Thinking Aloud About a Perpetual Sketch Journal

 

8/12/25 Caffe Ladro, Roosevelt neighborhood

Ever since I parenthetically mumbled the idea in my post about my five-year diary, the question keeps popping up in my head: How could a sketchbook be designed to serve the same longitudinal function as a written perpetual diary? (Please allow me to think aloud here for a bit.)

Of course, any large sketchbook could serve this function well: Just date each page or spread, and make a sketch on that page each year on that date. (I believe that’s how nature perpetual journals work.) The challenging part for me is that if the habit is to be sustainable, the book must be portable. If it’s something I use only when I’m home, the habit will last only for a short while, and then I’ll stop. I’ve already failed at that kind of sketch journal often enough to accept this.

9/10/25 Herkimer Coffee, Greenwood neighborhood

With this acceptance as a starting point, I looked at my current daily-carry Uglybooks, which I’ve been using successfully and consistently as a chronological sketch journal for two years. What if I started using my daily-carry Uglybook as a perpetual sketch diary?

Let’s say I decided to make a spread for each date. I’m not sure I could fit five years’ worth of sketches on a spread, but surely I could fit three years. Shown here are a few sketch journal spreads that contain at least three sketches. The freeform format I already use would accommodate sketches of various sizes.

When I fill one book (23 days per book), I’d move on to the next book. About 16 books would cover the entire year. When the last spread of the last book is filled on Dec. 31 (or whatever the last day of my perpetual year is), I’d go back to the first book and make the second sketch on the Jan. 1 spread (each sketch would be labeled with the year and, as is my current habit, the time and weather, if I’m sketching outdoors).

9/30/25 Turtle Coffee, Greenwood neighborhood

That seems very practical and doable, doesn’t it? What appeals to me most is that it is not too far off from what I’ve been doing the past couple years, so it won’t feel like a whole new thing. The only snag I haven’t figured out is that on some days, I currently use my daily-carry Uglybook as a catch-all for other random sketches – like overflow parking as needed. I don’t want to discourage myself from making such sketches just because they don’t fit the format, but I also don’t want to carry a second book. 

Maybe I could assign several pages toward the end of each book for such overflow – which would be messily out of sequence. Or avoid predating the spreads, so I could sometimes stretch out beyond the typical single spread? That could be a slippery slope toward exactly what I’m already doing.

Hmmm. . . the idea still needs work, but it has a lot going for it. Comments or suggestions? Have you ever kept or seen anything like a perpetual sketch diary, especially in a portable size?

11/16/25 Due Cucina, Roosevelt neighborhood