Sylvia‘s Art Journey

I haven't been here for a while. Nothing exciting has happened. I have watched lots of Skillshare videos and some drawings have emerged through this. Like this elf who is here to wish everyone wonderful holidays and all the best for 2019! Having said this, I am rather satisfied with the outcome of my creative endeavour in 2018. My Nostalgie sketchbook will soon be filled and I'll move on with one of my Sketch & Note.

I saw this done with chalk pastels, but I only have oil pastels, so I tried this out with them. I have smudged around with them before, but haven't really tried it out as a background in my sketchbook. What you do is take a cotton pad and rub it across your oil pastel. Then you take the pad and rub the colour on your paper with a bit of pressure. I have used my yellow oil pastel only, but of course you can mix different colours as well. If you have put a bit too much on the paper, you can lift some off with an eraser. Then I drew over the background directly with ink. You can also draw on it with pencil, but if you erase the pencil later you'll also erase the oil pastel. Finally I coloured part of the drawing with coloured pencils. Some of them allow the background to shine through a bit, some don't. Of course, it also depends on how much pressure you use or how many layers you put on. I think this is a nice way to make a coloured background.

I've finally decided to try out Skillshare . It's an online learning site that has different kinds of courses, among them lots of art courses. You don't pay per course, but per month or year, and it's not very expensive. My first two months are free, so I'll see how I like their courses and then decide if I want to stay for longer. The teachers are apparently mostly freelance illustrators and artists. I have come across some of them in other places and am confident that they have something valuable to teach. There seems to be stuff that is nice to have, like ideas and tips for illustrated journaling, but also videos that teach techniques like pen and ink drawing. I started yesterday with a nice botanical line drawing course and made the following double spread. But I soon want to try out some more sophisticated stuff, so I can see if this place is worth paying for. Stay tuned.

My drawing hobby has led to a side project and I'm working on it right now. I've had a personal website for a long time. It has been a hotch-potch of different things I'm interested in. But somehow I don't like it this way any longer. It doesn't really have a concept, it has grown historically so to speak. And it is not written in the current version of HTML and CSS anymore. So first I went ahead and updated the code. Now I am about to create the new content which will be all about drawing. I'm putting in there all the experience I have gathered in about three years of drawing. I hope it will help visitors understand that everyone can learn to draw and give them some hint on how to begin. It will be in German only for now. Can't wait to see it online.

I have finally created an instagram account. I had been thinking about it for a while, wondering how it would serve my needs and how I would use it. The reason I have finally done it is that I hope to find some inspiration from more professional artists there. The few facebook art groups I'm in are not uninteresting, but there you find people with all kinds of experience and expertise. So now I am about to look for interesting, inspiring accounts on instagram. I will look into some illustrators I have come across during the last years and I will see what else I find there. I have posted one welcome pic on my account . Though, I don't know yet, if I will post much myself. There is also a link to this blog there.

I've wanted to try the Hahnemühle Nostalgie sketchbook for a while now. The Nostalgie paper is very popular and it has been available as sketchbooks for some time now. When you go over the white 190 gsm paper it feels very smooth, but when you draw on it with coloured pencil you can see that it has a fine tooth. I love how the pencils smoothly glide over the paper. It's easy to fill in all the white and you can still put on a few layers. It's also great for ink. Today I did a whimsical mermaid after a tutorial. She's not quite perfect, but I think you can see that she has attitude. She's a bit reserved, but if you respect her she'll show you her little world. I did the background with a mixture of coloured pencil and oil pastels. And I blended it with Terpin. Worked quite well I would say. So, say hello to my little mermaid:

As planned I bought some solvent yesterday, a small bottle of Terpin by Schmincke. And I experimented with it right away. Yesterday's experiments weren't so successful. Today I finally tried it - on printer paper - by applying the oil pastel with the side of the stick, not putting on much pressure. I then took a cotton bud, let it soak up some solvent and went over the oil pastel with it, holding it flat. The result doesn't look too bad. It shines through on the opposite side, but, well, it's thin printer paper. Should be less of a problem on thicker paper. It dries rather quickly and then it's permanent. You can go over it with your finger and nothing happens. At the top I tried to draw on it with a coloured pencil. Difficult. Drawing on it with a fineliner is almost impossible. So I may give it a try in a sketchbook sooner or later.

