Sketchbook Update 104 (Patreon)

My favourite time of year (I say this constantly about many times of the year) 

The farmers are harvesting the fields, which means I get to roam about again. In spring and summer most of my nice walks are blocked by cows with calves, so it's exciting to have new places to go, and ways to bypass them.

I did the second one to give to one of the farmers, it feels so cliche but I love slowly making friends with nontalkative old men. The other day one of the farmers walked like… back thru the field just to come and say hello. I thought he must have been coming for some other reason! (My self esteem is fine why do you ask)

Speaking of self Esteem I did this meme:

There's that long-ass character test and Sam and Johnathan are always way up there...along with like.... Baby from baby driver. ...Charlie from perks of being a wallflower. I'm undiagnosed stop coming for me random internet tests.

Also u should watch the short animated beatrix potter stories, they're lovely, I had the timmy willie one on VHS (the mouse above)...its so sweet.

York day trip to visit my mum again:

As is often the case since I can't drive (and my mum hasn't got a car lol) I have to travel on a morning with my partner to work and spend a long long day in york when I go, I was there at about 8 when the shambles were quiet, which was honestly very strange. Normally I don't even go down there, it's the most crammed street in york!

I got this little guy from a supermarket (I can't believe blind boxes are mainstream now) and I love him…I spent all day running my fingers over his fur in my pocket and when I pulled him out to show my mum I realised I had a piece of paper with pencil on it in there with him…and he was filthy. I was so pleased it came out with soap…and it was very cute. When I was a kid I'd make a big bath for all my toys and clean them lol. 

On the subject of blind boxes, my partner went to London for the Square Enix concert, and sent me videos of a gacha machine shop (I've never seen one) and asked what I wanted, and I said I'd take my chances with the pokemon one in the hopes of getting tandemous. He came home and pulled out the tandemous and I was like omg lucky…and then he pulled out the other 3 he'd gotten first. I love him :’). 

I found this pattern book in a charity shop, that has some great 70s patterns for borders (on instagram the ratio means most of my work has to be scaled down and bordered) they've got a satisfying colour layer overlap where its not quite aligned hehe. 

I bought an insane insane set of holbein colour pencils. I've never actually owned an artist grade set before, when I was at uni I'd buy single polychromos in mostly dark and mid toned because I used them to sketch instead of graphite pencils, and for anyone that's had polychromos before…they are quite hard. They're very smooth and blend very well and hold a fantastic point, but it hurt my hand to lay down solid areas so I had kind of written off colour pencils altogether until recently I pulled out some from my mums art days, which weren't a good brand but they were softer, and I was like oh…game changer.

It's been so exciting to be like 'I have a colour for that!' now haha. The pastels are to DIE FOR. So far my fav colour is ice green, it's so satisfyingly minty.

I was very much influenced by this video, this artist who uses them a lot, and two of my mutuals doing just some beautiful really lively art with colour pencils:

Bandaidfingers | Draculing

I made some wobbly cardboard trays for my beautiful shiny pencils LOL. I’m still a cheapskate at heart. 

I feel like almost every month I'm showing you some new art supply or another, and I fear becoming… influencer unrelatable, which is nonsense I know haha. However, I do want to say thank you for funding my nice art supplies! It gives me so much joy tbh to see what new things I can do, and how I can combine the materials I have. I've had so much fun in my sketchbook with these so far!

My gamer setup, Josie is so pleased to have my office chair. I've been playing subnautica the last few weeks and it's been really nice, I was getting a bit stressed and I forget how to have fun sometimes, and a friend recommended me this! A lot of the games I like are intense brainwork…and not good for relaxing, but this has a good balance for me!

Mixing media! The first is ink and neocolour, the second adds watercolour too! In the second one the sheep moved really quickly once I started though lol, it knew. 

I've been trying to be more messy and journalistic with my plein airs, trying to capture the things that struck me most. I've been deliberately taking unsuitable paper to force myself to keep it simple lol.

The sunshine + the very crispy fields made some amazing fiery colours.

We drove to driffield to go on a walk and then get a takeout...and then decided to just sit in, and it was lovely (and so tasty). Malton is...very limited for takeout- especially indian, and ofc we have to collect it because nowhere delivers to us, so this was a treat!

Also pictured is my lunch on our crispy lawn lol, I love having loads of bits in the fridge, most of my lunches are like this, leftovers and salad bits and pickles. 

My friends sent me a package, including some very potent catnip, and even before I knew what was in it, I had a hunch.

Some art inspirations!

Momopachi, who always has such dynamic sketches.

Skullivander because I am gay for this specific type of man and my god he draws it so well.

And Toadlett who has such a specific quality of line that I just love, they draw some truly fantastic and upsetting creatures.

My own creature encounters!

I remembered where & when I saw badgers previously- and that animals have pretty consistent routines- and was basically bombarded with them! I sat there for probably 45 minutes listening to them catching insects in the field and crunching them XD. I posted some videos on tumblr here and here.

I hope you all have a good rest of your week, as always thanks for the support!