Sketchbook Revival Part Two

Hello everyone, I have been working on a couple of sketchbook related projects again. The first was a project following a tutorial given by Tamara Laporte on the recent Sketchbook Revival course. Tamara created a timelapse video for us to follow, and this picture is what I came up with using her video. She instructed us to stick to a minimum of supplies; three colours of water based markers, I had some old Marvy LePlume markers that I dug out of my stash, a watercolour skin tone crayon, and a white and black marker. We also used a water brush for blending, plus a pencil for the basic drawing. Lots of the artists seem to prefer mechanical pencils, as there is no need to sharpen your pencil, I found using one much easier, and will continue to use one for my sketching from now on.

I learned several things from my experience with this drawing; I used an A3 sketchpad containing Windsor and Newton heavyweight Cartridge paper, which I normally manage to add a fair amount of water to. It did not work very well for this project, and in future, I will go back to hot pressed watercolour paper, which is my usual go to surface for something like this. My Marvy pens have probably seen better days, I can't remember how many years I have had them, but a long time, for sure. I needed something with a bit more juice to really achieve what I wanted, but they worked okay for a first attempt at the project. I was too impatient, and did not let the black Posca pen dry properly, and smudged it on my little bird. I needed to slow down and take my time a bit! Other than that, I enjoyed the process, and will definitely try out the techniques again.

The sentiment that I have added to the image sums up my thoughts whilst creating the piece, 'embrace imperfection'. I am not going to be too precious, but to learn and grow from these experiments, hopefully enjoying the process at the same time!

I have made another sketchbook, this time covered in fabric. I was gifted this fabric ages ago by Glenda Waterworth, with the instruction that I must use it. I have pondered over how to use these beautiful pieces of fabric for ages, and decided that I should start to appreciate them, rather than leave them stored away. Having cut into one piece now, hopefully I will be inclined to incorporate more of them into things that I make.

This book really makes me think of Summer days with the bright floral design.

I hope to share more of my sketchbook exploits with you soon, thanks for stopping by, xxx