This is the first sketchbook I finished, the second sketchbook I started. I had accidentally labeled it volume 1, then found the earlier sketchbook, so I changed it to volume 1b. This is a 5.5 x 8.5 inch Stillman & Birn Beta, softcover. I used it mostly for classwork, and color tests. Very much a working sketchbook.
Sketchbook 2 – Watercolor
When I started Liz Steel’s Watercolor course, I started this sketchbook. This one is a Stillman & Birn Beta 3.5 x 5.5 inch (8.9 x 14.0 cm) Softcover.
I wanted to do the lessons with two different palettes. I had purchased Marc Taro Holmes Direct Watercolor Palette, but I had never used it. I figured using two different palettes would really teach me about color. It did! So I did the same exercises twice, and in this sketchbook, volume 2, I did the Watercolor assignments using this palette.
Of course I put the palette on the first page!
Foundations & On Location
Wanting to improve my general drawing ability, I started Liz Steel’s Foundations Class. I continued on with the Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook that I had started with her Watercolor class.
Later that year, I started Liz Steel’s Watercolor On Location class.
My kit for that class.
This was the first time I actually sketched out on location. It was also my first paint only sketch. I found I really loved the technique. I also felt wild and crazy just using two colors, and they were NOT the colors of the actual building! Mind blown!
Here ends Sketchbook 1B, with a sketch of my palette as it was by then.
Daily Food Sketches February 2020
My food sketching challenge is complete! I have amazed myself that I completed this challenge! Looks like this will capture the last of the dining out for awhile, as I’m now in lock-down due to COVID-19.
Stay safe, everyone.
So Many Colors!
I am obsessed with color! Now I was bitten with the color bug, and just had to try out all sorts of different pigments and find out what I had in stash, as well as the new ones I bought just for fun. I filled pages with these color tests in my Stillman & Birn Beta.
I learned a lot about these paints during this phase. Then I had to learn how to mix greys. I tried a few recipes I’d read from others, and tested them out myself.
Watercolor Course 2020
When I started Liz Steel’s Watercolor class in August 2018 I chose the Stillman & Birn Beta, size 5.5 x 8.5 inches (14.0 x 21.6 cm) Softcover. I bought her palette colors, and loved the idea of painting the palette to start the sketchbook.
Why is this Sketchbook 1B, instead of 2? Well, when I was trying to round up my sketchbooks by the time I had several of them going, I numbered this one 1, but ended up finding the earlier sketchbook, so it became 1A, and this one became 1B.
The very first palette I set up myself! I was so proud of my filled half-pans, and of my color labels right here on page one! Great way to start a sketchbook!
The first lessons of the course were to experiment with the marks ones brush can make, and how to test the properties of the paint, and the paper. What a revelation this was to me! Not all paper is the same? Not all pigments behave the same? Not all brushes brush the same?! Mind blown!
I loved every lesson I did, and learned so much.
Sketchbook 1a Complete
The complete sketchbook. I learned so much in the two years it took me to finish this book. I had multiple sketchbooks going during this time. I was really still struggling to establish the regular practice and habit that I wanted, as well as to build my drawing skills. I’m pretty sure I may always be working on both!
Experiments with Food and Color Tests
Food sketches and color tests were a big focus for much of the rest of my very first sketchbook. This is an A5 Leuchtturm Sketchbook, which I was beginning to realize was not very good paper for the wet techniques I prefer. That did not stop me from playing with and finishing the book. Here continues my tour through Sketchbook 1A.
Love this Lasagna sketch!
Here I am testing Monte Amiate Natural Sienna, Geothite, Naples Yellow, and Quincridone Gold.
More tests of Monte Amiate Natural Sienna and Goethite, this time with Buff Titanium, and Van Dyke Brown. I also Tested Transparent Pyrrol Orange versus Pyrrol Orange.
This is the Big Impact palette produced by Expeditionary Art and Uma Kelkar. I was testing out what kind of mixes I could achieve with it, in order to get a feel for it.
My primary palette, as it was when I finished this sketchbook in February.
Buildings Course
In January 2020 I started the Buildings Course by Liz Steel. I love her work, and her classes! She is an inspiration to me! I decided to use this sketchbook, though I had several going at the time, in an effort to finish it off.
Though I did not finish the class, I starting having real breakthroughs in my drawing. I was quite chuffed with this last one!
Lessons in Paper
I believe this was my very first attempt at sketching my house. It may be my only attempt to date, now that I think about it.
After this, my sketchbook efforts get quite sketchy indeed. I wanted to sketch daily, but missed the mark, so I’d leave pages blank. Sometimes I’d fill them in with either notes of what I wanted to sketch, or of quick pencil thumbnails. The next ten or so pages of this sketchbook are quite a hodgepodge of miscellany and incomplete pages. Eventually I simply moved on, and now this is like a time capsule of those very first, very insecure efforts!
Here is when I started to realize that maybe the paper in this book was giving the troubles and not my skills. The bleed through that was happening is what convinced me this paper was not well suited to the watercolor techniques I was most interested in.
Jamie's Sketchbook 