Working in a sketchbook can be an important part of an artist’s life, beyond just “sketching” out ideas. For me it is vital for stress relief and well being… and I have a lot of fun! I hope this class will help you loosen up and discover new ways to use your sketchbook. We will remind ourselves that a sketchbook should be a personal journal, and not something that has to be a masterpiece from beginning to end. By combining collage, words, and drawing, we’ll start a sketchbook that will hopefully free you to not overthink future sketchbooks.
We’ll explore composition, shading, and different levels of completeness as not every sketch has to be fully fleshed out. We’ll bring our other passions into our sketchbooks, and explore different types of reference. But most of all we’ll have a good time pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones. Through these six lessons we will start a new sketchbook that you will be able to finish afterwards using new ideas, thoughts, and techniques.
We’ll start by looking through some books and see all kinds of ways that different artists use their sketchbooks, and then do an exercise that will take the pressure and anxiety out of drawing in a brand new sketchbook.
This lesson is all about composition and finding multiple solutions to the same problem. We will focus on minimalism and empty space.
In this lesson we will experiment with multiple methods of shading, as well as continuing to think about composition.
Bring your favorite scientific or organic interests into the realm of your sketchbook!
We’re going to start our final project in this lesson: a grid drawing. I’ll demonstrate how I start these types of drawings.
This final lesson will be a demonstration of how to complete a grid drawing, focusing on mini compositions that create one larger composition.
For a full list of the supplies you will need, see the tab titled “Supplies” located just under the video screen above.