Tag Archives: Everyday

December Daily 1

I have big hopes for the month. I’ve been deep in grief and hopefully returning to the page with sketching my advent will be just the thing. (Or, at least that was the plan. Execution was far less than perfect.)

Every year I love Diamine Inkvent and this year is no different. Each day gets the ink swatch. I wanted to sketch each building in the Jacquie Lawson Christmas Village this year, but insecurity got the better of me. I did trace the first week of buildings, however. In red, as the Liz Steel Patreon theme this month is Red.

This was traced in Procreate, then printed. I inked it over with J Herbin 1670 Hematite Rouge and a dip pen with a crow quill.

The other procreate traced Christmas village buildings, and the Portuguese coin I sketched in ink, using Ferris Wheel Press ink Leadcast Letters.

I am not quilting this year, as I do not have access to my sewing area, but each year I still like to follow the Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery Quilt, even if I’m not sewing it. This is my second of what I’m calling my December Daily captures. These quilting clues release weekly, but they are a significant part of my December traditions each year for many years now.

The December tradition I’m loving the most this is The Diamine Inkvent for 2025. This year is the Teal Edition and the inks so far are:

  1. Celestial Skies – Shimmer – A teal with a gold and red shimmer.
  2. Energy – A purple with a green sheen.
  3. Carousel – Waterproof pigment red!
  4. Smoky Tobacco – Walnut brown, scented.
  5. Marie Rose – An amber with a green chroma.
  6. Blush – A lovely warm pink.
  7. Fir and Fog – Greyish Green. Love this ink! It looks more green in person than it scanned.

The full spreads:

Everyday Sketching 2025 Week 29

The weather is shifting, and we are getting some storm clouds, and a little temperature drop. I’m feeling the “dog days of summer.” I love that phrase, especially as it marks not only this hot, difficult stretch of summer, but the astronomical fact that this period of time has the star Sirius (in the constellation Canus Major, hence the dog star) rising at dawn. The Farmer’s Almanac calls July 3 to August 11 the Dog Days of Summer.

I’m once again using watercolor and stencils to art journal. This stencil came in my Cora Crea box of Dark Academia and I love it. The paint is Schmincke Dark Sepia Reddish. These little moon collages are from Coloring Book of Shadows.

I did a number of clutter sketches this week.

I’m liking the variability in line using the Gelsinki pen in Procreate. I like the effect better than the technical pen brush I used in previous sketches.

Two Weeks of Everyday Sketching

Not much sketching in week 27, but then I began Sketchbook Design, making pages for the Intro Week exercises.

I really love this sketch! I used the Schminke Retro Cochineal Red to paint the peonies I’d purchased at the grocery store. I used a petal brush for the first time, and through some mystery of brush design, it really did make those amazing flowers so easy to paint! I painted this for the exercises for the Sketchbook Design course. Had left-over paint, so painted a color block a few pages later in the book, knowing that color blocks are an element we will do next week.

The record breaking heat (118F/48C!) brought some household drama, which I decided to document indirectly with a clutter sketch.

I rather like the wireframe look of these clutter sketches, so I generally leave them this way rather than adding wash or shading.

I turned to this pre-painted color block and the day happened to be the Full Moon. I’ve been including these collage items for the lunar phases this month, and it seemed the perfect fit! I added the date and weather and loved the open look of the page, the white space, and the color block so much I left this page as is. My usual style is fairly crowded, packing a lot onto each page, so this is definitely the kind of design style taking this class teaches me to embrace. I love this page!

Thursday was a big day between Prime Day and Age of Umbra. Lots of little sketches that are chaotic and/or not very good. I enjoy doing the portraits for Age of Umbra, but I do them on the fly while the livestream is playing so accuracy is not what happens! The goal is to document daily life.

Here is the gallery of the full pages for the last couple weeks.

Everyday Sketching Week 26

These hot summer days are slowing me down significantly! I’m continuing with the food sketches, but not much else. Likely because I’m not really leaving the house for anything but grocery shopping, and I keep forgetting to bring my sketchbook for that. But watching shows gives a good opportunity to try some quick portraits.

This week’s food sketches:

Everyday Sketching 2025 Week 25

The temperatures heat up, and we are under Extreme Heat Advisories, and Air Quality Alerts, so I’m staying inside. Consequently not sketching nearly as much as I’d like. Happy Summer Solstice! Here is a little map I drew from a game I’m playing.

Food sketches for the week. Since the subject matter is so repetitive, I’m working on varying the methods.