Sketchbook Circle Book 1

This month I joined a sketchbook circle with the OCA Visual Communications Discord server. There are 7 of us participating, and the idea is that we all create a sketchbook with a theme connected to ‘the everyday’, fill in the first 10 pages, and send it to the next person on the list. They then fill the next 10 pages, and so on and so forth.

Because this is the first month of the sketchbook circle, it meant I was working on my own book. I decided to pick the theme ‘time’. I felt this connected to ‘the everyday’ very nicely and it gave me a lot of ideas for things to include. I used this sketchbook to explore ideas, experiment with new techniques, and just generally draw out whatever I was feeling like drawing.

Here is a video flip through of my 10 pages:

I started by designing a cover page introducing the theme and providing space for everyone to write their names. On my first official page, I drew out some routine things that happen every day at the same time. I used watercolour to paint these, and went over the drawing with ink pens. I then chose an image from Pinterest that I really enjoyed, and drew it 4 times. Once for 30 seconds, once for 1 minute, once for 10 minutes, and once for 30 minutes. This was a great exercise and one I would really like to repeat. It helped me focus on getting as much information down as possible and cutting back on detail.

I then filled a page with clocks, drawing different ones over and over. I ended up writing ‘drawing clocks is hard’ in the centre of the page, because I was really struggling. I highlighted some of the clocks with watercolour and ink. My next page was supposed to be character development, the same character from birth to death. It didn’t quite go to plan, and I ended up leaving it. I went back at the end and experimented with some brushwork lettering, as I was interested in the concept after my final sketchbook page.

My next piece was a two page spread. I wanted to touch on the seasons, so I did four illustrations – one representing each season – using ink pens for detail. I had never tried this before, and I really love how it looks. I filled the background with gouache, also a new paint to me, and tried to feature 4 distinct seasonal skies. Next, I painted some dead flowers, as I feel death is a product of time. I then listened to 3 different songs of varying lengths and sketched/doodled as the song played, keeping my strokes and movement in line with the track. I love this way of drawing, especially going back and creating characters from the lines I have made.

I then wanted to draw a page of ‘things that grow’. The heart is meant to be representational of love growing, and I tried a new watercolour technique here. I then drew vegetables growing out of the ground, and an acorn with deep roots. The acorn looked a bit like a character, so I gave it a face. My last page simply said ‘tick tock’ and was just for a bit of fun and relaxation. I love lettering, and I really enjoyed using watercolour here too.

I’m very excited to see where the sketchbook circle takes me, and I’m grateful for it as its conception is what started pushing me to leave my comfort zone and begin being freer with my art. Doing these 10 pages has encouraged me to sketch more, and shown me that sketchbooks can be fun.

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