2012 Projects – Weekly Sketching

One of my goals for 2011 was to sketch more. I wanted to keep daily sketch journals or be like those people you see sketching everywhere.

I loved the idea of being able to draw. I started with portraits but then moved on to anything I wanted. I made many many many pinterest boards with ideas and started sketching daily. Here are a few of my favorite sketches from 2011:

I started with black and white but then moved to color. I love both of them in different ways.

I then moved to watercolors which is what I am exploring at this very moment. I love using watercolors and really would like to explore the medium more. I will admit that I haven’t really taken the time to properly learn how to use watercolors but I hope and plan to.

So after sketching for over 8 months, I decided I wanted to focus on illustration style for a while. I became a huge fan of Abigail Halpin’s whimsical style and wanted to emulate it and come up with my own version. I then started taking Jane Davenport’s I heart Drawing class which is more about drawing bodies and body forms. I am hoping that by the end of that class, I will have a slew of ideas on what to practice.

My goal for 2012 is to find my own little sketching voice. Whether it’s drawing illustrations or landscapes or portraits or whatever. I would like to play with different mediums, shapes, sizes, types and get to a place where I can create drawings of my own. My own ideas, my own style.

Let’s see if it works out!

Daily Sketching – Week 35

More girls.

Sunday :

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday: (this one turned out odd.)

and then I took the rest of the week off. I am trying to figure out what direction I should take the sketching but I haven’t decided yet. Need some time to think about it more.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 34

More illustrations and some girls.

Sunday :

Monday:

Tuesday: (step by step)

Wednesday:

Thursday: (this one turned out odd.)

Friday:

And Saturday:

And there we go.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 33

The sketches for this week are all the illustration style I am trying. The jury is still out on whether I like it or not and I definitely don’t feel like I have innate skill. but alas I am going to keep at it for a while.

Sunday (this is an Abigail Halpin sketch. She’s awesome isn’t she?):

Monday:

Tuesday: ( i started to make some notes to myself. Really dislike this one.)

Wednesday: ( i like the colors on this one)

Thursday: (this one, too, I like.)

Friday: (this one is eh.)

And Saturday: (she looked old to me so I gave her gray hair.)

And there we go. A yucky week.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 32

The sketches for this week are varying and I dislike most of them. I actually feel like I’ve hit this spot where I want to find my own sketching voice and see what I want to do for 2012. I like watercolor but I want to think about my subject matter more. See what I like. Explore.

Sunday: ( i like these shoes ok.)

Monday: (I absolutely hated doing this bike. and still hate looking at it)

Tuesday: ( i loved the idea of doing a hummingbird but didn’t like the way it turned out.)

this one has some gold shine that doesn’t show up:

Wednesday: (this was inspired by an ornament. it’s ok. so-so)

Thursday: (this one, too, I feel so-so about.)

Friday: (this is the one that broke the camel’s back. i hate this sketch)

And Saturday: (so I went back to my safe place and drew one of Abigail’s sketches. I adore her.)

And there we go. A yucky week.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 31

Sorry for the delay. Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors. Most of the ones this week aren’t so great but I just keep doing anyway.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

this one has some gold shine that doesn’t show up:

Friday:

And Saturday:

I get some of my ideas randomly, others from other people’s photos, some from my photos, and some from pinterest. So far, so good.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 30

Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors. Most of the ones this week aren’t so great but I just keep doing anyway.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday: ( I especially dislike this one.)

Thursday:

Friday:

And Saturday:

I get some of my ideas randomly, others from other people’s photos, some from my photos, and some from pinterest. So far, so good.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 29

Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors. A wide range of subjects this time.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

And Saturday:

I get some of my ideas randomly, others from other people’s photos, some from my photos, and some from pinterest. So far, so good.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 28

Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors. A wide range of subjects this time.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

And Saturday:

I am still enjoying this so, I am playing around, mixing colors, trying new brushes, seeing what I like, etc.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Daily Sketching – Week 27

Here are the sketches from last week. All of these use Fabel Castell Pitt Pens and watercolors.

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

And Saturday:

I am enjoying this so far even though I have to experiment a lot more and learn more about watercolors.


Daily Sketching is a weekly project for 2011. You can see a detailed post on my steps here.

Steps to a Sketch

As I mentioned two days ago I’ve been wanting to change up the way I sketch. Try watercolors and new sketching ideas, etc. When I finally stopped worrying about how to integrate it into my notebook system (post coming soon about this) I went and bought paper that was recommended to me by Junelle.

I bought a block, cut one sheet to fit in my notebook and I was ready to get started. I didn’t have a list of ideas but I did have one. The sentence that came to me was “She loved the click-clack sound her heels made as they hit the marble.” so I knew I wanted to sketch heels.

I googled for the word “heels” and clicked to have it show image results. One of the images I found was this one”

Almost exactly what I had in mind. So I first sketched it using a mechanical pencil:

Then I went over them with a pen. I used the Pitt Artist Pens at XS size. They are water-resistent so I knew they wouldn’t smudge with the watercolors. I didn’t erase the pencil lines underneath.

then I started to color. I did the lighter colors first.

Then I added the black and left some white space where the seams of the shoes touch each other. I also added some shading below just like in the original photo.

Here’s a straight-on look.

Lastly, I stamped a journaling stamp and added the sentence that inspired the sketch as well as a few others. And, finally, I put the date on the bottom left. As you can see, I messed up and put month 11, I’ve since corrected that.)

And there we go. I taped the paper into my notebook and my little sketch was done. The whole thing probably took about 30 minutes. Give or take.

I’ve since done four more sketches using this system. I try to think of my idea the night before and if possible also find an image. Some days turn out better than others of course but I like learning something new. I like figuring out how to mix my paints. I don’t know anything about watercolors. I bought a few books and signed up for a class and I have a lot to learn but for now, I am just playing and focusing on enjoying that.

Daily Sketching – Week 26

Here are the sketches from this week.This week’s going to be a little different because I switched to watercolors last Saturday and I want to show you those separately and write a post specifically on my new pages so this will be sketches from Wednesday to Saturday. These are all from photos I’d previously taken except for the Saturday one which I will link to the source.

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday (source):

While the colored pencils are ok, I was starting to enjoy these less and less. Which of course was showing in my work as it was getting sloppier and less detailed and I was liking them less which was creating a circular effect of course. So I finally made the switch on Saturday and more about those sketches very soon.