered that a special exception.

I have a shelf full of my old notebooks with writing and drawings. A few months ago I noticed it's kind of running low on space. Which partially was my motivation, but I also just generally wanted to get rid of various old stuff that there was no value in keeping anymore, so it was part of a bigger project, sort of.

I started looking through my sketchbooks, and noticed how much of their content had no value to me anymore - hundreds of terribly drawn faces, badly proportioned people standing in the void, remnants of my now-cringy obsessions from back then... They didn't even have value as showing off my art progress or anything, because most were from before I realized I suck and started working on consciously improving my art.

So I went and burned them - although, beforehand I scanned some of those that I thought were interesting enough to preserve. I still have tons of my very old art (I kept the stuff I still had some emotional attachment to, or found inspiring in some way), but it feels nice not having to keep absolutely everything. Also the burning felt pretty cathartic, I totally recommend that feeling.

There's kind of a rule of thumb, though - I don't touch things newer than 2012, unless it's just some random gesture/anatomy/lines practices I didn't care much for. (Yes, things from 2012 count as "not old at all" to me and I refuse to believe 2012 was seven years ago.)

[Wumbl]

I threw a bunch of them away when I was younger because I was embarrassed and then massively regretted it. This is mainly because they contained a lot of design sketches that I could have developed or repurposed later on. There were some pretty good ideas stored in those and I just got rid of almost all of it.

Now I keep as many sketchbooks as I can.

[KrispyKremeBits]

If you got the space stash em, but if you don't but wanna keep your art why not try scanning your favorite pages from them? I personally just keep all my old ones to look back on to see how much I've improved over the years.

[Cavechan]

For me, I would stash them. I have all of mine stashed.

But I also don't think you necessarily have to... There are other options too!

-Look through the sketchbooks and see what pieces REALLY intrigue you. Rip those ones out and keep 'em! Maybe keep a few studies too just to keep in mind your growth through the years.

-Take photos of them! They'll last longer too since you never know if the sketchbooks could get stolen, lost, or destroyed in some way.

-Give the nicer sketches out as gifts to people! If you know some people who might be interested.

-Make them into other things? I don't know what, but could be fun. I have a friend that made comics into coasters and stuff.

[LyliClovis]

I think that keeping a couple of them isn't a bad thing! I have been keeping all of mine since elementary school (except that one time when we had to move and a couple of my sketchbooks got somehow lost in the process...) but I kept them mostly as a sentimental thing and to look back on "Wow, I used to draw like that?" I really enjoy seeing my progress. I can do that with digital, too, but since they're just files, I forget about them, unlike finding my sketchbooks again when re-organizing things.

In the future, I might recycle most of them (but not before scanning them and keeping the memories on my computer). Mostly just 'cause I need the extra space www

[Lucca_Vendramel]

Stash em! They can be worth a fortune in the future and at worst a nice memento

[Rhonder]

I'm in team Stash, both because I genuinely still enjoy looking back through my drawings from 10+ years ago now and again, and also haven't run into a downsizing dilemma yet.

I think a decent solution could be keeping only the most important ones, and scanning the rest (or what you consider to be of value of the rest) before getting rid of them. Digital storage is relatively cheap and much smaller so definitely more viable than having 20 books laying around in a space constraint.

[LT1986]

I keep my sketchbooks, even if I don't like the art in them. I draw inspiration from my work and some of my worse art work reminds me of mistakes that I don't need to make, again.

I have an older family member that loss their old art work and wishes that they still had the art work today to share with me. I would like to see my family member's old art work. They don't have time to draw now, so I've never seen any of their work.

Before tossing the art work, I would make sure that there is no one that wants to store the art work. I would have saved my older family member's art work if I was alive at the time the work was loss. The work was loss, because of not keeping track of where it was stored.

[Kura]

Right now I keep them because I have the room to do so, when I move though I'll probably have to go through and get rid of a few. There's some from when I was a kid I'll def keep though there's prob a few in between that I can part with, if it came to it, I'll pull the pictures out that I like at least before throwing the book away.

[malverav]

Stash. I have a tiny apartment and I've kept all of my old sketchbooks (I currently have a towel over them and put my feet up as I'm flatting comics on the couch), and I sometimes go through them for things to redraw. There's often kernels of really solid ideas in there. Even if they're old studies, I find them useful to look on if I'm ever feeling down about my own improvement!

[inkycharland]

Burn them!!! I'm totally kidding.

I pull all of my "decent" work out of the book then trash the rest. I go through like 5-7 sketchbooks a year, though. So keeping them long term is impossible. I wouldn't have the space. Besides, do I really need to review/save 100 pages of 30-second gesture drawings? No. But that's how I use my sketchbook. Some people do fully flushed out detailed pages that they may want to keep.

Sketchbooks are personal, anyway. They are an artist's journal. You should do what you're comfortable with.I think the important thing is using them, and getting the practice in.

[skicoak]

It's funny that burning has been brought up a few times in this thread because my AFO year of Art School one of the teachers burned our year end portfolios right after he reviewed them.

At the time, it felt like a big deal but as a lesson it's stuck with me. Falling in love with your babies and what you've already done drags down your forward momentum.

[inkycharland]

It's a bit dramatic, but yeah, an important lesson. One I wish more young artists got.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

Stash.
Though I only keep drawings that I put a signature on. The rest get trashed.