Ugly Sketchbooks

Okay hear me out. I don't think these sketches are ugly, but at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic I was in desperate need of a place where I could draw and not judge myself. So I wrote on the first page "ugly sketchbook, a judgment-free zone"

I was becoming too scared of making mistakes and it was giving me a kinda of doom idea of the blank page. So I created one rule: To only draw with an ink pen, the concept being "maybe if I can't erase, I'd become more accepting of my mistakes".

This simple experiment set me free; I've never drawn so much in my life, and since there's no judgment or pressure to perform well, I enjoy and look forward to drawing in it.

As the months went by, the name "ugly sketchbook" stuck with me. It made me chuckle every time I'd say it. And even though I'm so proud of these drawings, the word "ugly" has given me this funny reminder that it's okay to make mistakes, even if the results are not what you expected.