Sketchbook Revival

I received an email in May about an online "Sketchbook Revival". For 12 days videos from different artists were made available. Many of the artists shared pages from their personal sketchbooks, and demonstrated one technique or another. The videos covered many different art forms. They included making & binding books, pencil sketching, bold graffiti designs with markers, water color sketches using traditional water color as well as water color pencils, using regular colored pencils, botanical drawings, collages, and several others. I didn't have the opportunity to view all of the videos as we were in the throes of getting ready to leave Florida and my time was limited. However, the program reignited my artist-wanna-be fire! One of the artists, Liz Steel, shared watercolor sketches that she creates when she is traveling as a way of remembering her trip. Wow! What a fun thing to do. I am going to Europe toward the end of September and decided it would be wonderful to document my travels with my own sketches... and to be able to do this, I need practice. Lots of practice! Therefore ... I purchased a few different journals so I could experiment with the types of paper. I bought a nifty travel watercolor set, and a few extra brushes. I did get some markers and colored pencils as well. I made a commitment to sketch... every day! I am loving it. When I return from walking the dogs I pull out my box of journals and art supplies and sit down to create. It is a wonderful part of my day... and I have completed 44 different sketches to commemorate our travels, share what I see when I walk the dogs in the morning or simply things that strike my fancy. I have missed a few days, here and there, but I have done more in the past few months than I probably have in the past few years!

Here are some of my favorites!

Among my first sketches... watercolor pencil, water colors, marker & pen
3.5" X 5.5"

Watercolor and pen
3.5" X 5.5" 

Pen & watercolor.
I am a huge fan of how the oyster turned out. I'm not sure why!
3.5" X 5.5"

Watercolor & pen.
I was trying to capture the haze in the early morning.
3.5" X 5.5" 

Watercolor & pen
5.5" X 8.5"

Watercolor & pen.
This is my first attempt at doing people in wc.
5.5" X 8.5"

Watercolor & pen... and a lot of artistic license!
5.5" X 8.5"

Watercolor pencil, watercolor & pen
5.5" X 8.5"

Watercolor
I was not happy with the background. This is an area needing improvement!
5.5" X 5.5"

Watercolor & pen
5.5" X 8.5"

Watercolor & pen
3.5" X 5.5"

Watercolor & pen
3.5" X 5.5"

Colored pencil
5.5" X 8.5"

Only watercolor.
No preliminary pencil & no pen!
5.5" X 8.5"

Only watercolor.
No pen & no preliminary sketching with pencil
5.5" X 8.5"

All sketching accomplished with watercolor
5.5" X 8.5"

 My confidence is growing. The drawings most often do not turn out the way I envision them, but I  see progress and I usually find something in each that pleases me.