Sketchbook Practice: Secret Life of a Sketchbook

1. Introduction: Hi. I'm Ohn Mar, and I'm an illustrator and surface designer. I've been keeping sketchbooks for over three years and they become an essential part of the way I paint for pleasure and for my business. In this class, I'm going to show you the real behind-the-scenes action as I fill my latest sketchbook with four watercolor sketches that will eventually end up in my licensing or illustration portfolios. I feel these in real time in one morning, and there's very little editing because I really wanted to share with you some of my honest insights, challenges, and vulnerabilities. It may not seem it, but almost every artist I know often has some struggles when they're creating their art. Working through an idea, whether it's in your sketchbook or a pattern, is often filled with uncertainties and worries about the outcomes. These videos give a genuine portrayal of how I work and what's involved when I sit down with my sketchbook. Please join me for a glimpse of an authentic and sincere version of the way I make art. 2. Overview: I just want to explain a little bit about why this class came about. I was having a conversation with two other Skillshare teachers Dylan and Tabitha, and one of them said, would it be great if you could see the mistakes in how you deal with them when you paint or recording things in real time, when you don't know what the outcome is going to be. I thought it was really great idea because it will show other people that even me, with three years worth of practice in watercolors that I am still challenging myself and I am challenged by certain situations when I paint. You'll see in these videos that I start holding my breath. You can hear me probably breathing a bit too loudly because I am in a slight state of fear because I am doing some new things for me this is, because in order for me to progress as an illustrator and to expand my portfolio, I have to try new things. I can't stay within the zone that I have found myself in. First of all, you will see something that I am familiar with, and then we go into territories where I am not so familiar, and that is where a lot of some of the self-talk comes about. I hope that you are going to find this useful and for you to understand that every creative has the same sort of issues and the same sort of conversations in their heads, and I have shot this in real time. There is very little editing. What I say is what I am thinking at the time. I hope it will give you a greater understanding that the creative process is not linear. There is a lot of detours and there is a lot of occasions where you just put your faith in your abilities. If it doesn't quite work out how you wanted it to, to know that you can learn from this experience for the next time. I really hope you can enjoy what's going to come up for you now. 3. Sketch 1 : Floral preparation: This is the current sketchbook I'm using. It's sketchbook number 16, I number all of them. I started this in June of this year. This is like my normal everyday stuff where I work out ideas, sometimes it's images from courses, or a piece of work I'm trying to put into a recipe. These two pages, these last two entries were for a course about floral illustration or for licensing basically. I really like this one, it's done with masking fluid and this is a companying piece. Now, I think if it's going to gain my licensing portfolio, I actually need a third one, so, this is what I'm going to do here. As you can see, this one is quite small in style, this is getting larger. On this page I want to do really large scale version using the same technique with the masking fluid and a bit of pen work. I'm going to be using masking fluid. You can get any brand. They pretty much work the same and a naked old brush. Just to continue with the technique that I've got here, and as I mentioned before, I want a larger scale. So let's just do it. The promise of this video lesson is I'm just going to be doing it in real time. So let's just do it. That's the only way to get over this. I'm going to apply this quickly as I can. Oh, that's a bit regular, I don't know if you can see it, but I think the flowers are a little bit regular. I'm just going to make it a little blobby, maybe just a bit too central that one, but let's just continue with it. This is how I tend to work, just keep moving. If I think too hard about it, that's when the trouble starts. Just for a contrast I'm just going to create a flower like that. I just want to create slightly different floral shapes. That is going to be a contrast in scale to the other two pieces that you saw a little bit earlier. Maybe just here as well. I am going to add some of the masking fluid. In fact, I might just do one more here. I will take this into Photoshop at some stage. The one with the yellow background I have already made into a pattern, but I've yet to do any of the others, so, I'm going to make some other different marks using the edge of my brush similar to what we've got on the other two pages but also different as well, just to fill up the spaces. Just work on that contrast really. Let's move these blobby a bit some on the side of the brush here. When I first did it with the black background, I honestly did not know how it's going to turn out. The reason why I wanted to do this Skillshare video was to show people that I have a rough plan. If you see my other Skillshare classes, you know that's hard work, but there is no magic formula. Every creative has to go through certain stages when they're creating. This is only the first video, and you might hear me do a little few bleeps. In order for me to create, I just have to go ahead and do it. I have no idea how this is going to pan out, but this is why I'm going to record in real time so that you can see how I deal with it. In order to create, you have to go through the process, you cannot skip certain aspects of it. You have to be brave. Everyday is not the same. We're going to leave that to dry. I am going to use a hair dryer and that bit is going to be edited out. It's probably going to be a minute's worth. 4. Sketch 1 : Floral background: As you can see, when it dries, the masking fluid goes a lot more creamy browny colored. It's just about dry. It's not too sticky, so I'm going to create a wash now. Looking back at this page here, I think in the background what I'd like to do for this one, is the same shade as this pink. It's a pinky, peachy color, so let's give that a go. I often don't mix up huge amounts of wash in one go, so it's going to be a bit tricky to work out exactly what we've done. This is my watercolor set. You can see it's pretty mucky, so let's see if we can sort this washout. What I'm going to have to do, what I normally do, is have a white gouache. I'm going to have to clean part of this up. I normally have a few kitchen paper sheets. I'm just going to clear it up. I think I'll put it in this section of the palette here. I let it wipe. Actually, I haven't got my white gouache, I'm going to go and get it. I'm filming in my dining room, by the way, because it's morning and the light is on this side of the house. At some point, I'm actually going to have to move over to the living room as the light changes and it'll get darker in here. I think looking at this pink, it looks like this. A little bit of pop for rows maybe, and a tiny bit of permanent red. I'm using gouache, it might be a big no-no for some water-colorist, but in order for me to get a relatively flat background for this technique, I don't have an issue with it. So let's just apply it and see how it goes. It's going on a little bit thin. Just needs a tiny bit more red. I don't mind that it is going to be slightly uneven. I think that's going to be a bit too much now. I might even have to add a tiny bit of orange in. Yeah, I think that's about right