What I am up to + a new sketchbook challenge
What I am up to, a small change to this publication and a new sketchbook challenge for you.
I have a couple of things to share with you in this months “First Friday of the Month” post. As usual I have a new sketchbook challenge for you, as well as feedback on last month’s challenge. Then I will also tell you a bit about what I am busy with at the moment and end off with some minor changes that I plan on making to the posting schedule.
Feedback on May’s simplification challenge
As I expected, I have had mixed results with this month’s challenge. Simplification isn’t easy. It is one of those things where you feel that you need to concentrate really hard to get it right, where in fact you have to calm down and switch off your brain a little bit. Trying it out on location was especially tricky because there are just so many sensory cues coming at you at the same time. There are sounds and smells and other people that can so easily distract you from getting “in the zone”. But, never the less, I have enjoyed and learned from it. Let me show you some of the sketches I made.
This first one was done in marker with a bit of pencil on top. I completely over worked it and added too many details closer to the end. It’s definitely not simple enough, I think.
My favourite simplification sketches were the ones where I started of with line and then filled the blocks with colour. I tried this in a couple of mediums. The first one in gouache, the second in acrylic and the last one using markers.
Although I like the outcome of these three, I did not enjoy the process. It was way too rigid for me, as I do not like colouring within the lines. I enjoy it much more when my hand and arm are free to move where it wants to.
Then I went out and tried it on location in the park. And I think this is the one that I ended up liking the least. It was definitely the toughest one to do for all the reasons that I mentioned above.
Did you join the challenge this month? How did it go?
New sketchbook challenge: draw what’s in front of you
Most of the time I am brimming with ideas about what to draw, paint or create. They usually have a shoving match, trying to be the one that will end up in front, getting made.
And then, sometimes, there is just nothing.
All I know is that I want to draw something, but my brain is a blank on what. That is usually when I decide to just draw what is right in front of me. Often times that will start with my sketchbook and build up from there. Even more often it will start with the drink that is on front of me, as you can see in these two sketches.
So for this month, I challenge you to draw what is right in front of you. Start with only one medium, like a black marker, or one crayon that you love. You can add more colour later once you are in the flow. Then start drawing what is right in front of you, be it your feet or your cup of coffee, and then build up the sketch from there, one thing at a time, and see where it goes. This way of drawing can become quite addictive once you get the hang of it.
Here’s some other people who also like to draw what it right in front of them:
In this sketchbook tour you can see how often Koosje Koene draws what is right in front of her.
Here Swasky is drawing what is right in from of him.
Gwen Glotin often uses her legs and feet as the starting point of the drawing. It is such a clever way of leading you into the picture, as if it were your own legs and feet. Here is a drawing she did while getting a blood transfusion.
Getting a friend to do the challenge with you is often just the kick you need to start with it.
What I am up to
Those if you who also follow me on Instagram might have seen my post on location scouting in Den Bosch. That is because I will be there, teaching a workshop on colour using Neocolor II Aquarelle water-soluble wax pastels at the National Sketch Weekend hosted by the Urban Sketchers Netherlands. I have been working on this workshop for the last few months and now just need to add the finishing touches to it in the next few weeks.
Some of you have already contacted me about the workshop being fully booked before you could grab a spot. Please contact me if you would also like to do the workshop. The idea is to repeat the workshop after the summer holidays if there are enough people interested in doing it. (The workshop will be in both Dutch and English.)
I am also planning on showing you everything I will be packing for the sketch weekend, closer to the time, so subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t done so already.
Other things that I have been up to:
I am working on a dress for myself, which needs to be finished in a month’s time, so that I can wear it to a friend’s wedding. While I am working on it, I also dream about designing my own fabric, that I can use to make some extra unique clothing.
I will be singing two songs with the Haarlem Haarmonix in their summer concert mid July. The one is a solo jazz song that I will be doing with the band and the other is a beautiful small group a capella rendition of For Good from the musical Wicked.
Small newsletter/blog change
Now that I have had this blog for three months, I think it is good to look back and assess what worked and what didn’t. Thank you to all of you who have been following along. I am truly humbled by the fact that you are interested and enthusiastic about reading the posts and watching the videos. For the next three months I have decided to scale back on the amount of times that I post each month. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, the summer holidays are coming up, were I will have two young kids with me 24/7. That means I won’t be able to make any videos without noise in the background and me getting frustrated about it. The plan is however to film a few videos in advance, because I actually have so many things to share with you, it is just the physical writing of the posts that gets a bit tricky with kids saying “Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!” on a loop until I respond. The second reason is that I have noticed that writing here has been stealing too much of my drawing/painting time recently and I need to find a better balance between the two. After all, if I don’t make any art, I will soon not have anything to share with you. I believe that this will change once my youngest also starts school full time. But for now, this is just the life phase that I am in.
Therefor I have decided that for the next three months I will be posting on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month, and if there is a 5th that will be a little bonus. That will give me every second week to focus only on art, without any writing distractions. Let’s see how this goes and then I will give you some feedback after the three months have past.
I only have one page left in my current sketchbook, so look out for a sketchbook tour in the next post.
Thank you for reading and following along!