A Guide to Starting Your Own Sketchbook Challenge

Set a Creative Challenge With Purpose

Jumpstarting a sketching habit—or reinvigorating your creative process—often starts with a clear, time-bound commitment. Whether you’re aiming for consistency or progress, defining your own parameters gives your goal structure and momentum.

Define Your Time Frame

Start by choosing a challenge that fits your schedule, motivation, and goals:

• 7-day challenges are great for quick momentum and experimentation.
• 30-day challenges are ideal for building a consistent habit.
• 100-sketch challenges offer long-term growth and are perfect for tracking improvement over time.

Whatever time frame you choose, the goal is to have a clear finish line without overwhelming yourself.

Set a Realistic Pace

The key to completing any creative challenge is sustainability. Ask yourself: What pace can I actually commit to?

• Daily pace (1 sketch per day): Builds a strong routine, but requires strict consistency.
• Weekly pace (3–5 sketches per week): Offers flexibility without losing momentum.

Choose a rhythm that meets your energy and lifestyle—there’s no one “right” speed.

Keep It Private or Share Publicly

Decide whether your challenge is personal or public. Each choice has unique advantages:

• Private journaling or sketchbooks offer freedom and reduce pressure. They’re great for trying new things without judgment.
• Posting online (Instagram, Tumblr, etc.) builds accountability and invites community feedback—but only if that supports your growth, not your anxiety.

Both paths are valid. The important thing is to choose the one that makes your creative time feel rewarding, not draining.

Introduction

Vlogging hasn’t just survived the last few years—it’s adapted and thrived. While attention spans have shortened and platforms keep shifting the rules, creators who show up with clarity and consistency are still building serious momentum. The heart of vlogging—authentic human connection—has proven harder to automate, scale, or replace than many expected.

But 2024 brings change. Algorithms are getting sharper, viewers more selective. Shiny alone doesn’t cut it. Now, it’s about depth, story, and value delivered quickly. That demands smarter workflows, consistency without burnout, and a stronger sense of creative purpose. Creators who understand this shift—and lean into it with focus—stand to build audiences that stick around for the long haul.

In short, the game hasn’t ended. It’s just leveled up.

AI Is Speeding Up Workflow—Without Replacing Humans

AI tools have become the dependable sidekick for vloggers who want to move fast without burning out. Editing software can now cut, color-grade, and even generate subtitles in a fraction of the time it used to take. Chat-based AI is drafting scripts, summarizing research, and sparking content ideas. The gain? More time to actually create.

Still, this isn’t a one-button creative process. The difference between a human-led vlog and an AI-clone is obvious. Audiences know when something feels flat or soulless. That’s why the best creators treat AI like a co-editor, not a ghostwriter. They keep their human tone, they rewrite, they layer in personality.

Top vloggers are automating the dull stuff—captioning, thumbnail suggestions, cutting long interviews. But for the voiceovers, final edits, and creative calls? People are still in charge. The trend isn’t about replacing creators. It’s about helping them move faster and stay focused on the parts of the work that actually matter.

Keep Your Setup Simple: Sketchbook & Tools That Work

Start with the right sketchbook. This isn’t about the most expensive—it’s about what fits your routine. Prefer working big and loose? Get an 11×14 with spiral binding. Like compact and portable? A 5×8 hardcover might be your move. Paper weight matters too: if you’re into wet media, go heavier. For pencils and ink alone, a standard 70–90 lb paper is fine.

Keep your supplies minimal. A reliable pencil, a kneaded eraser, one good pen, and a few colors (markers, watercolor pans, whatever feels right). You don’t need a studio’s worth of stuff to create something solid. If you’re drawing digital, try an app like Procreate or Concepts—streamlined, intuitive, no fluff.

Start where you are, with what you’ve got. The less clutter between your ideas and the page, the more likely you’ll pick it up and actually use it.

Need project ideas? Try 5 DIY Art Projects to Try with Mixed Media Techniques.

Creativity dies under pressure—but it thrives with structure. If you’re committing to vlogging in 2024, make your rules work for you, not against you. Start with flexible guidelines: maybe it’s 30 minutes of editing a day, one vlog per week, or sticking to a specific aesthetic or topic. The point isn’t discipline for discipline’s sake—it’s giving your creativity a box to bounce around in.

Life happens. You’ll miss days. That’s not failure—it’s proof you’re human. When you build in exceptions from the start, you’re less likely to quit when things get messy. Show up when you can and do your best—not your most.

Perfection doesn’t scale. Consistency does. A slightly edited vlog that gets posted is always better than the masterpiece you never finish. The audience connects to momentum, not flawlessness. So keep the bar realistic—and keep moving.

• Creativity rarely shows up uninvited. If you’re stuck, start with what’s already out there. Online prompts or trend challenges can light a spark—a theme, a constraint, a silly idea that snowballs into something real. Use them as springboards, not straightjackets.

• Surround yourself with creators who push boundaries. Follow vloggers or artists whose work clicks with you. Not to copy, but to absorb rhythms, styles, moves you hadn’t considered. Let their grind fuel yours.

• Finally, build your own headspace. A ritual, a playlist, a lucky hoodie—whatever tells your brain it’s go time. Creating isn’t magic, but patterns help. Make your own.

The point is: don’t wait for inspiration. Set the table. Then show up.

Keep It Honest: Reflecting Without the Filter

Don’t over-edit. Resist the urge to polish every frame, every phrase. Let your vlogs breathe a bit. Viewers connect with the slips, the pauses, the real stuff. There’s strength in leaving the rough edges.

At the end of a week or a batch of shoots, sit back and look through what you captured—like flipping through a sketchbook. What themes keep coming up? What changed? Where did you surprise yourself? This is where progress hides.

When it’s time to share, don’t dump the whole reel. Curate with care. Share the moments that tell a story or spark something. Viewers don’t need everything—they just need what’s true.

A Sketchbook Challenge Is For You First, Audience Second

Here’s the thing: a sketchbook challenge isn’t a performance—it’s a process. It’s not made for likes, comments, or validation. It’s made for you. To show up, to try things, to mess up and keep going. Whether you’re scribbling one-line faces or experimenting with gouache, the point isn’t polish—it’s presence.

You don’t have to be good. You don’t even have to finish a piece. The goal is to explore, to get your thoughts out of your head and onto the page. Try media you’ve never touched. Sketch with your non-dominant hand. Go abstract. Go weird. Or don’t. Just pick up the pen.

And stop waiting for the perfect time. There is no “ready.” Waiting kills momentum. Open your sketchbook today—even if it’s a napkin or the back of an old receipt. Start.

Because this challenge isn’t about arriving. It’s about moving.