actually. I'm just going to spread that around, mix it around on the page. I didn't mix quite enough. It doesn't matter, I know what I was doing. Now, with the other two, with the yellow and the black backgrounds, I used a much bigger brush. I didn't have to mix up a wash, it just came straight out of, it was actually ink, it's was acrylic ink. So it was very easy to apply, but I need in this instance, with this paint, to match up with the pink on the opposite page, I do think; but if need be, I'll have to adjust it in Photoshop as well. Just a tiny bit of orange, teeny weeny bit of orange. Just give it that contrast there, and that's about it. I think we're going to have to let it dry now, it's another blast of the hair dryer now for me. 5. Sketch 1 : Floral - A whole load of considerations: I think this has had a good chance to dry. I blasted it with a hair dryer. I think we do have to wait for the paint to be fully dry otherwise, when you rub it off, it will lift off unevenly. I'm using my daughter's rubber. People use their fingers. I like to preserve the skin on my fingers. So let's just see how it turns out. I know it looks ghastly at the moment, because I've applied it to such large areas, can I actually do that to it, which is very satisfying in fact. But then at the edges of them I did so much smaller florals. Let's just use the rubber there. Almost there. It must be hanging off in this corner. Oh God, sketch work is falling off the screen. Hold on, let me try and get it back in position. Almost there. Now, I know it doesn't look much to look at, at the moment. We're going to try and transform this. At this stage, there is definitely slight fear, that I will not be able to fill this in a satisfactory manner, to join its counterpart on the opposite side of the page. When I say this to myself that, "Oh gosh, oh God, a page that I got to fill up." I've done it on this side. I can see that I actually did it very successfully on this side. There's nothing to say that I can't do on this side, so we just got to go ahead and do it. I'm going to be using the same fine-liner. It's a Winsor & Newton fineliner that I have lying around. I want to use very similar statement shapes, I suppose, when I'm adding this. I think I'm going to actually start on this side, because what I did with the other two pieces was I added teeny-weeny little stalks and you can see just along here that there's little hearts. So let's just start there, so I don't freak myself out too much. This is a nice easy start, nothing's going to go wrong. I'm just looking, referring to my other pages to see where I've done similar stuff, but I don't want to do exactly the same, but they have to tie in with each other. So if I've got these little ones, I think I'm going to add teeny weeny little dots in the middle of those and some of them have stalks. I'm trying to be mindfully aware of where I'm placing these dots. Pretty central but not perfect. I want a downward motion or like if it's in a meadow, it's not going to be completely straight, but some flowers are going to be leaning in at certain angles, and some flowers coming in at another angle. I'm just trying to fill up the spaces that I've got here really. I'm now thinking, "Yeah, I'm easing into this. This is fine, this is going to be fine." I'm just copying the same motifs that I see on the other page. This is just a larger scale. This is going to match perfectly. You often see me take a few seconds out before I put down a pen mark, because it just gives me that little time to assess and evaluate the most effective pen marks. Do I do that? Okay, yeah. I want the stalks to go this way then. Do I leave there? I'm going to have to fill out this space here. I'm just surveying this particular area. I say this on almost every Skillshare video, and I want to go a common, I think somebody was taking the make. Best not to ever think things, isn't it? Like, well, yeah, that's why I say it, because when you start thinking too much about what you're producing, that's when a lot of fears and insecurities start setting in. The best way to get over it is just to do it. Part of why I'm showing you this video class in real time, is it takes a long time and it takes a lot of effort and thought, not just the physical matte-making, to come up with a piece of artwork that is portfolio ready. All I'm doing is literally filling the gaps with my black pen. As a side note, I already knew that I was going to put this into a repeat pattern. I have to scan this, I have to put this in Photoshop in order to make it into a repeat pattern. It's okay. I can move things around in Photoshop, it's not a big deal. These stalks are going to go this way as well. I'm already thinking how am I going to do the coordinates at some stage in the future, not right now. Actually, I think I'm going to go and do my little, I don't know what you call them, petal icons. I think these will be going that way. Yes, it's just unplugging the gaps. This is what I'm trying to do with this particular set of florals anyway. It's like you're looking down on a meadow, and there's all different varieties of flowers just scattered about, everywhere. Little patches of flowers here and there, and then large areas of flowers. Talking of which I'm going to think about these ones now. I'm going to have to fill them up with much bigger. I think I'm going to have to add some yellow, that's what I'm going to do. At the moment, there's not enough contrast, we've just pink, the pinky peach, black and white. Let's mix up some very similar yellows to what I've got on the other page. It was just a basic, I think is a cadmium yellow, and I'm going to just drop in a bit there. Not all of them, some of them. Yeah, I think this one needs it. I'm not being too precious. I don't have a plan. I'm just looking out on the other page for guidance, to see what has worked successfully and which ones. I don't need to fill all of them. I think this one might just have a few blobs like that. As you can see, I do assess what's going to happen within it, just for a few seconds, that's all it takes. The central area there and some little blobs around it, and I'm going to work with that. So what else should I do? I think what would be nice, the fineliner is supposed to be waterproof. I'm actually thinking I'm going to fill in some of these in yellow, so let's see if it is waterproof. There was a small minority of panic there, but I was very relieved that they did work. I think some of these up here, a little bit more yellow and this low here. I'm filling this in very roughly, it's not precise at all. I'm just surveying the page and thinking, where could I have some nice areas of yellow, where I could little pops of yellow and it would balance out the page, and the pattern that's going to emerge from this. So I think, yes, some of these could be little dabs of yellow for sure, and that down there as well, and maybe that one. Yeah, so I'm going to give this another wiz on the hairdryer, probably about 20 seconds worth. I've just quickly dried it so that when I apply black, if I apply black to certain areas, it's not going to bleed out. I'm looking at the much larger negative spaces left behind for the large-scale florals, and I really like the fact that they are so simple and I don't think I want to add. They're so instantaneous. They're recognizable as florals, I don't feel I need to add too much, so I'm going to be very mindful when I go in with the black pen not to be very heavy handed, so to celebrate the randomness of it pretty much. This one I think I'm just going to do something like that. This is the normal speed that I work. I'm sure I've mentioned in other skill share videos I used to be in-house artist at several greetings cards company and I was paid in a hourly rate and they wanted their money's worth. I'm just used to working quickly. I'm