Thank you Ria Sharon for this class! I really resonate with your story of being an artist who doesn't create. I felt this way for a very long time.

My name is Wietske and I have a degree in product design. After graduating in a recession I took the "sensible" route and ended up with a research job in hightech innovation. Very stimulating for the rational and critical side of my brain, but completely stifling any creative inklings through over-analysing.

After a major move to the other side of my country this year, I find myself in this odd, uncertain, but wonderful moment in my life in which I have actually time to reconnect with my creative self. I have been keeping an informal sketchbook since the beginning of this year, but I would love to turn sketching into a daily habit. Your class makes it seem very doable and fun, so I decided to really commit and create my way out of all my excuses.

Day 1 - Making marks

My Sketchbook Magic - image 1 - student project

Day 2 - What's right in front of me

My Sketchbook Magic - image 2 - student project

Today I drew what was right in front of me: my toddler moving around. She is a very active child, so it was challenging to capture any gestures at all. But I loved the opportunity to do some life drawing. I'm definitely going to make many more sketches of my family as they go about their daily business. It is so much fun!

Day 3 - Places in 4 minutes

My Sketchbook Magic - image 3 - student project

I like Ria's method. I pulled "Places" and the dice determined 2. It might have taken me a little longer, but the whole purpose of this drawing was speed. Not accuracy or great drawing. Although there are lots of "mistakes" in this sketch, I like the energy. I haven't really used the brushpen that much before, but I like that it it forces your to make a decision and stick with it. Results in clear and confident lines.

Day 4 - Houses at my kitchen table

My Sketchbook Magic - image 4 - student project

Funny coincidence. Today I pulled houses from the list of prompts. I sat at my kitchen table and was looking at the patterns that surrounded me. So I decided to doodle little house shape boxes and fill them in with different smaller shapes and patterns. I like this way of working, because it is an easy way to transform very basic shapes into something much more interesting. And it helps me to overcome my fear of drawing scenery. This doodle is far from finished, so I'll probably continue it tomorrow.

Day 5 - Whimsical village doodle

My Sketchbook Magic - image 5 - student project

Those 5 days went by pretty quick! But I needed today's video lesson. I did not feel like drawing, because I didn't like where my drawing was going. But I decided to stick with it and make another few additions to my lopsided village. It starts to look better. But the real value for me lies in exploring a different technique. It is fun to create these little doodle houses, but somehow it doesn't really feel like me. I miss colors and perspective. The real life drawing earlier this week was more exciting to me. I really like to observe things and people and try to capture them on paper.

I pulled the magic number 14, so I'll post my daily sketches here for at least another 14 days.

Day 6 - Autumn leaf

My Sketchbook Magic - image 6 - student project

Autumn has finally arrived here in Friesland. I found some pretty autumn leaves and decided to make a watercolor sketch.

Day 7 - Pencil portrait of a girl

My Sketchbook Magic - image 7 - student project Not the best photo, but I like this girl. I have used a photo reference to practice.

Day 8 - Figure drawing

My Sketchbook Magic - image 8 - student project My sketchbook is all over the place, because at the moment I like to explore different subjects and media. On and off I have been practising my figure drawing skills this year. Today I studied the different landmarks of the human body and how I can use those to improve my figure drawings. I made several quick sketches like the one displayed above.

Day 9 - Watercolor Amaryllis

My Sketchbook Magic - image 9 - student project

I made this one in the evening in poor lighting conditions, so this morning it was a little bit of a surprise how the colors turned out. This was a study of the Amaryllis flower on my dining table. I love how this flower has all these intricate little veins in her leaves. I have been looking at it for days now and today I thought I should try to capture some of this delicate beauty before it withers.

Day 10 - Persian Silk flowers

My Sketchbook Magic - image 10 - student project A friend of mine has a book about Persian silk. I saw this pattern and to practice my lines and precision decided to draw my own version.

Day 11 - Blind contour

My Sketchbook Magic - image 11 - student project

I haven't posted on Skillshare for a couple of days, but I have continued drawing in my sketchbook. I did a lot of experiments, which do not look very pretty, but are pretty useful to me. This one is a blind contour drawing (drawing without looking at the paper) of my toddler. She looks scary!

Day 12 - Subtraction

My Sketchbook Magic - image 12 - student project

I followed a Skillshare class by Ryan Putnam in which he demonstrates several techniques to push your work. This is a drawing I did using subtraction. I darkened the whole page with charcoal and used an eraser to create sort of a landscape. It is very refreshing to create shapes by drawing negative space with an eraser. And quite difficult to change my way of thinking. I have erased too much, but I like the hazy effect I produced.

Day 13 - Draw by letters

My Sketchbook Magic - image 13 - student project

I recently read about a technique which had artists drew lines from one inpurity in the paper to the next one. Thereby creating art that was already embedded in the paper. I thought I could also do this with letters. I cut a random piece from a magazine and marked all the letters R and drew straight lines between them. This way I do not have to think about what to create, but the artwork sort of creates itself. I find these kind of excercises very helpful to get unstuck.

Day 14 - Opera singers

My Sketchbook Magic - image 14 - student project My Sketchbook Magic - image 15 - student project I want to make an illustration of a singing mouse for my daughter, so today I studied opera singers to get to know their gestures and expressions better.

Day 15 - Mouses

My Sketchbook Magic - image 16 - student project My Sketchbook Magic - image 17 - student project

And today it is mouse day. I searched for reference material and sketched mouses in several positions. They actually have a very funny body that can stretch and squeeze with very short arms and legs.

Day 16 - Mouses continued

My Sketchbook Magic - image 18 - student project My Sketchbook Magic - image 19 - student project

Day 17 - Singing mouse

My Sketchbook Magic - image 20 - student project

I drew several sheets of singing mouses like the one above, putting together what I have learned over the last few days. Still not completely satisfied, so I will keep on sketching untill I have found a character that I like.

Day 18 - Wedding dress

My Sketchbook Magic - image 21 - student project

An old friend of mine is getting married. I used to sit next to her in class drawing evening and wedding dresses in my notebooks. So I thought it would be fitting to give her a drawing for her bachelorette party. Here is one of my sketches.

Day 19 - Wedding gift

My Sketchbook Magic - image 22 - student project

I elaborated on yesterday's sketch and painted it in white on tinted paper. The drawing looks better in reality than the photograph. The camera on my phone sucks.

This was the last day of my sketchbook magic that I will record here on Skillshare. It has been a great starter for me to start a daily drawing practice. I'm looking forward to continuing and improving my drawing skills.

Now I'm off exploring how to take better photographs here on Skillshare :) Because it's a shame to post such bad quality photos of my work.

Wietske Koers

Creative Adventurer

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