Using Multiple Sketchbooks

[ToxicRamen]

Does anyone use more than one sketchbook or just draw one sketchbook at a time? I have way too many sketchbooks and I've been trying to use at least 2, one for home and the other is for drawing break sketches at my job. I've also ben trying to use different sketchbooks for different things like for one would be comic sketches and other would be for life drawings. But I'm not sure if that's a god idea since I tend to draw whatever comes to mind.

[VibrantFox]

I've always been one to use many different sketchbooks at once and despite seeming disorganized I can almost always find whatever drawing I'm looking for or what page i left off from. I'm presently using about three of four different notebooks or sketchbooks for drawing (previously five before I'd actually managed to fill one) and even though there' not consistent in terms of what i'm drawing in them (figure stuff, messy sketches, oc art, etc) there's not really any hard rule about organizing your sketchbooks; personally i think it's something art school drilled into folks if not aesthetic art accts.

[arbiterswake]

I used to have many sketchbooks for various topics, but the past few years I've just been filling them up before buying a new one.

I have an entire rubbermaid storage containers filled with sketchbooks and loose leaf papers of drawings because I refuse to toss any artwork. Some of them are 20+ years old now lmao.

[Llyrel]

I have multiple sketchbooks! A big one I use for marker sketches (or even complete pieces), a smaller one for pencil concepts, and even smaller one I mostly use for inked stuff and that I like to bring at work with me sometimes, a watercolor sketchbook... and recently I got my very first Moleskine, though I have yet to decide what I want to do with it. I just love sketchbooks too much :'D

[yoyoyoshiko]

I have many many sketchbooks. I have a few dedicated sketchbooks, one very sturdy sketchbook dedicated to comic notes, sketches, and layouts, and another I only use for my job.
I have others for general use of different sizes, one to carry in my pocket, another for small bags(i use this one the most) and a big one when I want a larger drawing surface. I also have different weights and textures of paper for different media: heavy textured for watercolor or ink washes, smooth medium weight for inks, pens and markers.
I'll burn through the general use ones very quickly, but the media specific sketchbooks will last a long time since they are so specific.

[Crusoe]

I use multiple! They're different in size, binding and paper quality and I use them for different purposes, cus my brain won't allow me to mix work I'm supposed to complete with thumbnails and sketches.
I usually have one A5 for full pieces, an A4 for full pieces and then a A5 or A4 for sketches.

At this moment I'm using those + a very small one for drawing random flowers with fineliners.

[noahenholm]

I also have many sketchbooks. Outdoors and frequent travels call for durable and portable sketchbooks. That’s why when I came across this heavy-duty art sketchbook from Ohuhu, I knew it’s going to be one of my favorite go-to pads for markers.

[Scarlet_Cryptid]

I do 90% of my sketch work in one sketchbook, but I have several others. One really big one is for laying out maps for worldbuilding. I have a long, skinny 'landscape' one I technically haven't used yet. And I have one exclusively for NSFW work. Ahem. But in general, I tend to finish my main sketchbook before starting another. I even use the first page as a title page, including start and finish dates.

This is my favorite sketchbook right now, btw: The Canson 180.

180° Art Book^TM

It's hard cover with a soft ribbon-like binding that allows the book to lie flat, which is just so, so nice. I will never use anything with a spiral binding again. I could take or leave the magnetic closure thing, but I like everything else about it, including that I can do some marker work in it (with a drop sheet behind the page).

Thing that I do that I don't think anyone here has mentioned... I very rarely do 'finished' pieces in my sketchbook. If I plan on taking something to full color, scanning it, and posting it for others to see, I'm doing it on a separate piece of paper (Bristol board) taped to my drawing board. I started doing this years ago, and it made a huge difference in my art very quickly -- there was just something much easier about working on a separate, flat page rather than in a sketchbook. (Much easier to scan, too...)

Of course, I'm 100% traditional art, so that probably isn't relevant to the digital art folks here at all.

[frgmnt]

I have a system of using three sketchbooks at once (and I don't start using a new one until I finish the previous in the same category): one for quick gesture drawings and pose/anatomy studies, one for loose doodles, thumbnails, warmups and basically anything, and one for "decent" drawings. The last one... doesn't see much use Particularly since I got comfortable with digital drawing, any big pieces are just done digitally to begin with, with only the thumbnails/first sketch being drawn on paper.

The first two are just cheap school notebooks (A5 format) with lined paper that you can get at any store here. Sadly, it's the only kind of sketchbook I don't feel bad about using up. The last one - I actually splurged on a "real" sketchbook when I was buying this one (previously used school notebooks with plain paper, the paper quality was horrible, and it couldn't take a lot of erasing). Which makes me feel even worse about how I'm not using it much (but also, I hesitate to draw anything not good "enough" in it).

[MeltingCORE]

This is definitely an artist/writer thing. Yes. Oh yes... I have so many sketchbooks and notebooks. I do try to divide them up as well. So right now I have one for my manga art, another for life studies, another for ink art, and one last one for pastel/marker/super colorful mixed media art! And for my writing, I have one for poetry and one for all my "Red Shift" stuff.

[TunaPrincess]

Definitely use multiple sketchbooks!
I have one sketchbook just dedicated for comic thumbnails and another that I do my general sketching in.
I just find that having one sketchbook for comic thumbnails helps me keep things more organized.