How to Make Edits in Your Sketchbook to Hide Mistakes

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This ugly drawing irritated me so much I decided to blot it out with a pattern.

Some Sketchbook Pages Turn Out Badly

Sometimes despite your best efforts, the drawing turns out so bad that you never want to look at it again. In those cases, you have several options:

gesso
collage
black ink or paint
draw something else on top pushing dark values

In most cases it is better to leave your mistake as a lesson learned. A sketchbook is a place to make mistakes and grow. But there are times when you never want to see the drawing again. Instead of ripping the page out, you can draw something else on top of it.

About this Ugly Drawing Cover Up

This drawing started as a sketch of a certain plant that I have made SEVERAL attempts to draw with no success. You can still see a potted plant in the background. The leaves and vines I drew on top of it have not totally obscured the ugly drawing, but it is now a nice enough page that my teeth don’t itch when I turn to it.

On this particular page all the values I used to draw the potted plant were mostly high so after drawing the vines and leaves I used the dark values of the background to blot out the ugly sketch.

Upcoming Sketchbook Tour to Include Ugly Drawings

This is one of the pages of an active sketchbook that is nearly finished. I have been watching SO many sketchbook tours to decide what elements I want to have in mine. I am so excited to share! There are three that are nearly finished and two that have NO empty pages left (yet I still don’t consider it done). All that is left is for me to learn how to edit a video. Don’t hold your breath, but I am getting closer and closer to recording. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. 3.15.23 Edit: I did finally create a sketchbook video.

In the coming weeks, I will continue to post a variety of these “cover up” drawings; I have one in every category. Some of the original drawing will seep through a little except with the black. Black is an eraser. If I can learn to live with the ugly drawings, I could fill sketchbooks faster and that is the goal after all.

Aside from the three sketchbooks that are nearly full, there are FIVE others that are incomplete and I want to hurry and finish those so I can start a NEW sketchbook. Don’t ask me how many new sketchbooks I have already, but it is not so many that I would promise not to fall in love and purchase another one.

I would love to hear from you in the comments: How fast do you think is reasonable to completely fill a sketchbook?