mindful that these larger flowers have to be fairly similar to what appeared on the other pages. This one's getting a little bit fullness. Hold on. This is the largest floral that I thought was too central. I'm just going to leave that one. I'm just you can add a series of dots on this side. I'm just going to leave it at that now I don't want to spoil that. I think I was a little bit unsure of that when I created it. I'm thinking it looks a bit, is almost the edges were too regular but it's not so bad now actually. I'm just going to keep on with these shapes that fan outwards. Just a few more bits there just balance it out, give it a bit more structure. Let's see what we can do with these. I like the fact that they're just little yellow blobs. I'm just going to add a bit of black to it just to define a slightly more circular shape happening in there and I think the same here, but I don't need too much because the yellow has done all the work there. We're going to fill in some of these gaps in between here. It's always like these, this bit that I'm doing now it's where it's growing behind these much larger flowers. You can see I'm moving from the left to the right. That's just the way I work. It's not always like this. Sometimes it's a lot more haphazard, but it's working so far. Because I had done the other two patterns. I was able to work out what was needed to fill up those spaces. So I was very specific in what I was introducing in the negative spaces. Also understand it was keeping up a certain level of energy and momentum in trying to complete this. I think this area here is just too angular. I'll probably sort out Photoshop. I'm not going back in and paint it. I'll just add some more of this little petals here. Where the stalks are going in this side. I think the stalks in this bunch of flowers here are going to go like that. As you can see, there was no predetermined layout that I was trying to follow. I am just looking at the negative space and seeing what space needs to be filled and what line work would be the most appropriate using a series of dots, stalks, or little petals. We're almost done. But I'm trying to assess it all the time that I'm doing this to see where there's areas where it might need a little bit more line work, little bit more black pen. I like this area here. It really does look like a little medal. I'm just going to add some dots to fill up that area. Add few bits in the white flowers here. I need to do something on, I think with this one. That's quite straightforward. Create that pattern. That's my teeth might be a suggestion of a stalk there and all the stalks are doing that. We need just little elements like that just to finish that off. Same here. I think do I want to add a circle or such, something like that. I do feel this is a very vulnerable way of working when you're creating and you're not entirely sure how it's going to actually look. Not sure about that. Can I salvage it. It's just gone a little bit too formless. I think if I had some black dots, we can give it some definition in this area here. That's better. I'm going to leave it like that and look at this one. Some of the shapes they just add a particular line to it. Some of them are a lot more trickier for me to read and understand what needs to be done. I think because that flowers going outwards, I think this one might be glue your eye back in to this section of the pretend medal that I'm trying to recreate. Almost there just keep going just one more like one more burst of energy and then we're done. So far its taken about 40 minutes to get to this stage and because it's for my portfolio, I didn't have any issues about spending that length of time. Done anything in this one here, just add some dots in a semicircle. As I mentioned before, it does take a lot of energy, mental energy, to sustain this level of concentration when you're trying to fill out the negative spaces with effective marks. Almost there, I'm just going to quickly look at it one last time. Let me see. There is a hole here where nothing much is happening and it's not going to work out if I leave that blank. I noticed I've done on the other pages is that I've drawn this teeny-weeny little circle. So I'm going to do that across the rest of the page where I can see little gaps. So everything ties in and there's not one motif that is sticking out. Where did that come from? Everything is repeating and it runs in parallel between all three pages so that when I make the repeat, you can tell that they belong together. Just too few little petals there and I think I want a few dots as well, just to fill up that negative space that I saw happening there. Now, I know what I can do. That bit that I said, I'm going to try sort it out in Photoshop. I'm just going to add a series of dots over it just to diffuse that edge. Add a few dots here as well. I can see on the other page, this is what I've done in certain areas. It will all tie in and where else do I think I need it, here. Just a few little circles here. I think that's going to look really good as a repeat, looking at it with this one on the other side of the page that I think that the changing scales is definitely going to work and I've used very similar colors and techniques. I think it's all going to tie in. So that's my first sketch of the day. I'm really pleased with that. I'm going to again have a cup of tea and you can follow what I'm going to do next. 6. Sketch 2: Vegetables - Context: Before we move on to the next sketching, my other sketch book , I want to show you Sketchbook 15. This one had incredible lot of food illustration in it and it just stayed in my sketchbook and I wasn't doing anything with it. I decided that something needed to be done about this. This needed to be in illustrated recipes and sorry, I've just lost the page l just want to show you. Here we go. It was a page of tomatoes and garlic and if you follow me on Skillshare or Instagram, you know that I do do a lot of food. I do a lot of stuff for packaging and branding and it all comes from just playing around with ideas. I do have a Skillshare class on creating, waving, promote color. If you want to go and check out. I thought, well, let's lift some of these images out from this sketch book. Let's share them with the world. I'm going show you my plan. If you watched my other Skillshare classes on doing illustrated recipes, I always do a rough layout. This is one for cheats pasta sauce. This is pasta sauce that even my son can make it so easy. You basically blend the tomatoes and the vegetables together and they doubt, even though they know that there's things like salad and peppers in it. The young kids. They don't mind eating it because it's all being blended. This is the layout that I would like to do. It is very rough, but I wrote down what I needed to paint and also, this is being filmed in late September. I'm mindful that in October is a massive thing on Instagram. As I'm going to be using watercolor and ink, I thought this would be another good opportunity to fill up my sketchbook and to share on a daily basis some of my images. So what I'm going to paint next in the most recent sketchbook is pasta sauce ingredients. 