Sketchbook: Watercolor...

  

Comments: Like most people, I currently have more time on my hands. So I did a couple of random watercolor sketches in one of my smaller unfinished sketchbooks. The reference photos I used were ones I took of the faux plants around my house. My use of watercolor (Sakura Koi) here was mainly to block in the general shapes before I went in with colored pencil....

Sketchbook: Alice (featuring The Nightmare-Verse by L.L. McKinney)

Comments: It’s been quite some time since I did something art related on the blog. As it so happens, I completely overlooked Our Thoughts Precisely’s blogiversary two years in a row, and so I decided to celebrate—belatedly—by sitting down and tackling one of the art projects that’s been on my mind for some time. I hardly ever draw fan art these days, but I’ve always wanted to make something inspired by Alice in Wonderland. I got a big dose of inspiration after I read A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney. I took my inspiration from various elements within the series instead of any one specific scene (so you don’t have to worry about spoilers). Some of my initial ideas were too cutesy for what I wanted. When my main goal was to capture more of the creepy-horror-action-aspect (the nightmares, the sword and daggers from the book covers), which are pivotal parts of the series. 

Materials for this project…

• Ucreate 75lb, acid-free, lignin-free drawing paper
• Artist’s Loft Necessities colored pencils in the color Light Orange
• Art Minds Permanent Marker

What are you working on this week?

Sketchbook...

The more I work in my sketchbook the more I’ve thought about the ways I’m currently using it. And I realized that I haven’t blogged about my process, shared any pictures of my favorite pages, or anything like that. It’s mainly due to the fact that I’ve spent more time creating art and haven’t stopped to consider if it would make a good blog post, instagram picture, or some other kind of content. I’ve essentially been enjoying the process and learning as much as I can from it. In my sketchbook, I can be as messy or composition-conscious as I want to be. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, because it’s my sketchbook.

What I’m saying is that I use my sketchbook to experiment. I bounce around between realism and cartoonish styles, even going as far as to combine elements that I like if it seems right for whatever I'm working on. I have a lot of pages that are unfinished, some dedicated to pose/anatomy practice; concepts for watercolor, acrylic, or digital paintings; and random bits and pieces of landscape and buildings. I’ve tried out a few different things that I might otherwise have never gotten around to because I didn’t want to spend the time doing them digitally. Ironically enough, this whole discovery process involved a box of crayons.

While organizing my room I found an old box of ordinary Crayloa Crayons—the basic 24 color set—in a bin of art supplies I haven’t looked at in years. Crayons, just like ballpoint pens, are another art supply that I like to sketch with. It challenges me since I can’t go back and erase all of the lines I just made. So, even if there’s something I don’t like, I’ll have to incorporate it into the sketch anyway. Also, it’s a lot of fun to work with all the different colors. Having more options encourages me to take more risks. After a while, I wasn’t satisfied with just the basic 24 set. I wanted more. And the great thing about crayons is that they’re cheap, like, really cheap. I bought a 120 count set for about 6-7 dollars from Michaels with a coupon, because drawing with crayon is

so

much

fun....

And I can save my more expensive supplies.

So, my sketchbook is just that: my sketchbook. There doesn’t need to be any stress. There doesn’t need to be any pressure to create content for the blog or twitter or anywhere else. I may share some more pages, or I might not. I’m just going to make art.

What are your thoughts on sketchbooks? Do you have one? Are you planning to start one?