Hello my loves and welcome back to the studio and welcome to my sketchbook!
You've seen this one for a while on my channel, I've been working in here since...
I'm gonna say October 2018- and none of it is in order as I tend to use my
sketchbooks at random. So we're starting with some value studies of landscapes.
That was the assignment for a Nathan Fowkes Schoolism class that I was taking.
And this sketchbook really is just a sketchbook; lots of scraps, not so much
polished, finished work. Moving on to the Ahmed Aldoori
100-Head Challenge. I have a whole video on that on my channel if you want
to know more about it but I do think, as the time went on, I got a lot more
confident in drawing faces. I say that about my sketchbook being a sketchbook
because I get a lot of messages from people wanting advice on how to make
their sketchbooks look nice- which I totally get, it's not just about
what you see on social media (although I do think that contributes to this idea
of an 'aesthetic' sketchbook spread) but I also think that there's something
really satisfying in making a spread that's nice to look at. The issue is
when you end up not using your sketchbook enough because you're worried
about how things will turn out. This is meant to be a place to experiment and
make mistakes and if you've got nowhere that you feel that you can safely mess
up, you'll probably find yourself not moving forward at all. So in doing these
faces for example, I really got to take a journey from really not liking the
work I was doing to getting somewhere that I liked. If I hadn't had the dodgy
ones in between, I wouldn't have got to two of my favourites- these ones- and just
got more confidence in my work there. And that's why this book is a little bit
all over the place, because as long as I was making art and making an effort, I
was happy. And that's something that I want to carry on into all my future sketchbooks.
More landscape studies here- these are
done from a couple of photos- these are from two different trips I took and then
I think I just found that on on tumblr.
These are more recent, you might have
seen them in a vlog. I was gonna actually sell some landscape studies but I wasn't
too keen on how these ones turned out so I thought they would make do just
being in my sketchbook. We're going almost right back to the beginning now,
one of the first things I did in here just testing out a few different mediums.
I was doing a little bit of linocut printing there but it didn't really work
out, I wasn't using the right paper and it's such a tedious process that I just
kind of moved on.
More of a recent page here and just some scraps of
paintings I stuck in. I was taking another school is in class but I didn't
end up taking any notes on that so I thought I'd fill the space there.
Just messing about with colour here.
And a lot of these, I might have videos on my channel for so I'll have links to
those down below.
You can see there's a lot of more journally stuff in here and
then some sketches and things. This is my little baby boy Thierry.
And here I was
planning these stickers to go with my house plant and postcard bundle. I just
wanted to do a sketch there of the layout of the stickers on the sheet.
I did a study of this radish from one of JAW Cooper's books on page 23 of Viscera.
And I tried to translate that into one of my own paintings- less
successfully trying to carry that style over. But over time, I think I've
gradually been able to stylise my work a bit better.
Sometimes when you guys send me mail, I keep the envelopes and stick them in and
just use them for different things- so this is just holding on to some relics
from when we were moving, some of the estate agent stuff. Here's a lovely
postcard from one of you guys- I have blocked out the address and this is just
,my PO Box address. Yeah I really like the outside of it. Tt's just a
nice memory, something nice to flip back on. And here I do think I was getting
more closer to the style that I was looking for in my paintings.
I saw this
magazine spread and thought the colours went really well with this painting I'd
done so I stuck that in there.
Really loved this spread. I tried to recreate it
in a video and obviously it just didn't turn out as well because when you're
filming, it's just not as easy to paint in the same way.
I think I might have stuck
this into another sketchbook; this is a misprint of painting that I did of
Sausalito and I've just put that next to a study from a studio ghibli book that I've got.
These are two paintings I turned into prints for patreon and I just wanted to
stick the originals in here to give them somewhere safe to stay.
And then over a
week or so, I spent some time really getting into working on my paintings- and
my sketching- but I think my paintings came a long way.
This is further into the process so I was feeling a lot more confident at this
point with my gouache painting skills. You'll see later on where I started
And sometimes I just make notes in here. This is from another one of those Schoolism
classes, but it's just a good thing to refer back to if I ever need it.
This was one of my first real attempts at painting clouds and skies and it was
really disheartening as an experience because I was so lost with it. So I spent
some time then studying the skies in Studio Ghibli backgrounds and I've still
got a way to go but it was a good way to break down some of the steps that go
into clouds and sky scenes.
I think I just left this blank so that it wouldn't smudge on to the other page.
Now this is a page that I had so much fun with. I really loved this process and
I still look at it and I think that looks really cool. I did get a comment on
the video that I posted of this that was along the lines of someone being
disappointed in my work and where I'm going with my art and my videos and
sadly now every time I look at this spread, that's what I think of. Which I
guess it's just one of the pitfalls of sharing your more kind of free and fun
experimental stuff online... which you don't have to do, I guess. I've been
really lucky in being able to grow and learn online over these years.
This one you'll know is more recent and this is actually a print of an original
painting that I sent to a patron. I like to print off a copy for myself of any
original paintings that I send off and keep them just so that I still have a
little bit of them left.
I think we're coming up to the first in that kind of painting exploration that I
was talking about earlier. These were the first two I think that I did
and I think you can see the progression in confidence, in style and it didn't
take too long. Only took a few days to get back into the rhythm of painting
with gouache again.
Sometimes I just kind of map out different ideas for paintings.
This one did come to fruition but I didn't end up liking it so it was just
tucked away somewhere.
Another page of doodles and paintings....
I've got to have a misty woodland road in there somewhere; it's one of my
favorite things to paint. And if you're wondering how I get the crisp lines-
because people always ask!- it's just washi tape, just regular washi tape.
And that, I believe, is it! So I'm really happy with the sketchbook, I'm
really happy with all the stuff in it, and it's always really satisfying to
have a nice, bouncy sketchbook by the time it's done. So thank you guys so much
for joining me on the journey of this art for the past year and a half plus.
I'll be back soon with another sketchbook and another video, but for now thank you
so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Bye!