Sketchbook Revival 2025 + Extra Sketches in a New Sketchbook

 I'm still taking the Sketchbook Revival classes, but I'm also working in a couple of sketchbooks on my own stuff. I'm working on the last page of one sketchbook and beginning a new one. Both are 7" x 10" mixed media paper.

I almost skipped this class, but I'm so glad I didn't. I love to write, so this one was right down my alley, once I checked it out. It is inspired by Rachel Rose in her class "Mindful Inspirations, a Thumbnail Sketch", and it involves holding your thumb up to objects in the room around you until something, or a portion of something, gets your attention. My thumb landed on my handmade cane that my dad made for me many years ago, so I sketched that, then wrote a few lines about it, like it was doing the talking. Then I picked out three to five key words from the lines to evoke an image in my imagination, sketched it and wrote a few lines about that, using the key words.

In my case, the cane evoked memories of my dad and his mom (because she always used one for more than just walking, that looked much like mine), and the key words evoked memories of my other grandparents and the old homeplace where I grew up and still live near. The house is very much real, and not imaginary, but that's the image that the talking walking stick evoked me to write about. The walking stick reminds me of my dad and my granny every time I use it, and I love walks out to the old homeplace, which connects me to my other granny and papa, which leads to much to write about! So many memories!

I haven't written anything in a long time, but this class has made me want to again!

This class was also one I hesitated on, but it was worth doing. It involved taking one object and drawing a page full of it from different angles, moods, and sizes, using different mediums. Also, they are supposed to be timed sketches. I don't normally like drawing the same thing more than once, or twice, but this was an interesting exercise that I did with a key on a ring. I did skip the charcoal sketch and the really large sketch, because I didn't want to draw over what I had already done, which the teacher did. From the class "Object Observation: Quick Drawing Exercises" with Susan Yeates.

A page in my new sketchbook just for fun. I used a water brush pen filled with India ink to paint a large "S" with a couple of ink drops over a page that I had sprayed water on. As the ink spread on the damp paper I added some salt sprinkles and let dry, then brushed off. When it was all dry, I added the bars in threes with the large end of my Zig marker. 

Another one just for fun. I drew three circles, using a round tape core for a template, Then I added the straight lines with a ruler, all with a black Zig marker. I sprayed the page with water and dropped Indigo, yellow, and red watercolors onto the page and let them mingle, adding color until I was happy with it. I painted it vertically, but after turning it, I liked it better horizontally. I like it!

This isn't from a class, but I used techniques that I learned in a few of the classes. I used a couple of pictures of seagulls that I took on our 2019 road trip out west to sketch and paint, in ink and watercolor, these three wandering around the parking lot of the Missouri motel we stayed in on our way home. There were actually many more or these, but I liked these three poses, especially the middle one, who was looking right at me. Fun to do. They taught me some stuff!

So that's it for now! It's so hot outside, and I've been dealing with vertigo this week, but I managed to get in some art therapy every day! So good for me! I think I'd be crazy otherwise?