Hidden Habits of Confident Artists (What You Don’t See on Instagram)
Scroll through Instagram and it looks like every artist owns a sketchbook filled with flawless, frame-worthy pages. No mess. No mistakes. Just perfection.
And that illusion is one of the biggest confidence killers for artists.
Because the truth is this.
Confident artists do not use sketchbooks the way Instagram shows.
What Sketchbooks Really Look Like
When you actually see real artists’ sketchbooks, the kind they bring to art fairs or keep in their studios, they are not curated. They are messy. Full of:
thumbnail sketches
value studies
colour tests
notes written in the margins
half-finished ideas
experiments that went nowhere
And that is exactly why they work.
A sketchbook is not meant to be a museum. It is a thinking space. A place where ideas are tested before they ever reach canvas.
The Missing Middle Most Artists Skip
Many artists focus on the final painting but skip the part in between.
That middle stage is where confidence is built.
It is where artists learn how to see, decide what to simplify or exaggerate, plan compositions, and test ideas without pressure.
When this step is missing, artists often feel stuck. Their work plateaus. They paint more but do not feel like they are improving.
The Habit That Changes Everything
Confident artists treat their sketchbooks like a lab.
Not a performance. Not a portfolio.
A system.
They use sketchbooks to think, explore, and make mistakes on purpose. That is what gives them freedom when it comes time to paint.
It is also why their finished work looks confident and intentional.
Ready to Use Your Sketchbook Differently?
If your sketchbooks are sitting untouched on a shelf because you are afraid of ruining them, nothing is wrong with you. You have simply been taught the wrong way to use them.
Supercharge Your Art in 14 Days was created to help artists build confidence through simple, bite-sized sketchbook practices that actually lead to progress.
If you are ready to stop overthinking and start creating with confidence, this mini course is waiting for you.