Draw Your Day: An Inspiring Guide to Keeping a Sketch Journal

Very enjoyable and informative book. There is an ease in the way the author explains how to accomplish a task, and her illustrations are fantastic.

I purchased this book after learning the basics of watercolor painting. After reading through the entire book I started making my first sketch journal. I returned from vacation with several fun photos and memories to refer to. I'm new to sketching, so this part was harder for me. But I took it slowly, adding pencil sketches, then ink using Micron pens. Next, I added some journaling about my vacation and finished using watercolor and Tombo water-soluble markers for shading. It was a blast! I added a few more pages about my vacation and am currently working on pages about my spring garden. This is addictive! Samantha's book is inspirational and contains a ton of examples and advice. I loved this book so much that I recently purchased her book, Draw Your World.I likely won't be sketch journaling like a daily diary, but more to record snippets of my experiences and use photos I've taken as references to compose them into pages. I'm fairly slow at this point so trying to keep up with a daily complete page would turn it into work for me and I want to keep it light and fun.Samantha, your books are wonderful! I can tell this is a new hobby for me that won't fade over time.

This is a great book, full of useful advice about keeping a visual journal of your daily life. The author's journal pages are beautiful and make me wish I could "do that."As someone who can't (yet) "do that," I was encouraged by several references about how it's fine to use stick figures if you can't draw people, etc. I wish the author had included a chapter showing some of her own less-than-perfect work. Please let us see how your own ability to draw, paint, compose a page, progressed and improved. Page after page of perfect artwork is more daunting than inspiring. I'd love to see a satisfying journal page showing stick figures.I also have to add that there is a level of glamor here that left me feeling envious. Many of the sample pages refer to trips to museums, coffee shops and specialty food stores, skiing trips, dinners at restaurants that sound fascinating. I had to give myself a very serious reminder that no one's life consists of only those things, everyone has days when the whole family is sick and the highlight is that everyone made it to the bathroom in time. I wish there had been some pages about those days, too.

This book is a goldmine of information and tips for daily sketch journaling. It is fun to read and inspires creativity. Highly recommended to artists or anyone.

I already have some knowledge about drawing, from classroom instruction, but this book has inspired me to draw more, especially moments of my day. I look forward to receiving the sketchbook, that is created by Samantha, soon. For additional inspiration, but this book is filled with a lot of inspiration that you can get started with whatever you currently have.

Recently I came across the work of Samantha Dion Baker on Instagram and I was instantly transfixed by the images of her work that she was posting. Drawings of the everyday ordinary things she comes across throughout her day done in her sketchbook done in such a way that you can’t help be charmed and intrigued by them . I have been missing the days of the sketchbook challenge that a group of us did years ago and have been thinking about making 2019 the year I get back into a regular sketching habit. So I picked up Samantha’s new book “Draw your Day” and I find myself definitely inspired by what’s in it’s pages. You won’t find step by step directions on how to draw in this gem of a book but what you will find is plenty of inspiration along with some great information about tools and materials to get you started on developing your own sketching practice. She has a very approachable writing style and you feel as if you are sitting across from the author sharing a cup of coffee flipping through her sketchbooks. You won’t find any photographs in this book – it’s entirely illustrated with the authors drawings taken from her own sketchbooks. It’s a beautifully done book and I highly recommend it!

I've been following Samantha Dion Baker's work on Instagram for years now and pre-ordered this book as soon as she let us know it was out. I read the entire book the first weekend I received it and was so touched by the thoughtfulness, encouragement and helpful tips put into this book. It was a great blend of Samantha's personal journey, why the daily drawing has impacted her life, what it means to her family, and how she can sometimes secretly capture memories and remember them years later for her and her children to remember some day.This book was especially wonderful because she focused on how anyone could benefit. You don't have to be an experienced artist, writer or journalist. It doesn't have to be beautiful or shared with the world. The point is that everyone's daily life - no matter how routine, mundane or seemingly boring can reveal moments of wonder, joy, small pleasures through a PRACTICE of looking each day. It reminded me that life is happening now, and the small moments add up (like compound interest) to create our own personal journey.Such a simple and lovely book, but the meaning behind it is POWERFUL and fantastic. Thank you Sam for sharing your heart and your pages with all of us.