I’ve posted this in a couple other places already, so some of you have seen it. This is the birthday card I made for my husband this year, in it’s almost-finished state. It still needed a bit of cleanup and to have the backing attached, but you get the idea.
Ready for a peek inside the sketch book?
This is just a quick owl inked over a watercolor background. He’s far from perfect, but I like him that way.
I love to use my books as places to pour out ideas for larger projects. It lets me get a feel for what I’m doing and work through any potential issues. And I love having a record of all my mistakes!
Having put down all pens, pencils, brushes (and even my beloved gel medium) for months, I’ve felt a little rusty. As I get back into the flow of making art on a regular basis, I started looking for exercises that would kickstart my brain, and get me back in that art space that I’ve been missing. The solution? Art journals.
People have millions of reasons for art journals, and in the past my journals resembled more of a diary – writing about what was going on, sorting through feelings, etc. But this one holds a different purpose. It’s a quick and dirty way to test techniques, work through ideas that I’m having and generally brain dump in a way that I find aesthetically pleasing. Above all, it gets me back in the habit of making art, even pieces that are throw aways. It’s a project about process. Imperfections and mistakes are welcome guests (and you will see plenty of those).
I would like to get to a place where I am creating something every day, even if it is just a set of backgrounds. Hopefully, along the way I’ll be able to share with you some of my favorite techniques (old and new), my worst mistakes (I still haven’t learned to use masking fluid), and some new inspirations.
So, here are a few pages that I’ve been working on lately.
This is the very beginning of the first page. I am still fairly new to watercolors, so pages like this are a fantastic way for me to sort out how I want to use them. Everything was sketched in with pencil prior to painting.
And this is the final product, mistakes and all (you’ll find that I make lots of those). I don’t love the lettering, the white paint pen got the better of me in a few places, and the paint from the next page over bled through. But I’m okay with that. It’s so important not to let the fear of imperfection stop you from pushing forward – something I definitely struggle with!
And this is the offending page – the one that bled through. This is also one of my favorite techniques of all time – salting. It’s so easy and produces stunning results. Tomorrow I’ll have a short tutorial on how to produce this effect!
