Returning to Play and Sketchbooks

The last couple of years have been very work-focused for me, counting both illustration commissions, setting up my online shop, vendoring at markets and working a part time job. That prioritising play and sketchbook work is hard is not news, and something I know I am not alone in feeling, especially when that time feels like it’s being more productively spent on paid work. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a busy illustration work year in 2025, which is not something I take for granted, especially considering the state of the world economy and the rise of AI in our industry. I do however really miss my sketchbooks, and that exploratory sense of play and escapism creating whatever I want that initially started me on this career. 

I’ve finished a sketchbook for the first time in years, and it has made me think a lot about how much of my work used to live in sketchbooks. As a teenager, throughout studying and travelling after, they were an obvious place to play, observe and drop down notes and ideas for future projects and illustrations. I’d love to find my way back to that practice. I filled two sketchbooks while travelling South-East Asia in 2019, and after that I’ve filled one singular sketchbook. It’s a book I kept from mid 2023, and till the end of 2025. It’s 2,5 years of mostly holiday and travel drawings, as that’s when I’ve prioritised drawing outside of work. 

Travel Sketchbook Sri Lanka, India, Nepal & Thailand, 2019

After I finished my MA in 2019, I worked a couple of months in a restaurant in order to save money for backpacking. I was really excited about the idea of a long term, slow type of travel, with plenty of new sights, nature, culture and time for drawing on the way. 

Looking back at these books (more so at the beginning of the trip), I feel like I can see myself thinking too much about what a sketchbook "should" look like, and what types of drawings will do well on social media. It has both drawings I love, and drawings I hate. There are a few observational pencil drawings I’ve done with a Blackwing pencil, mostly of men in India playing cards, sleeping on the ground or on trains, that I still really like. I have always found drawing people from imagination really difficult, but these characters feel real, and I’d love to do more of that. The other pages I like are mostly watercolours where I’ve sat down for a couple of hours with no rush; an evening in a quiet guesthouse with a table, a hostel hallway when my husband was sick with food poisoning and a park bench overlooking a man selling roasted peanuts from a trolley. The drawings I did when visiting a historical sight packed with tourists are mostly all pretty bad (and that’s ok!)

Travel Sketchbook Thailand, Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam, 2019 - 2020

For the second half of the trip I can see a shift in what materials I reach for. There are still quite a few pencil drawings, but I spend more time with a fineliner, sometimes with a watercolour wash and I painted more landscapes. I was struggling with tone, but the washes get a bit more confident and more saturated over time. I love the layered foliage, dramatic landscapes and undramatic everyday scenes of people eating noodles or getting their hair cut.

The Pink Sketchbook Oslo, and various holidays/trips 2023 - 2026

I got this sketchbook right before my husband and I went to Greece on a belated honeymoon. It’s a cheap Art Creation sketchbook, and I think something unprecious is exactly what I needed. Being a time-optimist I went in with high hopes and goals of how much observational drawing I was going to do. It took me two and a half years to finish, but after the ridiculous stack of half finished sketchbooks in my apartment, I finished it, and I am proud of that. 

I started combining coloured pencils with my watercolour/gouache, and later also neocolours, which I’ve loved as a quick way to add extra detail or texture. So far I haven’t used either in much of my illustration work and they’ve lived exclusively in this sketchbook. I feel like I can see myself getting more comfortable with colour, and adding texture to rockfaces and greenery. There are a few paintings from northern Norway where my dad and husband went finishing, where I’ve really taken my time, and I do like them a lot better as a result. 

Going into the new year

In the coming year I am not going to set any goals for my sketchbook, other than to use it more. I am going to try and take the pressure off and create just for the sake of creating. Documenting the everyday doesn’t feel all that exciting to be in the present, but when I look back at the everyday from a couple of years ago it feels different.

I’ll pack my backpack, sketching kit and a good thermos and try my best to go drawing outside a little bit more this year. It is so so rewarding.