Sylvia‘s Art Journey

I'm just watching a comprehensive Skillshare class called "The Art and Science of Drawing", which is taught by a professional, academically trained artist. It is certainly great that there is such a professional, comprehensive class on Skillshare. I'm watching it to revise the basics of drawing, to get a reminder of the theory behind the practice. So far, so good. Though, what this class also reminds me of is why so many people shy away from learning to draw. It looks complicated and like needing lots of effort to make sense. So many dos and don'ts. Of course, it's about realistic drawing. The strange thing is that I've watched a lot of people not adhering to all these rules, like how to hold your pencil and how to place your paper, and still doing great work. Above all, drawing shouldn't only be for those who are prepared to draw 'academically correct'. It should be for everyone and it should be fun. My own drawings may not be good enough ...

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: