Developing Talent with a Sketchbook in the New Year

Keeping a notebook, or a sketchbook, is the "one best habit" which highly talented people have in common, according to this article by Daniel Coyle at The Talent Code. 

If my year in art is any indication, that's true!

Not that I'm any great artist like the notebook keepers Coyle mentions in his article (DaVinci, Franklin, Twain to name a few).  But the daily practice of making art and experimenting with ideas and techniques really paid off in the development of my abilities.

If you've been wondering if you could ever keep a notebook or a sketchbook to capture and develop your ideas and inspirations--you can!

All you really need is to figure out what capturing "device" you really, honestly, would carry with you each and every day--and that you would actually use.  For me that was 90% of the battle!  You might be surprised what is--or isn't--for you!  (For instance, I carry my cell phone with me almost all the time, but I can not use it as an idea-capturing device.  Don't know why, but I just can't.)

Check out the notebooks for sale at jetpens.com!

If you want to have a look at lots of luscious notebooks, check out Jet Pens!  I am not affiliated with them, at all.  Just an enthusiastic customer.

Or just grab some paper you like, staple it together, glue some thicker paper on the outside for protection, and go.  A sketchbook doesn't have to be fancy or expensive.  You just have to want to carry it (and something to write with) with you all the time.

Why not make a New Year's resolution to keep a notebook and/or sketchbook with you every day for the next year and jot things in it as often as you can?  Then this time next year you can look back through the things you've captured and see how far your thinking, skills, and talents, have come.

Need more inspiration?  Consider this:  Near the end of his life, Ben Franklin credited his notebook-keeping habit for "the happiness of my whole life."

That's some endorsement for keeping a book of scribbles and scratches!

I have four pages left to finish the sketchbook I'm currently working in.  I think I'll try to fill them all today.  Then I can start the brand new year with a brand new sketchbook?

Which sketchbook will I use next?

What about you?