sketchbook ep 36✏️ | drawings and work in progress | ⭐a new series of illustrations⭐ | lessons learned, how the idea started and how it’s going! 💡| long post ☕ (Patreon)

Hi!

You know what’s crazy? My brain almost convinced me that I did nothing worth sharing this week, mostly because I've been focused on my book and I took a weekend off. Meanwhile, I started a new series of illustrations and today I want to tell you how it happened! (and show you some illustrations, of course!)

Maybe let’s start with drawings unrelated to this series!

I finished the sunflower spread.

Here’s the work in progress I shared recently:

Today I was just flipping through my sketchbooks and found some strawberry sketches. I don’t even remember when I made these and why I abandoned them but I started coloring them today. They’re far from being done!

Now, speaking of series of illustrations.

Recently I started a series of ‘bouquets in vases’ drawings (I might need to come up with better names for them, lol).

I already shared one spread with you and the sketches for the next batch of drawings.

(here they are again!)

While working on them I realized I don’t really like the placement of one of the sketches.

It was nice but hey, it’s lupus plant, a big majestic plant! And I tried to fit this bouquet into a tiny space…

Actually I KNEW this space is too small to fit any other bouquet and initially wanted to draw some flowers instead but I got too fixated on the theme (meaning, the whole page HAS TO be just bouquets in vases) and well… I ended up with the sketch I wasn’t happy with.

Lesson learned, don’t ignore your feelings and don’t force things!!

Anyway, I was really reaaaaally attached to the idea of drawing bouquets and only bouquets on this page. When I think about it now it seems almost hysterical, lol!

I was kind of in a rush, knowing I’ll be away for two days and wanting to do as much as I can before that.

Another lesson learned: rush is not the greatest advisor.

When taking a shower the thought of maaaybe just breaking this nonsense rule came to mind. What if I can just cover this sketch and draw something else on top of it? Okay, okay, but it’s quite small. You know what else is small? Postage stamps.

And that’s how the idea came to me!

I quickly made the first stamp illustration. First I googled the standard size of the postage stamp (and ended up not using these measurements anyway hehe) and just jumped straight to it without overthinking!

The next day I was going to the music festival and I knew I won’t be home for the next two days.

This time rush was my best friend! I guess if I had more time to think about it I might start overthinking and not picking up this idea at all.

Rush: the friend or the enemy? Kind of both.

Periwinkle was my first choice simply because I really enjoyed drawing it in a bouquet and wanted to do it again.

I quickly snapped this picture before heading to the train station! The morning light in my studio is gorgeeeous (but also harsh!), isn’t it?

Once I got back home I made postage stamp illustrations of other two flowers featured in the bouquets on this page.

(I glued them to the page later!)

At that point I thought I’d combine these two series of illustrations together.

The plan was to draw some bouquets and then make stamp style illustrations of each flower.

Actually I still think it’s a great idea! While I believe limits (like time, materials, theme) could be beneficial for an artist, this time I wanted to just have fun.

I had many plants in mind but I decided to ask my IG community to suggest flowers to draw.

I had a weird realization!! I haven’t drawn most of the plants and flowers yet! It’s weird, considering that I draw almost exclusively plants, but it’s true!

For this batch of illustrations I’ve chosen plants I’m very familiar with (meaning I illustrated them before):

• lemon• strawberry• pansy• chicory• nasturtium• lilac

and plants I’ve never drawn before:

• kiwi• cherry• freesia• hibiscus• stargaze lily• chrysanthemum (you might remember a pencil sketch I made a year ago but it was my one and only attempt at drawing this plant)

Oh, I just realized it’s chrysanthemum, not chrysantemum!! with 'h'! oh well.

It’s 50/50 comfort zone and new plants! It wasn’t planned at all but I think it’s just a nice balance! (it's literally 50/50 soo... :D)

Actually, I turned all of this into one of the projects in my book!!

It wasn’t my intention and I started this series just for fun, but I thought it can bring some valuable lessons and it’s worth sharing in the book!

Making such postage stamp illustrations could be a warm up drawing exercise or fun way to learn how to draw a new plant! It’s, in my opinion, more entertaining than sketching a plant. It doesn’t mean that I’m ditching the ‘oldschool’ way of studying plants. Not at all!

Let's take a look at all of the stamp illustrations I made recently:

I wanted to share also some closer looks but I just realized they're not closer at all, lol!

I hope you can take a good look at all of them in the scan shared above!

and here's a real life picture:

I’m going to keep making these small illustrations here and there and once I have an online shop I’ll turn some of them into a sticker sheet!

If you have a plant you'd loooove to see in this style please let me know!

I’ll also continue other series of illustrations I have going on and just making anything that comes to mind.

When I started working on a book I was afraid it’d take all of my creativity and don’t leave any space for personal projects but actually it’s quite the opposite scenario for me.

Interesting!

How do you like new series of illustrations?

If you’re a fellow artist, are you going to try making such miniature drawings yourself?

I think postage stamp size landscapes or portraits would look amaaziiing!

Oh, I think I just like tiny illustrations and I hope you do too, as I’m going to share more of them next week!

Love,

Marta