Between Tumblr and Instagram, it’s never been easier to find artists you love and scroll through their work until 2 AM. But much like e-books will never replace the feel (or smell) of a good book, there’s nothing like picking up a full sketchbook and flipping through its pages, heavy with ink and wear. If only there were a library where you could do this all day…
Well surprise surprise, there totally is! Enter The Sketchbook Project.
The Sketchbook Project is an actual library of thousands of sketchbooks sent in from all around the world, bringing the ease of discovering artists online into the real life. This crowdsourced art library is supplied with over 35,000 sketchbooks from over 135 countries (a library after our own heart). And because all the sketchbooks are logged, if you’re looking for cat sketches, artists from Berlin, or city drawings? All you have to do is look it up and you can find out exactly where to find sketchbooks that are right up your alley.
This project was started by the independent Brooklyn-based company of the same name, “The Sketchbook Project” being their main endeavor. They started in 2006 in Atlanta, GA and moved to NYC in 2009, and have been there ever since.
The physical library itself may be located in Brooklyn, but from their digital sketchbook collection to traveling all around the country, they’ve made accessing their vast collection of art super easy. After all, as a library supplied by a worldwide community of artists, being accessible to everyone, everywhere is kind of their thing.
Wish you could be 🎶part of that worrrrld?🎶 Well you can! Besides holding semi-regular challenges every few months, every year The Sketchbook Project has open submissions where you can send in your sketchbook to include it as part of the collection! What’s even better? They just extended their 2017 deadline due to lots of requests, so there’s still time to send yours in!
And even if you’re not planning on sending in your sketchbook (I mean, they’re precious!), just looking at some of the suggested art themes for sketchbooks and past challenges on their site is super inspiring and sure to kickstart your creativity, and to maybe even sell some designs.
In NYC? Check out this promised land library of sketchbooks!
Want your sketchbook to be in the promised land library of sketchbooks? Check out how to submit yours (while you still can for 2018!)
Just want to discover some cool new artists? Check out their digital library of sketchbooks!
