Tag Archives: Liz Patreon theme

A Notes Page

I was watching Liz Steel’s Patreon livestream and taking notes. I like kind of dense note-taking that fills a page and then adding color blocks to give it some life. While I was watching, I sketched my sparkling water that was sitting in front of me. This is my first sketch since April 7th! I’ve only done color charts since then. And I haven’t sketched anything not food since One Week 100 People! Now that seems crazy, but I look over my sketchbook pages, and there it is, in full color!

A double page spread in a Stillman and Birn Alpha sketchbook dated Thursday 23 April 2026. Both pages are densely covered in handwritten Patreon livestream notes on Travel Sketching, with blocks of yellow and pink color wash behind sections of text. A sketch of a sparkling water bottle and stemmed glass appears on the right side of the spread in ink and watercolor. Planning notes in the upper right corner list the May theme as Darks, with Caput Mortuum noted in a box below.
Patreon Livestream notes with sparkling water bottle sketch — Stillman & Birn Alpha, 23 April 2026

I miss the sketching, but I guess it’s been a rough season.

The livestream introduced Liz’s May theme: Darks. Oh, I like this one! She mentioned starting with darks, pushing the darks, and even night sketching! Should I try night sketching? It never occurred to me before.

Starting with darks is a very useful approach, especially with the shapes that I often start with also. Committing to your darkest values early gives a sketch structure and stops it from looking flat and cartoonish. Deepening the darks in a scene, and increasing the value range, is one of the most reliable ways to add depth and presence. It’s the kind of thing that makes a sketch look like a real object or scene. I’m thinking of darks in terms of ink lines, too, not just watercolor.

However, I did immediately think of Caput Mortuum. My new infatuation born from pulling the Travel Sketching Palette together. That deep, complex brownish, reddish, purple that sits somewhere between burgundy and iron oxide. I have the Goldfaber Aqua and PITT Artist Brush pen, and I ordered watercolors Winsor & Newton and Sennelier both. You know, I need both to compare, right? Right? They haven’t arrived yet. But I am fantasizing about the darks it might make for me. How would such a warm, deep dark work in sketches? Seems perfect for the desert, and for summer, when even the deepest shadows are still meltingingly hot.

Obviously there will be Caput Mortuum swatches when the paint arrives! Plus I might finally break open my Bloodstone Genuine and compare it to Van Dyke Brown. Last summer Liz had swapped her Van Dyke Brown for Bloodstone Genuine, and I’ve been curious about the comparison ever since.

It feels good to be getting excited about this coming theme. It feels good to sketch again, after a longer span of time when I didn’t. It feels good to be excited about the upcoming Travel Sketching course, too. May is shaping up to be quite fun in the sketching department!

March Theme: Three

March Theme: Three

Liz Steel’s Patreon community theme for March was Three. Three sketches, three objects, three colors, a triad palette all counted, and it is a very versatile theme. I didn’t sketch as much this month as I wanted (hello inflammation hit!), but when I looked back through my sketchbook, three had been quietly showing up all along.

A gestural ink sketch of a tall spire, drawn with energetic angular lines suggesting faceted stonework, with loose grass sketched at the base.
Thumbnail ink sketch of the Frank Lloyd Wright Spire, getting acquainted with the subject.
An ink sketch of the Frank Lloyd Wright spire with complex angular planes and faceted surfaces, showing careful attention to the changing directions of the glass and ironwork. Cactus landscaping sketched at bottom.
Detail sketch of the Frank Lloyd Wright spire in ink.
A loose, luminous watercolour of the Frank Lloyd Wright spire in cobalt turquoise, sap green, and transparent pyrrol orange, with the architectural geometry dissolving into fluid washes of colour above a softly painted garden bed.
Direct watercolour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Spire in just three colours.

The most obvious was the Frank Lloyd Wright spire. I drew it three times. First just ink, getting acquainted with the energy of it. The second ink sketch was working on getting those complex angles and changes in plane. The spire has this wonderful jagged, faceted quality and it took real concentration to follow all those shifting surfaces. Much more challenging subject than I anticipated!

By the third, I went straight to direct watercolor. I always seem to love direct watercolour. It’s so much more forgiving! . There’s a looseness and confidence that comes from having already worked through the subject twice. Another aspect of three, was using just three colors: Winsor Newton Cobalt Turquoise Light, Winsor Newton Sap Green, and Daniel Smith Transparent Pyrrol Orange.

Something lovely happens when you sketch a single subject three times. I should do this more often. It looses you up, and you get more familiar with it.

Three watercolour lovebirds painted in bright greens, orange and yellow, sitting along a grey perch with soft reflected colour below, on white paper
One lovebird, three poses — green, orange, and full of personality

I loved this bird! One lovebird, in three poses, taking a bath. I drew these from photographs I took at the time. One sketch wasn’t enough to capture his fluttering energy during his bath at the reflection pool outside. Fifteen grackles were also present, focused on their own baths. Having those three poses meant I could tell the whole little story of this bath on a single page: the cautious approach, the full splashy middle, the ruffled aftermath.

I worked with a very limited set of colors across both subjects. The spire was a three color palette of Cobalt Turquoise Light, Sap Green, and Transparent Pyrrol Orange. For the birds it was a three color palette of Hansa Yellow Light, Sap Green and Trans Pyrrol Orange. I did add a hint of Cobalt Turquoise for the dark shadows on those wing feathers, and of course, Shadow Violet quietly sneaking in for the water. Technically five colors. Spiritually still three. Ha!

A sketchbook page showing three lovebird poses in watercolour, with five painted colour swatches across the top labelled Shadow Violet, Cobalt Turquoise, Sap Green, Hansa Yellow Light, and Transparent Pyrrol Orange, a handwritten title reading "It's Bathtime at the Reflection Pool," and a green-to-orange gradient bar along the bottom.
One lovebird, three poses, in (almost) three colors.

Then I had to add three design elements to this page! So we have the color gradient. (I do love painting a nice color gradient! Been practicing those for years!), the color swatches, and, of course, the main subject of the sketch. My swatches might be over-large for the best page design, but I still like how it tells the story of the colors as well as the love bird. After all, his colors are what makes him so special!

So that’s my exploration of the theme of three for March. One spire, drawn three times. One bird, three poses. A page with three design elements. Lastly, a palette that tried very hard to stay at three colors and almost made it.