In this post I am looking at my drawings and journaling for most of 2019. I managed in December 2018 round about Christmas time, to get hold of 2 more Roald Dahl notebooks from Waterstones on offer because I was enjoying the size of the books and wanted to continue journaling in a matching way.
I was developing a pattern with my art, drawing what was relating to the days or weeks event, but getting quite into sticking in interesting things. It became quite a mixed media project with tags, labels, cards, emails and all things added to the mix, with drawings around them!
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Christmas time journal pages, Christmas tags stuck in and Christmas stickers |
I sketched this piano in January 2019, mostly I find what I am looking for in Google Images and copy it then make the journal entry around that drawing.
By writing a lot of text around a picture the book really started to take shape. Below is Nick Fury when I spoke about the ornament I was given, and a detailed coloured pencil sketch of the soap nuts I was writing about too. It was great because I would not have randomly spent time drawing soap nuts had we not begun actually using them. This way I had the opportunity to spend time colouring and shading them for the journal.
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Nick Fury and Soap Nuts |
I know that drawing faces is difficult but sometime in January I decided to just go for it and draw John Barrowman in Torchwood to represent our watching of this series at the time.
I actually found that it did look a bit like him and I really enjoyed it! I also got myself some stamps. Stamps, washi tapes, stickers, these are all being incorporated into my journal and making it really enjoyable. I have developed a real love for Washi tape especially!!
Watercolour
Using my same method, the 6x4cm postcard of watercolour paper, I drew this watercolour painting inspired by a scripture verse. It was totally my imagination and perspective and I drew what I wanted to see, a scarecrow in a field with cucumbers. I liked how it turned out and I stuck the finished picture in the journal.
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My original watercolour painting |
After months of keeping up the journaling I noticed that I was getting better and finding my own way. For example, taking my cousin to Belinda's café for a brownie, I memorised what I saw from sitting at the table when I got home and drew what I saw from my mind. I was pleased because it was interesting and getting quite an original sketch journal entry.
Below is "IT" from the film and also because of a Stephen King novel I was reading at the time. It's great finding what I want to draw and sketching it.
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Stephen King and Projects |
You can see in the Summer, I went quite a bit for sticking things in, my favourite chocolates, a leaflet my parents picked up from their trip to Walsingham. I sketched sometimes from my mind such as the squirrel feeder around these stuck-in bits.
Here is another watercolour I drew from my mind after meeting 3 Pomeranian dogs on a walk. I tried to make the path go off into the distance. Note, the beautiful washi tape!
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Pomeranian watercolour |
In August we took several trips round and about. In Storrington we had a lovely picnic and I stuck in a postcard of the town as well as my crisp packet and a leaf where we sat. It's a great way to remember what you did visually.
In this entry below I continued to draw relevant things, mostly in pencil but sometimes in watercolour. It gave me a good opportunity to do detailed pencil with Typhoid Mary and it was fun.
NEW BOOK - DRAW YOUR DAY
It was at this point that I for some reason still felt that my art was not up to 'the standard of other artists' so I found this book called DRAW YOUR DAY which had such beautiful pictures, drawing skills and layouts for the day that I asked for it for my birthday.
Using samples from the book I decided to lay out my page differently, at first pencil sketching the drawings, from my mind, and writing the text close and surrounding the pictures I had drawn. It immediately looked different, more like a sketch journal with more going on, more busy. I liked it!
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New drawing layout style from "Draw Your Day" examples |
I did not change my style completely, but the above 2 pages did look more interesting in a way, plus I drew the pictures in pencil and from my memory which was good.
Next, I tried to do something more interesting with my fortune cookie and found a watercolour that I copied and stuck the fortune cookie in it and painted around - I was really pleased with the result! It not only incorporated stuck in items but worked the art around this too.
Here is a close-up of it:
Looking over the past several months I can see that my drawing is improving and my ideas becoming more bold! I am moving away from the inner critic and just drawing without over-thinking it.
I find that looking up different font styles makes a journal page more original too.
Again, trying out layouts from "DRAW YOUR DAY" book, the pages are more crowded and there are lots of little patterns around the edge. I also tried to incorporate some zentangle from a zentangle book that I got too.
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'Draw Your Day' influenced page with added Zentangle |
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Drawings, sketches and Zentangle patterns |
I was really getting into the sketch journaling with help from DRAW YOUR DAY in September 2019. On the pier we saw Turnstone birds and I really wanted to incorporate them in a journal entry, below is how it turned out with sketches, text and stamps. I was pleased that it was looking interesting!
More sketches and simpler layout ideas:
A detailed drawing of the cliffs in Broadchurch, I love shading and really enjoyed the detail.
Using My Own Initiative:
For this particular page in October, I laid it out myself, I drew the food trays myself from what I remembered the carvery to look like from before. I was really pushing my imagination here.
I continued like this, drawing in pencil from my imagination, going over the outline in black waterproof pen and as suggested in DRAW YOUR DAY filling in the picture with watercolour! It started from this point to look colourful, especially adding titles with outline and filling them in in watercolour too! The little girl picture below in the middle is from a book I got "Drawing Cartoons Letter by Letter" which I hope to use more too as it looks fun.
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Starting to add watercolour |
I really find that art books can be inspiring to use.
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New art book bought with Hobbycraft voucher looks inspiring to use. |
The next pages followed this vein, taking inspiration and ideas from the Draw Your Day book, still using Washi tape and sticking things in. Doing it this way has pushed my imagination to draw rather than always copy.
I drew my cappuccino from memory, the muffin I copied an idea but I did my own watercolours and fonts.
I have been eating Yo-yo snacks which come with a card. I find the cards interesting topic starting points for a journal page and have been incorporating them as well as the information they contain. Like before, I probably would not have drawn a sea dragon as art but the getting the card inspired me to focus on this topic and I made the whole page marine themed, using some sea stickers I have had for a while too. I am getting used to the idea of adding small pictures and patterns around the page to fill it out.
The Draw Your Day book has been so helpful I bought this "Journal With Purpose" book with my birthday money for help with the little drawings that are relevant to the day and can fill out the pages. It's really fun! They are also easy to draw.
This final entry for the second Roald Dahl Notebook page was this Star Trek page. I sketched the Enterprise, I went over the pencil in black pen then I filled out the colours with watercolour paint including the title lettering. Then I added the stars with white gel pen. This took me to October 2019 and the last year or so has seen my artwork and creativity grow somewhat. I have to say the thing I am most pleased about is now freely and easily using watercolours. My pages are also looking more like journal pages too. It was time to go onto Roald Dahl notebook book 3 and see if I can continue to grow!
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Final Second Volume Journal Entry |