7. Sketch 2: Vegetables - Watercolour wash: I've actually decided to move to the other side of the house because the lighting has changed and I think we're going to get much better results now in my living room. I'm going to set up here and I work on a coffee table. I sit on the floor. I really enjoy it. I'm just referring to my layout. There is going to be a section up here on the chopping board where it's going to be like celery and carrots and courgettes that are sliced or chopped. I'm going to be looking at reference. I use image library called Shutterstock, where I can type in celery sticks or sliced celery and they'll come up. Working from a reference image, I do want to put all the chopped vegetables on this page bearing in mind I want it to tie in with in tumbler. I wanted to look quite nice. I know it's eventually going to end up with something else, but as an illustrator, I'd like it to look quite nice as well. I'm going to be using the watercolor ink, it doesn't have to fill in exactly. The incline work is going to do that for me. I realized that I really love working with the dip pen, that's probably a little bit too strong, but never mind. That's the beginnings of the celery there and I'm going to do a suggestion of a little pile of sliced celery sticks. That's probably a little bit too dark. I'm going to add a bit of yellow here, a little moon shapes using the Wharton wet and, and I'm working very quickly as you can see. Again, I want to really to write, I am recording this in real time and unless the fire alarm goes off, I'm not going to be editing very much. What you see is exactly how I work. I want you to see that sometimes there are challenges for me and just what I'm going to have to think of next, like celery here. I think I'm going to do carrots down here because I always work from left to right. I'm going to type in carrot sliced. If there's any images that come up with, I want something similar to what I've just done here where there's some carrots and some sliced thoughts. I always have an iPad in front of me with really good reference images. I think it is important for me. Yeah, it's got one. The carrot body is going to be about here. That can be disks here. So let's mix up a bit of a yellowy orange. Start off with the kids coming in at an angle like this. Our naval expert yellow first, but there is a method to my madness. As you know, if you watch my classes. Do you remember I am going to be going using line work to define some of these edges and they looks pretty formless at the moment. Some of the part of me says, "I hope I can pull this off." Another part of me says, "Come off, you've done this like 20 other times before. Of course you can pull it off". But it is a conversation that will definitely happen in my head. I'm now going again with a much darker hue orange, almost just a hint of brown as well. No. Maybe there's too much brown there. Maybe more of a red for the underneath. Yeah, that's better. I know that is a concern for a lot of artists like can I pull this off? I don't want to do this unless it's going turn out amazing. If you don't do it, you never going to know. I haven't painted sliced carrots before. I do not know how exactly they're going to dry because they'll end up with some sorts of maybe a bloom happening, where as they dry, it comes out with slight different effects. That's good for carrots. What else is on my list courgette? Oh, I need a pepper. Let's put a red pepper there. That's why normally use. So I'm going to do red pepper. Let's see what comes up with half. This recipe is one that I made up when the kids were young and literally, that would be a kid on my hip and I'd have to cook using one hand, and this is where I, without blend every ingredient, put it in a ginormous pot, and let it simmer away for like three or four hours, I found a lovely half pepper. I'm just going to do it. I'm thinking it's going to be a weird angle, form a layout, but I'll think about it later. Come on. Let's just do it. You can tell that I'm thinking a headline, I don't know if it's going to be a weird angle. Let's just paint it. When I come to put the recipe together, I'll deal with it then, it's not a big. That will fit in about there, oh, is a bit fluff there. Let's just try and get this user wash to get the shape of the pepper first, we have a bulge there and comes around like that and there's a stalk, which I'll add in a little bit. Now I'm going to drop in a bit more concentrated red about here. Here the inside bit is dark just right in the middle here. The seeds there which I'll use the ink to sort that out and let's add a stalk. I think that might do. Just a more of a blob at the end, that will do and then we have got this corner here and here. I have to do courgettes and an onion. Maybe I'll do a courgette here and do an onion there. Maybe I just need a half onion. Actually, let's put an onion half and see what turns up. Oh, there's a lovely angle. That's perfect for the space I've got there. Let's start off with that half an onion. The first result that came up so I think that's a sign. Onions you can barely see the obviously when you slice it the inside bits, so that's going to be fine. I can add a tiny bit of detail with my dip pen. The skin is a [inaudible] brown. Oh, I've got gouache on my paintbrush somehow, let's wash that off. Sort of a golden brown. That's pretty much it. Just introduce a bit of orange, I think just here. It goes around like that. When I scan this, I'm going to have to slightly bodge it in Photoshop because the scanner can't quite get to the guttering of my sketchbook. It's all the way around here. Yeah, I'm going to have to be doing a few tricks in Photoshop just to add that section in, but the majority of it is going to be in watercolor. What would be nice just in this area here, is if I could just do a few chopped onions. It's something, if I need it, it's there. I think I can probably paint in quite quickly. I'm just going to up the contrast, dropping another reddy brown I think just here, just to up the contrast, there. Also, the root of the onion is about here as well, so that needs a bit of definition there as well. Yeah, that will do. Let's just try and conceive a tiny pile of chopped onions just to fill up that negative space there, above the pepper as well. I'm going to have to do a lot of it with the ink pen. It is almost little cubes. No, the recipe doesn't actually call for chopped onions, just roughly chopped and that's about as much as what my son can handle. In this section it is going to be the courgette sliced. Let's see what comes up with that. I know that it's the only space that I can fill. here we go. There's a nice one here so yeah, great. This courgette has got a pretty dark skin but just I'll do a wash first, oh, that's a bit too green. Let's add a tiny bit of yellow wash to that because it's supposed to be lighter on top in this reference that I've got. It looks a bit like a cucumber at the moment, but we'll get there. It's much darker under here and there's the slices of courgettes around it. It does look like a cucumber. We can deal with this. Let's have a look at slightly different reference. Maybe it needs a tiny bit of a curve because cucumbers are a lot straighter, courgettes got that slight curve in it. Maybe that's all it needed, I'm just going to add outline. That looks better already. Disaster averted. This is the stalk. I can add a few more details though in ink. I still think it needs something happening here, there's not enough dark contrast. I'm going to have to introduce the, maybe an ultramarine just here and the ridge there, okay good. I think we got space for two slices of courgette here. I am mindful already that we already had an issue of them looking like cucumbers. Looking at this carefully, they have got slight ridges, is almost angular. That's a little bit too dark. That's good. Then there's another slice just behind it. Let's add that quickly and give this piece a dry. Blast with my hair dryer anyhow. Okay, this will do. Let's put the hair dryer to it. 8. Sketch 2: Vegetables - inking: We've got lovely lot of blooming happening here. As you can see in the courgette and carrots and peppers. You can't control how it's going to turn out obviously. You can see in that stalk of the pepper that is merged into the red but that's absolutely fine. We're going to work with that. I'm going to use the pen and ink. I do have a Skillshare class on this so I'm not going to explain it now. To tie in with that garlic that I showed you