So meanwhile I have bought some oil pastels, a 12 colour pack by Faber-Castell. My main reason for buying them was to be able to fill larger areas with them instead of with coloured pencils. They say you can blend them with your finger. It is possible, but rather difficult. They are not very creamy. As the finger method was not successful I tested some other methods. First I blended them with oil and with a little care and practice this would certainly work well. The problem is that it seems to create quite a mess in a sketchbook. So it's no option for me. I have then tried to blend them with a stump - works, but it is a lot of work to get a pleasing result. Next I tried it with a vinyl eraser and a kneaded eraser. Both work rather well, though you lose some colour and it looks brighter afterwards. Still, I think this could be a good way to create a background. I am going to buy some kind of mineral spirit soon and see if this works for my needs. Maybe it would be a good idea t...

While drawing part of a building in Mexico City yesterday I took some photos of the different stages of my drawing process. For a while now I have liked to draw in pencil first, lightly, to get the basic lines and forms right, then draw over it with ink and then colour things with coloured pencil. At first I wasn't sure if this combination of ink and coloured pencil would work, but I really like it. It seems to be a rather rare combination, though. Judging from the few facebook groups I'm in and from what I see elsewhere most sketchers prefer ink and watercolour. I don't see myself using wet media, especially not in a sketchbook. So I have noticed that I never get as many likes on facebook for my work than others. Could be me, could be that I have only a bit less than three years of experience and it shows, could be that people don't like my combination of ink and coloured pencil so much. Whatever the reason, I will go on this way. I may buy some oil pastels to help m...

We are one week into Skechbook Revival and it has been rather interesting. Well, not eveything is my cup of tea, but that's ok. Also, there are some elements that are not so easy for the left-brained me. On the first day we did a guided meditation where we should find out about our art related intentions by visiting our creative self. I wasn't able to visualise much. But then I think that I know what my intentions are anyway; after all, as an introvert, I do lots of self-reflection. And being creative by drawing is certainly a way for me to try to not be so left-brained. I like to do realistic drawings, but I would like to give myself more artistic freedom, allowing myself to simplify and to adjust things to my liking. There are also some intuitive exercises that I don't know what to think about, yet. But I intend to try them out. The workshop also provides some nice tips here and there, like ways to bind your own sketchbooks. The topics are varied and should include ...

There's hope that some new inspiration will come my way soon, in the form of a free online workshop called Sketchbook Revival . It starts on 23 April and is about how to use and maintain a sketchbook. Different artists will show what they do with their sketchbooks, how they use them, what they use to work in them etc. All kinds of materials and techniques will be used. Until May 4 two videos will be made available each day and they all will be available until May 18 only. You'll get an email each day with the links. There's also a Facebook group for participants. So now is the time to get out your sketchbooks and art supplies.

I haven't written here for a while. Nothing exciting has happened since the Craftsy course. Nothing to write about. I have done one or the other drawing since then, but nothing for the last two weeks, except some hatching exercises. It's the same old story. I want to draw, but don't know what. I still don't subscribe to the idea that everything is interesting when you draw it, so draw anything. I need a concept, a theme,  a subject with a meaning to me. I don't visit exciting places often or buy interesting new stuff. So what to draw when there is nothing like this to be inspired by? It's so frustrating to always have to search for a subject. I'm preparing next month's subject for the Virtual Sketchwalk group, a topic I am really interested in right now, so hopefully I will be occupied with it next month. But what until then and what after that? I need to solve this riddle, because I love to draw and I love to see another drawing emerge in my sketc...

I wanted to try out Craftsy courses for a while. They are less pricy than those of Sketchbook Skool and they are often on sale. And you also have lifetime access. I finally chose one of Steven Reddy's courses. He does a lot of whimsical sketches of interiors - cafes, shops, cluttered spaces - and in the course he shows how he does it. The great thing about his technique is that you draw whole scenes, not just single objects, without giving much thought about perspective - or straight lines. And still you get a great representation of what is in front of you. The aim is not to end up with an accurate image, but with more like a subjective view of your surroundings. You include what interests you and leave out what doesn't. You grant yourself lots of artistic freedom. The resulting drawing is mainly for yourself. But I'll show you my first attempt anyway: