Tag: art

Traveler’s Notebook

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Several years ago the traveler’s notebook trend began, but I wasn’t paying attention. I am now, however, and have not one but two: the standard size (above) and an A5 (below). I prefer the A5 as it’s just that much wider and the notebooks stay open while I’m sketching. Yes, I did buy a bigger purse to carry my art supplies on a daily basis.

I carry this in my purse every day, and deciding what tools to bring with is a small challenge. I’ve been happy with some primary color Neocolor II crayons, a waterbrush, some primary colored pencils, and a variety of pens and graphite. Probably too much.

A traveler’s notebook is a cover with elastic bands in the fold that hold a variety of notebooks, planners, folders, etc. Once you fill up a book, swap it out for another. The standard size has a nice sketchbook, but the A5 doesn’t have as many to choose from, so I’ve decided to make my own out of sketch, multimedia, and watercolor papers.

Even though I’m carrying a notebook for writing, I’m mostly using this as a place to sketch. Having a limited, primary color palette is great fun. I seem to be more creative with limitations.

I’ve asked myself, why not just carry a sketchbook? The answer is, I like the cover, the bands, the variety of inserts I can create. I also like a smaller sketchbook that fills up quickly.

What’s next? A super cool pencil case from Japan, still on its way here.

Categories: Art Pastel Pen Pencil Watercolor

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Drawing Birds

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I picked up a copy of the book Identify and Draw North American Birds and spent a few hours doing just that. The book is awesome as it gives a photo, facts, and a sketching progression in colored pencil. However, if you’re not comfortable with sketching birds, you may want to trace the bird first. The emphasis is on using colored pencils and not on bird anatomy and drawing.

But for me, this is perfect. There are 47 birds total, and I happen to have a new sketching journal, the ForestChoice John Muir Observer Journal, and I’m dedicating it to bird sketches.

Four down, 43 to go.

Categories: Art Pencil

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The Virtual Instructor

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For Christmas, I subscribed to art lessons at The Virtual Instructor for a year and have completed my first course, The Secrets to Drawing, and also followed along with a live, weekly lesson. So far, I, truly enjoy the classes. I’m gaining skills and filling in missing pieces of my understanding of art.

I bought four Stillman and Birn sketchbooks for my notes and projects while I follow along to the videos. The recent live lesson series focused on graphite and white charcoal on gray paper. I used my new Tombow graphite pencils, a Conte white pastels, and my Nova S&B sketchbook with gray paper to draw this rhinoceros.

This lesson was important because it taught me how to layer different grades of graphite, and using white for highlights was also interesting. (Graphite can go over charcoal, but charcoal cannot go over graphite.) I decided to use this process on a sketch of my own, so I used a photo of my horse and his friend playing in their pasture. I tried out a new paper, Stonehenge, which I love. The texture is like vellum, but it’s somehow crisper, if that makes any sense. This sheet was tinted a warm gray color, not as dark as Nova. I used my Tombow pencils and the Conte pastel. This was a super fun drawing, and I especially enjoyed drawing the texture and patterns of the horse blankets.

Categories: Art Pencil

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