January *✲⋆.Secret Sketches*✲⋆. Batch #2 (Patreon)

Happy January 10th (from my timezone)! I have a few more sketches to share with you. The last week has mostly been filled with working on the Anne of Green Gables book, doing some Harvest Patron species shout-outs and filming my week in the life video. I'm kind of relieved to be done with that, so I can continue to focus on patreon content and freelance projects! I'm including a couple crops from the Anne book in progress, and a couple other bits and bobs. 

**As always, a short description is included at the bottom of each image if you scroll through the gallery!**

To elaborate on the posca/graphite sketchbook page--it's a bit of a mess of everything. Let me talk you through this sketchbook page to hopefully give you some insight on how I work/how I fill sketchbook pages. 

Originally, I started this page while Colin and I were eating at a cafe. I started drawing the plant (on the left side) that was hanging above us, before our food came. I think of loosely drawing from observations as a warm-up of sorts. 

While we were eating, he told me about a game where you construct a character for a "wanted" poster based on random descriptions given to you by the other person--much like a Criminal sketch artist who makes Facial composites. So the person drawing asks questions like "what shape was their head? what kind of hair did they have? were they wearing anything distinct? Big or small nose?" etc. until you have a completed person. And often times the character turns out like a complete mess because the person giving the descriptions isn't thinking about an actual person in their mind. It's a lot of fun and it's a great creative exercise especially if you can both draw--or perhaps it's more fun if you don't usually draw. I imagine this would be fun to do over the phone or in a group call too, having people take turns describing the criminal.

So that explains the horrible elf man not wearing his mask on the right page of the sketchbook.  

On a later day, I turned back to this page and noticed how empty it was, so instead of doodling Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke on a new blank page, I decided to add him to this pre-existing one. And even later that day, I wanted to do some drawings inspired by simple designer toys, hence the red and grey posca characters surrounding the horrible elf man. 

I often get questions on how I work in my sketchbook, or what's running through my mind. I hope this breakdown made sense. Anyways, see you very soon with this month's podcast and step by step video! Sending love.

-JG