Sketchbook Update 98 [Also: Holiday next week!] (Patreon)

It's my birthday next week so I'm taking the week off to chill a little (and draw...lets be real)!

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I'm happy with how much colour and variety is in this update! I feel like there's a lot of things I'd consider flops, but I also had a lot of fun trying things out and not stressing about the outcome which is ...what a sketchbook Should be for.

It actually took me longer than usual to get enough to update this time because I have one very very tiny table downstairs where I draw, and I had a sewing project taking it over for about half a month. You can see the first chunk is almost all travel stuff- stuck in afterwards, and then the second chunk from the big dark blue scrapbook pages is when I finally got my table clear, and I was rusty and kinda scared to sketch!

It was also the month of our cat Josie being unwell (in. a different way than last time.) so I was just. eugh. She's fine, but she's the sickliest cat I ever knew. The vet receptionist knows us by name, and when we came in she was like 'ah so that's Josie, and you're here forrrr' looked at her computer and said 'chronic diarrhoea' and then looked up at us with such pity LOL. At one point in the month I was giving her meds three times a day. it was Great. I was also woken up every night for like two weeks by the most rancid smells from her litter box... She is better now. we hope it will last for more than a week.

Moving swiftly along... I figured I'd show some other art that has been inspiring my sketchbook!

The beautiful thin lines and washy colours of Lila Guimet

And the variety and line confidence of Sophie Mcpike (these are from her dog instagram)
These both influenced me to try dogs... I'll get there eventually hahahaha. I also wanted to get better so I could draw furries/anthros from my own starting point, instead of copying another artists style. I feel light I ought to understand where they're coming from in their stylistic choices, at least!

When I picture autumn I think I'm influenced by the American fall propaganda, crispy leaves and orange trees and stuff, where here tbh its wet, windy, and grey. A lot of the trees barely made an attempt at yellowing before dropping leaves lol. I tried to make peace with it and go out anyway, but trying to find time where it wasn't About to rain, or too windy to set up, was basically impossible lol. Direct sunshine feels like a distant memory haha! I am so grateful that I bought a dryer this year, I love my dryer. I sometimes wish I was small enough to climb inside and sleep on the warm fresh laundry, when it's especially cold in the house.

Here is my tripod btw, I never show it! And the glimmer of blue sky behind me... and grey ominous clouds in front. Speaking of the cold weather though, I am very excited for the coming frost, I love the muted colours of winter. I also love that the mud freezes...

Here is what my walks are like lately. A lot of my paths are churned up by tractors and cows, so it's just a mess haha! This time of year I have a pair of trousers I change into when I'm going outside, so I can keep my indoor trousers mud free. That and cow poop free...which lets be real is a not small percentage of this mud.

Here I've given up on the gouache and tripod, and I'm back to my mini watercolours! Honestly really happy with these two, the views were pretty underwhelming but I tried to emphasize what captured my attention. In the first it was the farmers pickup (he calls it his bentley) covered in yellow leaves. In the second I loved the trees against the dark bg but felt the green crop sprouts were super throwing things off, orange and bright green isn't exactly...autumnal, so I toned that one down to a cold teal.

It was good to go back and feel like ...oh yeah, I do still know how to do this. Phew! Also the fancy estate had fancy autumnal orange trees, ofc...

Some dimly lit sketches! Before I paint something I try to take a photo (if I like it), so if I screw up I still have a record of it when it was good :P.

Someone in the group chat asked if anyone wanted any apples, so I got to go and pick a bunch from their lovely garden! When I arrived the woman was like 'do you want to meet our cats first' (I guess I'm infamous for walking our cat haha), so I was like YES haha. I drew them some pictures to repay them for the apples! They were all so big. the cats and the apples!

Absolute precious babies. Especially when my own stink monster was waiting back at home, I didn't want to leave...

Made a cute pie! My first ever! Unfortunately I have to be a bummer and say that the pie was Very Bad, we followed an american recipe and like, do people really like things that sweet... ? We ended up eating the pastry and tossing the rest. I do have more pastry in the freezer (I made it myself, too!) so I'm gonna try again with maybe a third of the sugar... less. (I am not a big sugar fan tbh, I personally have porridge plain with like. a tiny bit of honey on top, and my (plain cocoa powder) hot chocs with Maybe one teaspoon of sugar LOL.)

Doll chatting below :)!

The sewing project himself. I wanted him to have some little flares, and his leg shape is too unusual to buy for so! It was time for trial and error x100. Trying to find a way to get the fabric to have room for movement, tight enough to look good, and also . have room for his ass. was a challenge, and I ended up using an elastic fabric! It was way easier than I thought it would be to use, and I love how it came out. I just melted the raw edges instead of doing a hem or waistband, to reduce bulk. Not sure if I want to go in and hem later but we'll see!

(this was before cutting the hem allowance off, and also pictured is the trial and errors... his legs Are already that shape, so I think elastic worked really well)

I got some new dolls on the left... I feel like I've rarely seen anything with such Chunky Baby proportions, and I adore them. I want to make the blue one into kidstarion (I bought her for that tbh and I'm not big on her hair/clothes) but the pink one is just. chefs kiss haha. I love her. I am trying to lean into my cringe and the most cringe for me is really liking baby themed things. I sometimes feel like I've been an adult since birth, and I spat on dolls and pink and frills when I was young, so it's nice to lean back and allow myself those things now. On the right is the future Cliff doll, his sculpt is Perfect and I'm working on his hair atm! I initially wanted to make his clothes myself...but tbh... I couldn't make them that good, and his proportions fit most ob11 clothes so I gave in.

You'll have to let me know if you're interested in seeing stuff like this! I'm never sure if it's too distant from art and sketchbooking.
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And to close, some lovely mushrooms, I asked a neighbour if I could go into their garden to take some photos ;P.

If you've read to the end, I love you, thank you for being here!