Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
How do you find your artistic style? Perhaps the answer isn’t to keep searching for something new—but to look back at the work you’ve already made.
In this artist diary, I return to an altered sketchbook I began four years ago and discover that it contains many of the seeds of the work I’m making today: vintage photographs, children from the past, old papers, muted colours, layered surfaces and even an image that later became a large painting.
I share how I use old sketchbooks and past artwork to recognise recurring ideas, materials and visual themes—and how a small experiment in a colour-mixing book eventually inspired an entire series of abstract paintings.
Then, while working in the altered book again, I try something unexpected and make an exciting new discovery. At the end, I reveal how the sketchbook looks now and the new direction it may be opening up in my work.
If you feel as though you still haven’t found your unique artistic style, your passion or the subject that is truly yours, the clues may already be sitting somewhere in your studio. Your discarded paintings, forgotten drawings and old sketchbooks are the breadcrumbs of your creative journey. Sometimes, you just need to go back and look again.
I’d love to know: have you ever rediscovered an old piece of work and realised it was pointing towards something important?
#ArtisticStyle #SketchbookTour #ArtistDiary
Join my weekly artist's newsletter at louisefletcherart.com/newsletter-artists.
Each week, I share tips, tricks, advice, and inspiration to help you take your art to the next level.
You can also find me:
On Facebook at facebook.com/louisefletcherart
On Instagram at instagram.com/louisefletcher_art
And on my podcast at: louisefletcherart.com/for-artists/podcast
How do you find your artistic style? Perhaps the answer isn’t to keep searching for something new—but to look back at the work you’ve already made.
In this artist diary, I return to an altered sketchbook I began four years ago and discover that it contains many of the seeds of the work I’m making today: vintage photographs, children from the past, old papers, muted colours, layered surfaces and even an image that later became a large painting.
I share how I use old sketchbooks and past artwork to recognise recurring ideas, materials and visual themes—and how a small experiment in a colour-mixing book eventually inspired an entire series of abstract paintings.
Then, while working in the altered book again, I try something unexpected and make an exciting new discovery. At the end, I reveal how the sketchbook looks now and the new direction it may be opening up in my work.
If you feel as though you still haven’t found your unique artistic style, your passion or the subject that is truly yours, the clues may already be sitting somewhere in your studio. Your discarded paintings, forgotten drawings and old sketchbooks are the breadcrumbs of your creative journey. Sometimes, you just need to go back and look again.
I’d love to know: have you ever rediscovered an old piece of work and realised it was pointing towards something important?
#ArtisticStyle #SketchbookTour #ArtistDiary
Join my weekly artist's newsletter at louisefletcherart.com/newsletter-artists.
Each week, I share tips, tricks, advice, and inspiration to help you take your art to the next level.
You can also find me:
On Facebook at facebook.com/louisefletcherart
On Instagram at instagram.com/louisefletcher_art
And on my podcast at: louisefletcherart.com/for-artists/podcast
