They say a year in review should be a highlight reel—a collection of my best sketches, crispest lines, and most vibrant colors. But when I look back at my stacks of sketchbooks from the last twelve months, I don’t see a gallery of masterpieces.

I see a graveyard of the unfinished.

I see where life went sideways and I simply stopped. I see half-finished classes left and never touched again. I see “failed” sketches where my lines just wouldn’t click. For a while, this felt like a lack of discipline. I felt like I was falling behind.

But as I sit down to write this, I realize something important: You can’t have a “failed” sketch unless you actually sat down to draw. Every incomplete page is proof that I showed up. Every “bad” drawing was a risk I was brave enough to take. This year wasn’t about the finish line; it was about the messy, frustrating, and ultimately beautiful process of staying in the game. Even when there were long gaps where all I did was write down the date and the weather.

Today, I’m celebrating the journey. Let’s look back at my year of incompletes—and why they might be the most important things I’ve ever drawn. I showed up anyway, in a year where life rather kicked my ass with illness, accidents, and a major death in the family. So many losses, so maybe not finishing most of the classes I started, isn’t such a bad thing. Maybe it isn’t failure at all.

The year started strong for me, I was feeling good and actually accomplishing the lessons in Sketching Now Foundations. 

I had a lot of fun with 100 People One Week and successfully achieved that. 

I was ready to go strong and do Sketching Now Travel Sketching during my family trip to Mund’s Park, but this is when things began to go awry. I did however, do some travel sketches even if I didn’t manage to participate in the class itself. Admittedly most of these sketches I did once I got home. 

The summer was a mix of color palettes, a few attempts at sketches, amid the missed days. 

Autumn fell completely apart. I had hoped to sketch buildings during my family vacation, and thusly sketch during my trip and do the Sketching Now Buildings course, but devastating disaster struck.

Coping with grief as well as recovering my own health issues, brought me to December with grand ideas for a December Daily. I did sample my Diamine Inkvent, and I did do a lot of collage in my sketchbook.

Stillman and Birn Sketchbooks

I set out this year to test each type of paper in the Stillman and Birn sketchbook line, and I did accomplish all but the Nova. Final verdict, Alpha remains my favorite. I did like the ivory colored papers more than I expected to, however. I liked the Delta paper the least, as I found it seemed to pill under water, which was not desirable for me. The smoother papers, Epsilon and Zeta were also nice. Better for ink work, than watercolor. Beta was fine, but with heavy paper, I expected smoother washes, so Alpha remains top for me with my preferred ink and watercolor. I still have to test the Nova range, with the tinted papers, and I’m looking forward to that in the future. I stuck with the 5.5×8.5 inch landscape, and as the year closes, I’ll admit, I’m really jonesing for a bigger page and for a portrait layout!

Improvements

I admit, I’m hard on myself, and I never see my own improvements until years later when I look back. I do feel I learned a lot this year about how paper affects results, and about the various materials and palettes and did color swatches with. I worked with Inktense a bit, and I sampled a lot of different paints. I would have liked to see more improvement with my drawing skills, but I also did not draw that much, when it comes down to it.

I did complete eight sketchbooks this year! Two of them were begun in 2024, and several of them were thicker paper, so only a few pages at 26 sheets.

• Vol 17 – Travel Sketching for 2024, then Watercolor Pencil Magic, then in January 2025 I picked it up for my daily sketchbook and  Foundations. 
• Vol 18 – Everyday sketchbook for Autumn 2024 – Mid-January 2025. Sketchbook Design. Inks. 
• Vol 19 – Gamma. Mid-February 2025 to early April 2025. Foundations. Color studies.
• Vol 20 – Delta. April to June 2025. 
• Vol 21 – Food
• Vol 22 – Beta. June to July 2026
• Vol 23 – Food (Page Design)
• Vol 24 – Zeta. August to December 2025. 

TAKEAWAY

My chief takeaway might be to simply return to the page. Regardless of how it feels, or however long it has been with nothing, just return to the page. Do some color tests, or play with ink. I found peace in those moments, when it seemed there was little peace to be had personally, or in the world. You can learn a lot about art and your tools and your mediums just from color swatches. Return to the page and you’ve showed up, you are continuing the journey. This is about progress not perfection. A few years from now, I will see the progress, and the memory of the pain and the struggle will have faded. But I will be very glad I showed up to the page, even just to mark the date.

GOALS FOR 2026

1. I’d like a bit more consistency. I always aim to finish the classes I start, but maybe I can also find ways to give myself permission to sketch small things, just to keep the practice in. 
2. Document the everyday. This is always my chief objective. Document life as it really happens. Sketch the everyday moments, or objects, or even abstractly capture the feelings in color. 
3. Share and participate a bit more in the online communities and classes I’m part of. Share more here in my blog as well as touch base with what I am learning as I go along. 

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, I did more than I think I did this year! I struggled to keep sketching when life hit hard, but I am glad I sketched, and painted, and experimented.