originally, so I'm going back to my reference and just adding enough line work so that we can read it as a bit of a celery. I just had to find my reference. I think the first one I'm going to put in it or I'm just going to define the edge of this one because it overlaps the one behind here and I just need to say that it's in front of it. That's that bit and that bit is curved and that's the upper edge and now this is the lower edge. But I can see in the reference that there is some of the sliced courgettes are there so I'm actually going to add some now before I forget. I love that noise. Some people can't stand it but I love it. I've loved it since I went to law school. Hold on I almost put a bit of information on this courgette. I think I've got such lovely coloring happening in really doesn't need anymore. I think that that is all it needs and I'm just going to define a few more celery slices. Something has to happen here. That looks a bit like a bean. If we do that maybe that's better okay. I don't want it to be completely accurate as long as you know that it's part of chopped salary. That will do. Moving on to the carrot. It's still in my search history. There we go. That's my original reference. Again, I don't want to be adding too much and I don't want to be covering up the blooming on that either. It's just glorious. I'm just going to add the edge of that carrot. There's a slice just here. See that carrot is on top, there's a slice underneath. I could do that to one here. This is on top and also this slice is on top. If I add those first it gives me enough information. I just flipped my ink a tiny bit too much. It's landed on the courgette. That's fine. Let's just leave it. I'm going to add the merest hint of a line here just to show you the sliced face of that carrot and here as well. I don't think there's quite enough happening here. It just needs slightly more definition there to read as a carrot that has just been sliced and I'm just going to add those little inconsistencies you find in carrots. That will do. I think that's enough for that one. Let's concentrate next on this pepper. Just that five second break to find pepper reference was really useful to assess what I should do next. Think I'm going to keep the outside edges as it is and just give the definition for the interior edges of this pepper. Okay, so like that. There is something happening here and this is the beginnings of the seeds. The seeds come round in sort of a warped semicircular shape. Let's just add those. You don't need to add every single one. It is just to let the people know this is in an [inaudible] unquote say the bean sliced in half. The same thing happens on this side. There we go. I can see more seeds on this side. There we go. We need to just give a bit of information about this stalk. It does go into that white pith area. I just think it needs just some information here. I think that's fine cool. Moving onto the onion. Let's bring that back up. I'm going to have to do some Photoshop work to add to that side of it but it's not big deal and it's not going to unface me. Now which edge am i going to define? Yeah, perfect. I think that is all I need to do and some drawing roots there and I don't want to be adding any incline onto the interior of that. I might actually add white lining in Photoshop or something but that's not something that I'm concerned about. As for the chopped onions they are almost like little cubes little. As long as you understand that there is things in the foreground that usually have more definition you'll be all right. I'm just going to add it to chopped onion like shapes here. As they move into the background, I'm not pressing so hard on my ink pen. I think that will do. Now this courgette. I am mindful there's a big brown splurge there and I don't want to be brushing my hand over that because that's going to involve a lot of Photoshop work otherwise. I got my reference again. Looking at it now. It is quite angular a courgette because of the ridges its got on it. I think there's somebody at the door. I'm going to stop the video now and restart it. There is a quiet defined ridge there but I'm certain whether I'm going to include that because I think the paint's already done that job. Use that bit there because this is the beginning of the stalk here. It is so uneven and there's more ridges on there. I might add a few dots because there is markings on that courgette. I think that's all it needs. I haven't followed the exact line of the roundness that is something that I wanted to step away from. In terms of the slices, I think I'm just going to add the outer edge of that courgette and I think that's absolutely fine. I'm going to stop it there. It is a definitely a skill to know when you should stop. I know there's a tendency to ever work is something that I've had to deal with myself. Even now I have to say it in my head, stop now you don't need to add every details. You can read that it is a courgette. It is a pepper, it's a half an onion. Just leave it. You let the viewer's brain put the information together. That's that one but there's a second part for this. I just want to emphasize again, I'm working on several levels. This is also going to be something that I want to continue through the rest of October in October. 9. Sketch 3: Packaging - Watercolour wash: For the other part of the recipe that I'd like to work on, I do have a thing about packaging and I really want to introduce it more to my portfolio. This is the actual products that I use myself. This java oregano is empty, I've used it all. But this is something I want to put on a single sheet of my sketchbook. Let's give it a go. I've had to turn my sketchbook portrait-wise, because of the ingredients that I've chosen, I think that they'll fit much better into this format aesthetically as well. I'm going to start off with the stock diluted, I'm going to put it in this top corner. Then I think there's going to be a very long tube of multi puree, the olive oil, and the 10 tomatoes here. Let's give it a go, that's the basic plan. If it works, that's great. If it doesn't, I will deal with it. I haven't really done packaging in my sketchbook since my very early days, but as I mentioned before, it's something that I'd like to do more of. Let's just do this. I'm talking too much. Let's just do this. It's probably a bit to red. I think I need to make something much darker red. I need to leave a little bit of room on this side for the tomato puree ray tube. What is going through my head now is, in that instant, I knew I getting tight because this is something that I'm not used to, I can feel it. I can feel it in the way I've just tempts my shoulder. You just heard me take a deep breath in and out. I start again. Work quickly. Again, this is going to have inclined details, so I don't have to get it precise. I'm going to tackle it, but let's just do it. Right now until I do it. There is a lovely illustrated tomato here and here. It doesn't have to read as the exact packaging, as long as people can work out all that as a stop queue packet. I might just leave it there. I think it needs just a little bit of dark-red underneath this, because it does reduce on a dark red base. I'm just thinking, what would Jennifer Lawrence do? Because this is how she paints as well. I think that might be fine. Leave it. Don't think too much. Moving on to the tomato puree, which I want to put here. Do I want to do tomato puree? Maybe I should do the oil. Can you hear the uncertainty in my voice because I'm trying something slightly new for me anyway. I'm hoping that you can tell that I'm actually going to do the oil. This is why I wanted to video this, so that you can hear the process. Here's some of the uncertainty, here are some of the issues and challenges that I'm having. I just want to extend that because I want to make it a tiny bit more 