sketchbook ep 30 ✏️ pencil sketches (5 pages) | 15 minutes rule⏲️ | making more of colorful illustrations | quite chaotic progress pictures 🎨 (Patreon)

Hi!

How are you doing?

Today I want to update you on my pencil sketches and all other sketchbooks!

I’ve been reflecting on my art practice a lot lately (going through a nervous breakdown not that while ago makes you rethink lots of stuff, you know)

I might need some time to let these thoughts/ideas take some shape, for now I can only tell you that my goal this year is to actually make something, to finish something. I tend to sketch a lot. I make lots of studies and well, end up not using them for anything (other than just more studies).

Maybe I just feel like this exploring phase has to turn into something a bit different. It doesn’t change anything for you though. You might get to see more of finished illustrations :D

Speaking of finishing things, I finished this sketchbook spread.

I almost had to force myself to do so, but once I got into the groove it was fun!

I’ve been playing with different ways of color swatching and I hope you noticed that! hehe

This is the before (I shared it in the previous post)

This blueberry themed spread is in the quite ugly stage of the process.

I like how it’s turning out! Some of my green pencils are getting ~dangerously~ small, so I think I’ll need to restock some of them this week!

Anyway, this spread started innocently, just with this little blueberry branch. I sketch the whole thing using light olive green pencil (can you see the sketch lines?!) without any plan, composition, concept or anything like that in mind.

It needed a company! More blueberry branches, this time smaller ones.

A dramatic close up look at some leaves!

and this, ladies and gentlemen, is the prime example of sketchbook spread made purely for practice. I really challenged myself to do this in color (instead in pencil, as always)

Oh, the variety of green tones!!!!

It’s not fully finished yet, especially the right side, where I haven’t added the pencil outline to some leaves yet. The lack of bold outline gives them much softer look, doesn’t it?

I was working on this spread for a few days, as a warm up or cool down practice or in the breaks from working on other things.

Here’s how it started:

and a progress shot (took in poor lighting, please excuse the quality!)

another work in progress shot! + blueberries in progress.

I wasn’t planning to share these pictures and/or document a process of making these illustrations, so it’s kind of chaotic, but hey, isn’t it nice to share these pictures instead of just a finished (or in this case, almost finished) drawings?

I’ve almost forgotten this little (it’s the size of my palm!) sketchbook page exists.

These were my color tests for pear illustrations.

These are messier and more loose than my usual drawings (plus, they’re just really small). I love them anyway and hope you are too, hehe!

Will be sharing more pear illustrations in the next post! (it was November’s theme!)

Now, to the pencil sketches.

If you’re new here you might be not familiar with my ~sketchbook drama~.

Basically my main ‘pencil sketchbook’ doesn’t open flat which is driving me crazy and makes editing scans much harder, yet I keep using this sketchbook, lol!

It’s just a little disclaimer, cause some of these scans turned out a bit blurry/overexposured near the middle of the sketchbook/edges of the page.

Usually I share just pictures instead of scans but it’s dark and late and I don’t want to wait until tomorrow to make this post! So, here we go:

Some houseplant sketches from a while ago, which I haven’t shared before!

(the quote comes from Queens Of The Stone Age ‘The vampyre of time and memory” song)

Fruits and pansies.

Just some morning doodles I made being half awake :D

That day I opened up Pinterest (which I don’t do that often!) and challenged myself to draw 3 flowers that popped up on my main feed, in 15 minutes!

I chose flowers I’m already familiar with, so it was more like a warm up exercise than any serious studies. I couldn’t even write ‘primroses’ properly at first try, which only proves how these morning warm up sketches are necessary part of my practice :D

This page contains sketches from two days of sketching in a similar manner than the page above.

I gave myself 15 minutes to quickly scroll Pinterest, pick some flowers and draw them. The first day I made these morning glory and buttercup sketches.

I’m actually obsessed with morning glory! It definitely deserves a full illustration!!

The next day I made sketches of smooth aster and golden chamomile. Can you tell I wasn’t feeling great that day?

Today’s page! I gave myself 30 minutes to do this, as I felt the warm up is sooo much needed today.

I started from the left lily of the valley sketch, then did the sketch on the right and then made another illustration of morning glory! See, I told you, I’m obsessed!

PS.

I’m still catching up on previous rewards! Both digital and physical.

I haven’t forgotten about you and there’s nothing wrong with anyone’s address, I promise! I apologies it’s been taking that long!

PS 2.

February’s theme will be announced soon (I’m excited!!), this week.

I’ll be announcing December’s and January’s themes in that post as well (thank you so much for trusting me with these).

Love,

Marta