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Decorating and personalizing your sketchbook covers makes sense for several reasons.  If you have several similar books, the cover art can be a way to tell them apart – maybe it references which drawings are in the book. The cover could also be the inspiration that gets your drawings started, like an image or a special quote. It can be something to help get the creative juices flowing when you’re in a drawing funk. A customized cover helps make each sketchbook much more special.

At first, a sketchbook is just a place to collect a bunch of throw-away drawings from daily activities. Until you name it – then it is like a pet, you can’t give it up once it has a name. Once the book becomes precious, all the drawings inside it take on more meaning. They become part of what makes the book whole.

Artist Joe Bosch said that sometimes he decorates and names a sketchbook before he begins to use it, such as Coffee Shop Sideshow. He does this if he wants the book’s cover to influence the contents. Its purpose is to record all the characters he encounters while out and about – the daily circus on parade.

Joe might also use a sketchbook for a while and wait for it to name itself.  Upon paging through this book when it was half-full, he noticed he was drawing a lot of bears, most of which were engaged in very un-bear-like activities. Joe designed a logo for the Bear Revolution and slapped it on the cover.

Artist Jodi Steele was inspired by the work of Brenda Swenson and featured cherry blossoms on her sketchbook cover. Her plan was to document spring in her town, so her cover reflected the theme and style of future contents.