3D. The bottle, I'm going to have to slightly shift position, is mainly a yellow ocher color. With that beautiful vintage packaging, there's almost a hint of green in there as well. I'm not going to paint the leading, I don't think right. Let's just do it. I think I have tried to do bottles of olive oil before, and as I recall, I overworked it, so I'm mindful of this from previous experience. This is something that I know I will have a challenge with, and I can already feel the, I want to get this right, happening in my head. The top, that's happening in my hand and it's like, well, I'm doing it on camera, I don't want to mess up, but I think it is really important for you guys to hear me talk through this particular process. What you've seen before, it's relatively being straightforward, but this is new stuff for me. I haven't done packaging in watercolor and ink ever. This is why I only wanted to record it so you can see that it is something that I have to tackle as well, it's something that I have to be mindful of, something that I have to rise to the occasion, and think, this is the work I do want to attract. Eventually this is going to go on They Draw and Cook, this is going to my website and Pinterest. In order for me to show potential clients I can do this, I have got to do it. The bottom of the Botox here. There's a hint of green there, the edge is about here. To get about the basis, I just saw, it was a bit different but it doesn't matter. You can see how tentative I am. It's like, I don't know where to put the brush strokes. I have to put them somewhere. This is where I have to tell myself, keep breathing, it is going to be fine. Just don't overwork it. When things get overworked, it's trickier to salvage. That's not bad. I'm just going to use some water just to draw that across there. That's exactly what I wanted to do. The label is a lovely yellow color with the logo. I thought it was important to show this part because I'm so flustered by making a decision on what happens next. I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to do gold. It's printed gold. In old school, it was called Pantene gold. I actually procrastinated for about 20 seconds about what to do next because I was very afraid that I was going to put a stroke wrong. It's here. Label goes across like that, a bit thicker and there is a banner here. Let's just leave it at that because I'm going to let the ink line do the rest of it, and I'm going to add the yellow around it. Something a bit like that. The edge of the bottle, I think I might add in ink. I'm just going to leave it for now. There's a lot of light shining on this table, I'm going to move it backwards. Excuse the camera wobble. That's a bit better. Moving on to this bit, which was going to be where the tomato puree was going to go, but I do need to leave enough space down here for tin tomatoes. If there was enough space there I'll add a jar of Oregano. This is mainly red. This should be fairly straightforward. I try not to worry myself too much about it. Often when you want something to really work out, you do get more emotionally attached to the outcome, but if it doesn't work out, I'll just paint it again. Really sorry. I thought I had my camera switched on, but you've only missed about 20 seconds worth. I'm just continuing down here. It is relatively straightforward a shape. I'm not going to include all the information because I don't like the black banner. I don't use very much black, but I will include this green panel. Is metal, so there's a little bit of sheen on it. It's not like I don't want to be adding solid bits of red. It is darker on this side where it's away from the light. Yeah, like that. I might shorten it a bit because I do have to fit in a can of tin tomatoes, and I need to put the lid somewhere for this tomato puree. Again, as long as it reads as tomato puree, that's great. Yeah, it is going to be a little bit shorter than this version that I'm trying to paint. Just add those two bits there. Perfect. Just use the wet on wet to draw it out like that. I will, I think, just add the ink details for the lettering and the lid of this tomato puree. That will do. Let's do the tin tomatoes in this corner, and I think there is just enough sufficient space to do a smallish jar of Oregano. These are the plum tomatoes. Move this up. Now, I'm going to take another deep breath. It's going to be fine. I know when I started my sketchbook practice, I painted straight lines over and over again. In terms of packaging, I do like packaging, but straight lines or straight sided things are a challenge for me. I don't know why, but they are. I'm just going to take it easy. It's going to be absolutely fine. It doesn't have to be perfect because I'm going to be scanning this in and taking it into Photoshop. It's just my version of it. It doesn't matter. I'm looking down on it but I do want to have a little bit of a rim in there. It's much darker blue on this side. Up here, it's almost like a little hot logo here. This tomato is down here. I'm just going to define the edge of this tin. There we go. It is much lighter at the bottom and then it goes dark again down here. Let's drop in some dark out marine. There we go. If I do the tomatoes, I can add the blue after. These are plum tomatoes. That's very red, a bit too much. There's the front tomato and then there's one just to the side of it. That will do. I can add details with the ink line. Let's just leave it at that. Introduce a slightly lighter blue, because that is what is behind those tomatoes, and hopefully, that is going to be enough to read as a tin tomato. There is only a very small gap here for the Oregano. I don't really want to be putting too much in there because it will just look too squash. I think I might just leave it at that, and I'm going to dry with my hair dryer now. 10. Sketch 3: Packaging - inking: The paint is fully dried now. I'm going to be adding the incline details as much as I can. I don't want to reproduce an exact copy of it. Just a version of it so that there's enough information for a viewer to understand that it's stock cube. Let's give it a go. I do want to give this particular stock cube packaging a bit of a 3D element. Just need a bit more ink on that. It is a bit warped, but not to worry, let's no worry about that. Because there are ways means to deal with that in Photoshop. There's a star there. Concentrating very hard, I know this is actually in white on the packaging. But, I am not bothered about that. It is, oh gosh, I don't know what you call one of these Os. I think this particular company is a Swedish may be, or Danish, I don't know. You can hear the slight panic there, because I made a mistake. I realize I did it, I was mindful that that was happening, took a breath. That will do. Have I got room to write organic tomato and herb? I might just write tomato and herb. We can add a tiny, some tiny details to this. No, those are too bad. There is a spring of herbs. It must be the herbs that's part of this. I might include that. But not all of it. I Just want to fill up that space. Let's leave it for now. Moving on to the tomato puree. It's a condensed short version. I really like the fact that this edge here is undefined. I don't want to play around with too much, I think that reads really well. Just do that. I think that's probably enough. There's an Italian flag thing happening there, I don't think I'll include that. Just write, tomato puree in there. There's some little decorative dot features there. I'm wondering if I should include those. It's probably going to be actually unnecessary. No, scratch that idea. I absolutely cannot fit in double concentrated underneath this line of type. It's got this little lip here where the metal bends over. I think, I would like to include that. If you buy a tomato puree in tubes like this. Now we need to add this