Elisabeth's sketchbook
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I kept a couple of personal sketchbook-writing journals last year. I have this box full of Tombow markers that I've been using lately and really enjoying; although they don't blend together very well, they don't bleed through the paper and they've been lasting a long time for me.
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Inspiration mood board:
One of my favorite things to do when I'm in a creative rut is to collect images and put them together in formats that I like. Whether that be on pin boards, in sketchbooks, on pinterest.
Something about it makes just my eyes and brain very happy, and will give me new ideas of what I want to draw. About once a month I'd spend up to a few hours to half a day printing out pictures or gathering pictures that I already physically have and arranging them. (Admittedly I should calm down on my pinterest scrolling habits!)
I really like how this one turned out, all the warm golden colors and fall leaves. I ripped some of these pictures out of my Klimt 2021 Calendar
((Off in the distance - Cookie the rabbit coming over to say hello))
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Sketchbook image gathering:
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Looking at art from last year:
While I haven't made much art outside of my sketchbook, I do see a few things
- Black and white art ink/pen art
I think this is my favorite think I drew, it was really fun to make. The ship was based off of a dream I had and I wanted to paint it, and the black circles to the side represent reocurruing (recurring? reocurring??) dreams I've had before
This was something I drew at a comics workshop one week last summer. The 6th circle is unclear, it's very hard to depict a boat being made..!
Looking back at this, I don't like how the profile of the face is shaped, I would change things about it. The second thing I would change/fix is the hands. And the third thing, the phone looks wobbly
- I painted a dragon creature as part of a group mural for an end-of-class project, outside the walls of a children's hospital. I had never been on scaffolding before so it was just nice to do something new/different
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Welcome to the forum, these are beautiful and fun sketches!
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@Asyas_illos Thank you
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@Elisabeth-Rae Welcome! Your sketches are beautiful! Can't wait to see how you grow with this community
www.instagram.com/art.melc.illo/
www.artmelc.com
I write weekly on mondayblues.substack.com -
@ArtMelC Thanks! I look forward to learning illustration.
I love your art watercolor journaling : ) -
@Elisabeth-Rae Welcome to the forum! I like your comic! The choice to use circles for panels is nice.
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@Stephanie-H Thanks ^^
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What next?
Last fall semester marked the last of my attempt at college classes, and to be honest it ended quite poorly. The past year or two I had been slipping on grades and momentum and the 'why' of doing coursework, being in school in my mid 20s without having finished. With the death of my brother last year what I should have been doing was take a break and heal emotionally instead of pushing through while feeling like I was failing. And my focus/attention/organization difficulties did not seem to get any better no matter hard I tried. I was diagnosed ADHD and learning a bit about that has started to help me practice ways in what works best for my focus and organizion as an individual, without guilt tripping myself when I don't meet up with expectations.
Let's see...what did Neil Gaiman say about success again?
Be good at what you do.
(Well....it's a work in progress! :))Be always on time with your work.
(Uh oh, well...I'm on time over half the time, yeah?)Be a pleasure to work with.
(* Runs away in social anxiety*)Anyway
The past week I've been working on art consistently every day and I've been loving it. I feel like I'm where I'm meant to be. I think that I do well for myself when I am able to make my own goals and set my own time to do things. When I max out on a certain level of stress, my productivity pitfalls. Working at home alleviates much of that stress. It's just the beginning, but here are some observations I've made about myself recently in how I work best.
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Resolve emotions/don't be lonely - Having some form of support network is so important (to me!) Friends, partner, family, pets, work pal, accountability partner, etc. Find ways of interacting with others that you like/love on a daily basis and getting that form of connection. This is something I neglected or did not realize in the past lol. And not being lonely will make not-scrolling on the phone so much easier.
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Have a pleasant environment to work in - Have a nice desk space, knowing where all of my wanted art supplies are located at. Have a place that is inviting and feels good to spend hours at.
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Have 2-4 art pieces/projects going on at once - This is around the right balance for me and prevents me from becoming bored and frustrated. However, I still lean more towards being too scattered, and sometimes need to reevaluate what are the top 1 or 2 important things at the moment.
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Have a timer on hand, especially if there is some form of resistance on staying on task. What I've been doing in the past couple of days is 40 minutes focused art, 20 minute break. To walk around, eat snacks, read, pet rabbits. (or more art if I'm really into it)
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Learning resources
Here are the learning resources that I want to use for the next two years.
Online:
-Visual Arts Passage: I've bought and signed up for the class that Audrey Benjaminsen is teaching. I've been a fan of her artwork for a few years, and I saw that the price of their courses were jumping up soon. Hopefully their discord will be a good way to meet other fellow artists. If this class goes really well, I might sign up for the next class which is focused on the portfolio and buisiness aspects of art. This more cut-to-the-chase/business-y approach may be beneficial to me to combat my dreaminess and lack of practicality. It sounds like the focus of the courses is to find clients and built a professional portfolio.
-SVS learn: I want to go through several classes, plus post on the forum here!
-Schoolism - This is great, there is a variety of courses to choose from, and the option of either buying a critiqued course or watching the videos/self pacing with the monthly subscriptions. There are also these sketchbook workshops/art warm ups, I see. Right now I'm watching Marie-Alice Harel's class videos and it's very good
-Youtube, blogs, online drawing sessions, etc. - James Gurneys blog is something that I want to read through eventually!In person:
-Weekly local figure drawing session
-I'd like to sign up for a summer class or two and the Center for Cartoon Studies, but they're expensive, so I'm not sure
-Learning from my art books -
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@Elisabeth-Rae Thanks for sharing your sketchbook pages! I've been trying to do better about drawing in my sketchbook lately. I get so focused on doing big projects and complex compositions and in depth stories that I have a hard time remembering to give myself permission to just doodle in my sketchbook. I've been inspired by your example!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirsten.mcgonigal.art/
Portfolio Site: www.kirstenmcgonigalart.com -
@kirsten-mcg I hope that you find the time to sketch and doodle for fun. (Still, good on you for working on larger projects! I have the opposite problem of drawing too casually. I guess having a balance is something to aspire to)
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@Elisabeth-Rae that’s for sure lol! If only we could combined our “problems.” Then we would both have the perfect balance!
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@Elisabeth-Rae love your sketches! They look beautiful. And who knows what inspiration and projects you can pull from them.
