We went camping and I took my new sketchbook!
So, this ink and watercolor class I’m taking is a total dream. In Spring of 2016 I took my first very intro art workshops. I took a sprinkling of different classes to help me dial in my interests. I also started paying more attention to art styles online and emulating different styles to see what resonated. I ordered some books of my most very favorite childhood illustrator and started studying her work. I started buying art from other artists, which led to me meeting other artists too!
By August of that year I fell in love with pen and ink. I’d always loved it, and after going through the process of weeding out all the things I definitively wasn’t interested in, I came back to ink. I don’t think I’d taken my interest seriously because I’m also obsessed with color. But when I discovered that the favorite illustrator of my youth also did pen drawings in addition to her bright and beautiful painted illustrations, that clinched it for me. I knew I could have ink and color both.
By February of 2017 I was hesitantly putting pen to paper. But then I met Parsley and fell headlong into snail stamps: a necessary detour because the snails could be inked repetitively faster than I could draw. This gave me a chance to practice with watercolor and gain confidence as I painted the stamped snails (meanwhile Benjamin and I discovered a collaborative passion for stamp-carving!).
BUT NOW. It’s time! It’s time to bring ALL of this past observation, learning, and practice into its fullness: making my own ink drawings and painting them. I AM SO HAPPY I FOUND THIS CLASS!
And because my teacher is the best at helping me break through my self-doubt, I took my sketchbook on our camping trip and started documenting our weekend. I painted this tree! And while we haven’t covered any grisaille or painting in class yet, I had the confidence to make it up! I PUT A TREE ON PAPER! (Trees were my focus before snails, so this tree is a super big win because it’s a big time subject of interest and also I didn’t shy away and let my inner critic win).
And now I have a vision of what I want my sketchbook to look and feel like and I can’t wait to keep working on it!