funnel shape. Then the lid starts here. I said I was just going to add the detail of the lid in the ink line. Let's do that now. Just going to define this edge here, just to say it's very angular and this bit here. That's good. This is my challenge, the olive oil. But, I'm not going to call it my challenge anymore. I'm just going to say, let's enjoy some hand lettering. Try and convey some of these vintage quality on it. Let's just reframe it in my head, so I don't have a little freak out. The lid and this lovely detail. Think I might need to add another line just under there. That's fine. That's fine. That's a good start. The edge of the label is here. I have it standing up at the moment, so I'm not going to be concerned about how the oil was looking, when I painted it. I'm now concentrating on the actual lettering, and the shape of the label. I think I do have to define the edge of this bottle. I'll do that in a minute. Then this Mr. Pilippo in here, with lovely mustache. I'm always very small-scale, but I'm trying my best. That will do. Look who's down like that. Same happens in here. I'm now going to add at this edge. I don't think I can fit this inside it. If I put the I here, it is a bit splurgy. I've run out of room, but, it doesn't matter. I think it's all part of me understanding. For next time, maybe I should leave extra room proportionally. Just look at it. Spend a bit more time looking at it next time. It isn't a big deal. The main thing is, I'm learning from this, and it doesn't sound it, but I am actually enjoying this. This is almost like meditation. I've never really looked at this packaging properly, even though I've been buying this for years. This is a really good exercise. That's a little bit off-kilter, never mind. There's signatures in here, and I'm just going to try and do a version of it. That will do. I don't know if I can fit Classico in there. I will just do a version of Classico. It's a very elaborate Victorian looking type. Have I got enough room? Of course I've got enough room. There we go. Slightly smaller O, but that's fine. The edge of the label. It does do this thing, the bottom of the bottle doesn't go straight down like that. There's this little lip that say, I'm going to leave it like that. It isn't perfect olive oil bottle, but I think for me, first-time around, that's not bad. Let's move on to this tin tomatoes. I want to include the ring pull. I think that will read well as an actual tin. You have to open. That's a good start. I think I'm going to define one of the edges. I think this one. On the left. Is it slightly wonky? It may be. Never mind. I might leave that. Then let's add the font for this. I just realized I was holding my breath. I've just let it out. Taking another deep breath in. Holding my breath again. I'm doing fine. It says 1856 on here. I think I've got just enough room to include that. That's now the third time where I've noticed I'm holding my breath. Now, making myself do mindfulness breathing, where I am aware that I have to take breaths, and breathe out. That's really nice. I really like that one. Do you want put peeled plum tomatoes on that? You know what I want. I'm going to take that room that we've got paired, to fill it up with the stalks that I can see happening here. That joins onto that, and that goes off like that. Something like that. Do I need to define the edge of the tomato? Maybe. I think that will do. I've just breathed out. The sun has changed angle again. I'm going to let this dry, because I need to paint the pan of spaghetti that I had in my layout. Then I need to charge my phone again, because I'm trying to film this in real time, as quickly as possible. 11. Sketch 4: Spaghetti - watercolour wash: I just wanted to reacquaint you with the final part of the illustration recipe I've yet to paint. This squiggle is supposed to be a pan of spaghetti with a bit of tomato sauce on. I have looked at some reference and there is nothing that I, sorry, let me [inaudible] for my paint. There is nothing that looks exactly like how I wanted. I've got my reference. There is a pan that is at the right angle. And I'm going to basically make the rest up. It's a start. The pasta doesn't have any tomato sauce on it, but I will just have to go ahead and do it but I can't make an excuse to say, "I can't find a pasta sauce pan with the right angle." In the old days, I probably would have and I've thought, "Right, you know what, I'm just not going to even paint that pan." Now I was like, "No, let's give it a go. What's the worst that can happen." Here we go. Also, I could have done with a little bit more to the left because there's actually a handle which I completely forgot that I was going to paint in. Never mind. I'll remember for next time. It's actually really hot in here even though it's autumn. The paint is drying a lot quicker than I anticipated and it's not behaving as I thought. I'm going to have to work even faster. You can see, I am uncertain here. I have to draw the back of the pan and also the pasta that is sitting inside it. Because I am uncertain I do have that fear creeping in that I'm going to make a mistake. It takes me a lot longer than normal to put that brushwork down. I can't see the handle of a pan. I have to see a reference of another pan actually, but it's in sort of a mirror image of this one, but it's like a cast iron pan. Even though I've got one of these, I rarely cook with it because it's so heavy to get in and out of my cupboard, which is a very poor excuse, I know. But I'm going to use that and even though it's a mirror version of this. I know it doesn't look like much of the moment, but I am assessing where the next brush strokes are going to be going. Although I've illustrated pans before, I've never done anything like this in watercolor. So I am a little bit slow with this process. It's darkest here and it gets lighter apart from the interior. Where did that purple come from? Must've been stuck on the edge of the palate. Now, it's more orange-y red up here. Try and get rid of that purple or integrate it. Yeah. That will do. That's it. That's good. Leave at that for now. Then we have concentrate on the spaghetti. I typed in spaghetti pan tomato. In my reference, I know what spaghetti and tomato sauce that the coloring looks like. But let's try not to overthink the spaghetti. Let's mix up a beige-y yellowy color. Just as the first wash. More yellow, more orca. I know it doesn't look like anything at the moment. I will let it dry. We're going to use the dip pen line to add some definition. Also I'll probably add another wash. Truth be told, I was little bit fearful at this stage that it was just going to be a soggy mess. But I had to keep observing and making sure each brushstroke was going to count. All right. I'm going to leave that and then dry it really quickly and then add another wash for the dark areas. I'm just adding a few, I've got a much darker, it's like the burnt umber wash that I'm putting on. I'm trying very hard not to think about this too much like," Oh, you have to turn out looking like spaghetti." It'll turn out looking how it's going to turn out looking. So let's just leave it at that. I find if I worry too much, it does affect the zone that I'm working in. I'm just going to leave it and I'm going to dry it again and see how I'm going to add tomato sauce. That's the next bit. Stay tuned. I'm actually looking at some different reference now. I just like tomato, sauce, spaghetti. It gives you a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce on top. Which is basically what I need for this. Just the reference of how the tomato settles on top of the spaghetti and what shade it's in. So I'm going to take a deep breath. It's not going to go wrong. It's not going to go wrong. I will learn from this. There is the first layer of red. It's a red-y orange wash. In this