The topic of forum sketchbooks for individual users has been brought up in another thread. Sketchbook threads, dedicated to one user's artwork and sketches, are not a common thing on this particular forum, but it has been popular on other forums and online sketchbooks are kept on other platforms like blogs and instagram.
Some of the benefits of online sketchbooks I can think of:
- One dedicated place to keep your work. You can see your progress over time in one place. You could still make separate WIP posts if needed, but you'd have a sketchbook to add anything you wanted.
- Help others get a better sense of your study history, your overall body of work, and therefore help them give more focused feedback to your individual needs.
- History. Sketchbooks have the potential to stay active over a longer period of time. It starts feeling like a home of sorts for the owner and you can see growth and relationships form over time. You get a sense of regulars who where active in the past, but may not be active now. It adds depth to the feel of the community. The average life span of posts in the forums are currently very short.
- Mental permission to post studies and sketches. Sometimes making a separate post for smaller things can feel like a big deal. If you have a sketchbook, it can become a place to post your doodles and studies, without flooding the forums. The current monthly virtual studio seems to do a good job at fulfilling this need, however.
- It gives other artists ideas on the kind of things people are doing to improve their craft. When I was younger, I thought talent determined artistic ability more than anything, until I saw online sketchbooks. They gave me a clearer idea on the kind of work that goes into bettering your craft.
My theory of why sketchbooks are not popular here is because the default settings make it so that threads become difficult to view after a certain amount of posts. There may be other factors at play however. I think if more people started sketchbooks, put a link to their sketchbooks in their signature, and changed their settings so that threads are paginated, sketchbooks might take off.
What do you guys think? Would you make a sketchbook? Do you think there's a need for them? Why do think they aren't more popular here? Any thoughts appreciated!
UPDATE:
It seems like there's enough people interested, that sketchbooks could become more of a prominent thing here. I'd encourage people to start one if they think it will be enriching!
Some ideas to launch and maintain an online sketchbook:
1, Start your sketchbook. Your first post can include an overall summary of yourself and your sketchbook. Who are you? What's your history with art? What are your goals? What are you open to as far as feedback goes? Are you open to critiques or suggestions? Or is your sketchbook a no critique zone? Will you only be including certain types of work in your sketchbook, or will it be for anything and everything? You may want to encourage people to change their settings to paginate posts for better viewing experience.
2. Put a link to your sketchbook in your signature.
3. Select the sketchbook category when making your sketchbook and put a sketchbook tag on your first post. There's a place to put tags in the bottom left corner, when making or editing the first post on a thread.
4. Visit other people's sketchbooks and say hello!
5. Post as much or as little as you want. Never feel shy to return to your sketchbook after a long period of absence.
6. Post whatever you want. I've had one online sketchbook and I made it a goal to try and post any kind of art I made, even if it was butt ugly. As the years went on, I did that less, because it was too time consuming (I made a lot of butt ugly art), but I think it's encouraging for other artists to see some of the not as polished things that come out of a pursuit of art. It was also a place to post my general thoughts about art and life. If you want to just include beautiful images, that's fine too! My only caveat is that this particular forum probably wouldn't be a good fit for images with over-the-top graphic violence or sexuality- something to keep in mind!
7. If you don't get much feedback on your sketchbook- that's ok! Your sketchbook will show a history of your work and mindset and that can be very valuable to you down the road. You may have unknowingly influenced other artists for the better, even if they don't stop in to say hello.
Any other ideas for launching and maintaining an online sketchbook?