Category Archives: Classes

Buildings Begins

Sketching Now Buildings begins and I couldn’t be more excited!

I sketched my home and the first of the intro assignments, which I’ve done before. I’ve never finished the course, so I’m determined to do so this time! It is really interesting to see my own growth in these exercises. If you’d asked me, I wouldn’t have thought I’d improved much, but there it is, in ink and watercolor, all I’ve learned in the past months! This, of course, confirms what I’m learning every day. It’s practice that matters most!

Still working on my landscape skills. I took some notes on various paint brushes that Terry Harrison used/designed for landscapes. He works a lot larger than I typically do!

I was hoping to get a bit more blending in my sky, but I’m really beginning to think that it’s not me, it’s my paper that isn’t quite up for the blending I’m thinking of. I’ll have to try both cotton paper, and a different style to experiment!

I took a short trip to Boyce Thompson Arboretum. My intention was to paint on location, but I’ll admit I chickened out. Again! So these are done from photographs I took. I was experimenting with different techniques with my brush to get different effects.

You can sure tell I struggle with open layouts in sketchbook design. I’m not sure if the amount of white space here is perfect, or dreadful! LOL! I’ll keep practicing, though, because clearly that’s the only way to go! Plus, it’s super fun.

I had no intention of making this map and entire double page spread, but it really got away from me! I love it, however. I do love maps, and one of the things I’m eager to add more of into my sketchbook is maps!

Since I did not sketch on location at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, I was determined to do so somewhere, so I went to the Japanese Friendship Gardens and painted this on location. While not my first on location effort, it is the first since Pandemic started. It is also the first time anyone spoke to me about it! He was so complimentary and impressed! So that’s a new first for me, and what a pleasure it was!

September 2021 Sketchbook

More lost days, then a little Bob Ross inspiration. Since I’m really keen to learn how to paint landscapes, I decided to try Bob Ross in watercolor. I learned a lot about how different oil paints are from watercolor! Ha!

Then a second attempt. Yep, I need a whole different set of techniques than Bob used!

These four were also my first “sequence of pages’ designed as a set for my Sketchbook design class.

I had a variety of subjects I knew I wanted in this sequence, including large landscapes, clothing sketches, and open line drawings. Originally I was going to group the clothes on one page, and the line drawings on another, since they were the same, but after this lesson I realized that it would flow so much better as a sequence of spreads if I broke the subjects up. So I therefore definitely needed a second large, contained landscape to complete the sequence.

I love it now! These pages seem to now tell a story in a much better way than they would have had I gone with my first method!

Additionally, I used the same date stamp and weather temperature as a unifying marker through the pages. I probably could have done more with headings or text, maybe even a color block with the clothes, though I do like the airy open white space I have. It is a nice contrast to the fully painted landscape pages.

I certainly learned a whole lot doing this! Now I just need to practice a lot more so it gets faster! Though all told, I think all four spreads took me about three or four hours in total, so really that’s not too bad at all.

Wrapping up September with a landscape of Piestewa Peak that I’m very, very pleased with. I even love the outrageous amount of white space!

Sketch Kit and Color Blocks

Things are moving a bit slow around here this past week. I’m back to a tighter lockdown situation as COVID-19 cases are on the rise and I’m in an “extreme high risk” area. I have lots of unfinished pages but a few finished ones.

Some random sketches and collage, little bits and pieces from my days. My current sketchbook is the Stillman and Birn Alpha softcover 8×10″ so that’s what I sketched for my assignment in Sketchbook Design.

I do love the Alpha books, they are great for pen and ink, and watercolor. I’ve never had a page bleed, no matter how wet I get it. But I do begin to wonder if some of the wet in wet techniques I’m seeming to want to achieve need a paper with some cotton content? I will have to experiment in the future, but for now this is the sketchbook I have, so this is the very best sketchbook! (The best sketchbook is the one you have with you. Ha!)

Continuing on, I sketched the most basic version of my current sketch kit. I haven’t really settled on which pens, or which brushes, so when in doubt I reach for the pocket brushes, my Lamy pens, and my current watercolor palette. The bag is the amazing Walkit bag, which is fantastic, with many loops for pens. I’m currently carrying too many pens! Really. I am.

I haven’t done a food sketch in a very long time, and I just had to document this delicious pesto pasta I had!

Hmmm, could that food sketch layout be improved with a border? Class has me thinking these things!

Speaking of class, did someone say color blocks? I was documenting the mix of things I had been researching that day, and decided to jazz up what would be fairly basic line diagrams and descriptions with some color blocks. I used washi tape to make crisp edges, and aimed to make these have a parchment look by using Daniel Smith’s Goethite watercolor. Apparently I should really learn to sketch larger since I ended up with a lot of unused color blocks. I thought about sketching in them a few random things, but in the end I’m moving on. The unfilled blocks tell even more the story of the day (and the week) than filling them in! Besides, it also celebrates how great that parchment effect was, and I’m pretty pleased about that!

Sketchbook Design is back

Sketchbook Design class by Liz Steel is back and I’m so excited! I find it so much easier to actually get my sketching into a habit and routine when I know or can build on the fly better sketchbook pages!

My first two intro lessons for the week, and a little collage since I’m currently obsessed with sunflowers. I painted some live sunflowers I have in a vase, too. Its my flower of the season!

Time to get back to class and see if I can bang out the next Intro lesson! Sketching my kit for the class, I always love sketching my art supplies!

Foundations Begins

Once again I’m starting Liz Steel’s Sketching Now Foundations course. It’s getting embarrassing how often I begin but never start! However, I always learn something, even when my participation is a bit disappointing. Hopefully this time will be better and I’ll actually do the whole course?

I must note, I am challenged to finish because of my own distractions, because I absolutely love the class!

I get better each time when I do the exercises again! Since I took her Sketchbook Design course, I’m even better at making full pages that look pretty in terms of design, even when it is fairly random things!

As sketched recently, my palette was nearly empty, so I decided to put together a new palette for this course and work some mixing magic. This palette is based almost entirely on Jane Blundell’s book, The Ultimate Mixing Palette.

A number of these pigments are new to me, particularly the Phthalo shades. Of course this means playing with them!

That cupcake was supposed to be a light mint color. Got a bit heavy handed though, didn’t I? Greens! They are my challenge, and I love them so much!

I decided to just mix my class exercises right in with my regular every day sketching, and I find I really like it. Capturing memories is my ultimate goal.