version, it is trickling down. I think that's too much read on that. Trickling down between the spaghetti. I find that when I'm painting something new, I overcompensate by trying to find lots of reference so that I know exactly how the contrast and the shapes and things like that work. My son can't cook, which is a wonderful achievement for him. Let's say, it's the tomato is coming in between the pasta's strands and it gets darker away from the main part. Take another breath. There's bit of sauce seeping in here, and here. I can see it spilling out there. That's not bad. I know what is happening here. I'm using very tentative brushstrokes and working very slowly. I just need to be mindful that this is the state I'm in. I've got to keep breathing. It's working absolutely fine. There is a tendency to overwork. I know. I keep mentioning it. But because you're so fixated on getting it right, it often happens and you don't realize it. So I am absolutely very mindful that this could happen because of the state where it's not new way of working, it's new subject matter for me and I want it to work out right, because I'm hoping it's going to be part of my portfolio. I think I'm just going to add a bit more red there just to build up that height. Yeah, that's it. That's it. I think that's it. 12. Sketch 4: Spaghetti - inking: You know the end. I am really pleased with the way that the pasta sauce sits on that spaghetti. I do not think I want to be touching that, all I want to do is give definition to the spaghetti and the pan. I think the sauce will be able to communicate very well. We just need to define a few individual strands of the spaghetti without going overboard. If you compare how slow and deliberate these strokes are compared to when you saw me do the vegetables earlier on, you can see the difference. I think have done the hard work for sure while I've thought about it at the edge of that pan. Such dip it more angular than how I painted in originally. I'm sure many artists do fear going wrong at particular stage. I felt like I was really close to finishing this and I didn't want to mark it up. It's really important for you to hear that every artist, including me has these issues and we tackle them. I was a bit heavy handed there. I'm just going to leave that. Can't be helped now. If you can imagine the conversations that I'm having in my head, one side is saying, don't mark this out, you're going to regret it if you put that pen wrong and the other side of my head is saying, you're going to be fine, you're doing absolutely great. Wherever this negative self-talk and I try very hard not to let it affect my sketches. The human eye saying genius it knows from just a few suggestive lines what is meant to be. I can't even talk because I was really holding my breath in. How do you find that if I'm holding a lot of tension or some emotional, that it translates into my sketches and I cannot actually work then. Main part obviously is me thinking if it goes wrong on camera, is going to look really bad. I am acutely aware of that. The people who DM me say, "How do you produce things are also pretty all the time?" I don't know the answer to that. All I feel like saying is, I practice but that doesn't sound like very adequate answer and I don't think people actually won't to be hearing that. They want to know that there is like some formula for producing wonderful sketches every day. My initial observations are just from doing this with you guys this afternoon is just to keep going. Take that one step in the right direction. If there is a tiny error and they are tiny errors, put it down to experience say, "I wouldn't do that next time or I'll remember that for next time." Also, I am a very strong believer in observing the subject matter even though I have illustrated spaghetti before, but I've never done it in watercolor. I am actually enjoying this now. I've now got to the point where I've thought, this is it, I've done it, I think I've done it. There is a sense of relief that's coming through for me now. There is just some artists need. I think I just want to put something in that pan here. It is through practice that you learn to cope with some of the conversations that are occurring in your head and my head. I've been very honest about this. I'm going to call it a [inaudible] In the original pan, it was a dark interior of the pen, but I don't want to spoil that. I do think that's just where I wanted it to be. I'm going to leave it there. 13. Assessing my sketches: I just wanted to go over again what I learnt myself this morning by recording in real time and commentating on the process as I was doing it with this one because I knew what I was doing. I had done a previous page along with this one with the yellow background, I did know what to do and to use very similar elements, so that was pretty straightforward for me. Moving on to the next page, I have done a lot of sketches like this. It's been food items, vegetables, fruit that I am comfortable with, and I know the structure of, so that wasn't an issue for me and I really love how it turned out and there's a beautiful quality about it with the incline as well. Now, moving into [inaudible] unknown slightly different territory, but I do not do packaging like this at the moment. As I mentioned, it's something I want to do more of in order to help with my food illustration portfolio. It is very comforting for me looking back to see this page because I can see that actually I was able to apply what I already knew just because it happened to be packaging has straight sides and something that I have challenges with. I was still able to apply the same principles of don't overwork, you don't have to fill in every single gap with paint, leave some highlights, let the paint flow, things like that. Although the lecturing isn't perfect, it's slightly off kilter, it still reads as what it's meant to be. My favorite is this can of tin tomatoes, I just think it's really for me. You might have your favorites, but it just really speaks to me. Now we're going to turn over and this is the pan of pasta which I left you last because I knew it was going to be the greatest challenge, but looking at it now, I think it's a lovely pan of pasta. I think I actually did a really good job, I held my nerve, I kept breathing, and observing, so I'm absolutely thrilled with that. 14. Final thoughts: If you sat through all those videos, thank you very much. I hopeful were rewarded with a few insights into my process. As you can see, I do have times when I have to talk myself through a certain situation, and convince myself that I can actually achieve a decent piece of watercolor, packaging, painting, or sketch. It is when we force ourselves step outside their comfort zones, we already have what we need inside us. You may have disguised it with certain excuses or beliefs about your abilities. But it really is always going to be there and you just need to harness that belief of your capabilities. If it means more practice, if it means that you have to just re-evaluate your past sketches or you have to get better reference or what quicker. The main thing is you have to keep painting when this class is released, it is late September in 2018. I'm hoping far from that sketch page on-wards that you're going to see a progression. I haven't even been doing more packaging design sketches, and I'll also be doing other things. I hope you'll be able to see that it's okay to pursue your passions. I don't know and I don't actually care what the response is to some of my packaging sketches. It is what I am passionate about, and I really hope that if I put that love out there that is going to return back to me. So watch this space. There is more to come in the following few months, and I want to explore this theme a little bit more. Goodbye for now. Stay amazing. Have a wonderful day.