Sketches, episode 1! (botanical studies, faces, leaves) (Patreon)

Let me introduce you to my new DIY sketchbook!

But first, why would I even make a sketchbook instead of buying one or using one of several ones I already have?  (no, it’s not only because it’s always fun to craft something hehe)

It’s kind of counter-intuitive but I like to have limitations in my drawing practice!

Limited color palettes, themes, drawing with a timer set to 30 minutes – these are my things.

In general I don’t have many rules in my sketchbooks but I have one – I purposefully use poor quality sketchbooks for my pencil sketches. At first I made up this rule to get out the habit of always finishing illustrations when they weren’t even good. It worked really well! For the first time in my life I finished a sketchbook (I’m planning a sketchbook tour video for next month!) and well, I needed a new one.

I went for a bad sketchbook hunt but in local stores and grocery stores I didn’t find any. When I was just about to give up I found one in a grocery store! It was A4 one and I’m not used to such big format. Sooo I looked up a tutorial on YT and made A5 sketchbook using this paper. The paper is too thin for my taste but I’m going to use it anyway! At least I’m not tempted to color any of my sketches :D

In general, I sketch a lot and I recently got back to my daily sketching practice (I set a timer for 15 or 30 minutes and just draw) so you can expect sketchbook posts 1-2 times a week!

Here are sketches I’ve made in this sketchbook so far!

First page! Oh, I felt out of practice and wasn’t sure what to draw. As you can probably tell!

Plant and tree studies are always good idea! (yes, I was kind of inspired by that first page!)

First double-paged spread. Goosebery leaves studies.

and some close-ups!

Comfort zone studies – lemon leaves! I used a few references for some of these sketches and then tried to draw based on what I’ve leaved.

When I started learning how to draw, I’d draw only girls. For years that’s all I could draw (and it’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, just to be clear). Most of these skills are gone but I still can draw faces and I do that sometimes!

I was working on this spread kind of in-between doing other things, so here's a little bit of everything!

First colorful page! Usually I’d use these pencils only if I ran out of my mechanical pencil leads (which happens sometimes!) but today I felt like making something colorful without the effort of properly coloring it. I use old Koh-i-noor watercolor pencils for such sketches.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed this peek into my sketchbook!

Expect the next sketchbook content episode in a few days :D

I don't like to judge my sketches but if you have any favorite ones or ones that caught your attention, feel free to share! I'm curious!

Marta