On my YouTube channel I published a video where I show a sketchbook from about 10 years ago from now: 2015.…
And I show a sketch from my home 10 years ago and one of the same subject 6 years later: 2021…. I find the difference spetctacular.
I made this video to show you the progress YOU can make if you sketch regularly !
And if I would’ve sketched more regularly, I would have made faster progress….
I show this to show you I wasn’t born with particular talent! I got these skills by sketching regularly! So you can learn it as well….
Everybody can learn how to draw and paint. With your own particular style and skills.
One of the ways to progress fast is by keeping a sketchbook and go out sketching and painting outside!
I show you in my latest Skillshare class how I use my Travel Sketchbook as I travel to Portugal to make sketches for my new book.
Here are 5 good reasons to go sketching outside! (You don’t have to go abroad! you can also sketch the street where you live or your favorite parc or café in your town) :
- Drawing on site improves your art skills : you see shapes, forms and colors in a different way outside that will make you a better painter
- Your sketchbook will improve your creativity: when I have “an artists block”, going outside with my sketchbook makes it vanish immediately
- Drawing outside is like meditation : my anxiety and stress levels lower and it empties my head
- It makes you see the world in a different way: After sketching outside the colors will seem brighter and you’ll be more aware of little things and beauty around you
- Your sketchbook is a visual diary of your life: when you look back at your sketches later on you’ll remember the smells, sounds, emotions you had, what you ate and what weather was like. Everything about that day will be connected to that sketch because you were so present in the moment.
One last thing: if you’re interested in a private online workshop session of one hour about working in your sketchbook: I created a 1-on-1 session possibility on Skillshare. You can find it here.
This 1-on-1 session will be held on Zoom, and is for anyone who wants to build a sketchbook habit or is already doing so, and wants to level up their sketchbook approach and get some ideas to give their sketchbook a new direction.
- We will review together your latest sketchbook and explore together various aspects of what could be worked on : drawing techniques, watercolor and any other media, use of different colors, textures, composition, to find new ways to develop your own style
- I will show you specific techniques you could work on, based on our discussion and the content of YOUR sketchbook
- You’re discouraged with your creative blocks? I can help you to get over them. I have had many creative blocks.
- You don’t have a sketchbook yet? You’re welcome anyway and I will give you some suggestions on where to start, based on my own experience.
After the session I will send you a note from me by email with personalised inspiration and tips to boost your playfulness and motivation.
Tell me in the comments if there’s something you have questions about? Watercolor? Drawing? Sketchbook materials?
Below you can see my video with my old sketchbook, and also a sketch I’m making in Sintra, Portugal.
