Sketchbook Update 94 (Patreon)

Forgive me I know this is just so many pictures. I didn't think I drew much this month! I say this every time and I never learn to update more frequently, ack!

See the captions in the pics for little descriptions.

Loads more oil pastels this month, I've really been enjoying them, there's something so satisfyingly gooey about layering them, and they're quite forgiving, it's fun to kind of push the colours around and scrape them off etc. (some of the colour pics are neocolour ii which are like fancy wax pastels)

I do want to try and do more plein air gouache, I have been putting it off because I'm scared but I've been frustrated by the limitations of not being able to mix colours with pastels, and maybe saying it here will push me to be brave and go for it.

This month I also got to do some more up close animal drawing, and I hope I can do more, it was so nice to do more planned drawings (with a seat and everything...) I sat down with a neighbour in her garden and drew her puppy- she used to be an art teacher so it was fun to be like...experimental with things, she challenged me to draw bigger and tried drawing smaller herself, and I tried charcoal for the first time since school and it was so fun!! And I also went to draw some donkeys in their pen :').

Also! I will talk about it again soon with some previews but I am in a book! 'Night at the Vampire Castle', is a choose-your-own-adventure; but romance! I can attest that it's very good and hot and funny, I'm excited to play it again tbh >:), I have some scary ladies I've yet to hook up with. I drew the art for two(!) certified goodboys.

As usual see below for plein air pics and a kind of photo diary <3

Yorkshire being beautiful, as always. I am so lucky! I want to spend as much time as I can outside :'). Theres a phrase calling it 'Gods own country' and tbh it resonates! It makes me wanna cry sometimes its so pretty.

I went out on the hottest day (so far....) and basically skulked around in the shadows of trees, it was kind of fun choosing one spot and drawing a few different angles so I didn't have to leave the shadow I was sat in. It was so comfortably warm in the shade too, I felt like napping hahahaha.

This coloured sugar paper I've been using is actually probably from the 60s or 70s lol, they're from a (different!) teacher in my village- who inherited school supplies from her parents teaching days!

The colour limitations in the set I have are driving me insane lmao. I've been using my darkest colours- which are blue and purple- for all the shadows. I am going to go buy some more dark dark greens because my god! I want to draw it how it is! It's so beautiful! (as I said in my sketchbook page...'it's not fucking blue though')

On this day there was a powercut all day so I talked my partner into to going outside with me (he's not really an outdoor guy), and bizarrely the national trust ruin nearby was just...open and unstaffed, so we wandered around! All the cows came to the river to have a drink, and then went back to where they came from, and these two were running to catch up, it was so cute :').
Josie teaching the neighbours cat Jess the art of being aloof. Also Gyll, the puppy I was drawing! He is so cute and so loving...I love animals so much. I feel so much more comfortable with them I won't lie hahahaha, conversation is not my strong point.

I was invited to draw someone's rescue donkeys who sadly are at the end of their lives, it was really nice to spend the morning with them while the owners went about mucking the pens and doing their morning jobs. The vet was actually due later that day and gave them the sad news, so I'm glad the owners have some pictures to remember them by. The closer one was Murphy, who had no concept of personal space and I had to keep walking away from him to actually draw anything but his snout lmao. It was so so nice. (btw there was no grass in there because they couldn't digest it, I hope they get to eat their fill in donkey heaven.)

I've felt very luxurious recently with lots of veg and fruit, I was cooking extra potatoes at dinnertime to have for lunch and I felt very smart lol. Also I usually have hot porridge for breakfast but since it's so warm I've been having overnight oats with fruit instead, and the tiny tiny strawberries from our garden!

Babies! I walked past this bush and noticed a little stoat scurrying back in, so I went back the next few days and waited quietly and it was so much more exciting than I thought, they fully forgot I was there for a moment and started playing.

They were so cute, SO cute.

I decided to do a silly splatoon banner thingy, there's a tournament coming up and the theme is land/sea/air, so I thought it'd be cute to draw my preferred transport (trains!!!) I did this using the directional arrows and no sketch so I'm honestly kind of surprised it looks good!

I've been a bit melancholy seeing the summer slip by so fast, but I saw the blackberries and elderberries starting to ripen and it kind of reminded me that I love every season, actually.

If you've gotten this far, thank you for reading! And thank you so much to people who've said that they find my sketchbooks inspiring, it truly gives me such joy to hear, and tbh makes it rewarding to put them together like this <3