Month number two of sketching with intention. I am taking a sketching class by Liz Steel, and it is amazing. Her love of sketching, watercolor, art, and life comes through.

First page of open sketchbook - title and drawing of a landscape

Sketching tools fineliners and fountain pens

Sketching materials - pencils, erasers, and pencil sharpener

Faber Castell watercolor pencil swatching

I love the blind contours because the inner critic can't pop in, and the result is usually something I wouldn't have made while "seeing." I found out I like to work faster rather than slower.

Blind contour and continuous line contours

I had much more trouble with the point-to-point continuous line sketches. I just don't have the patience.

Ink sketch with watercolor abstracting shapes

I was super nervous about the abstracting shapes with watercolor in this lesson, but I did it. I learned a lot in one sketch. I need to work more with colors - what I have in the pallet, how they work and don't work together. I had a plan for the colors, and they did not turn out the way I wanted. They were too gray. I wanted more deep blues, and the mug was supposed to transition from deep blue to dark brown. I need to understand how much water to use and how much pigment. I want to know how to use brush strokes; mine feel very haphazard. The lines on the inside of the pencil case were fine until I tried to add a shadow over them - yikes! The shadows, in general, are too dark and the wrong color. I also really wanted to go back in with ink but resisted. The list goes on but, it's a start!

Sketching with the Lamy Safari and black De Artrametis Document Black Ink

I was looking forward to this lesson probably because I am familiar with the rule of thirds. I wanted to come up with a simple composition and focus on working with the paint. I'm not too fond of the back run at the top of the sky – I believe that is because there was too much water? I liked doing the splashes to give it a more loose feeling.

Faber-Castell Graphite Aquarelle 2B water soluble pencil sketch

I liked looking for shapes in this lesson. I liked my thumbnail sketch better than the final piece. I used watercolor pencils and a water brush - still on the fence. When I use the water brush, it feels like it smears the pigment on the page, and the painting feels flat. I suppose that might be why to use watercolor over the watercolor pencils.

Wow, this was a lot of fun. I stayed in my neighborhood and found some strong shapes in the form of a Mutt Mitt box (I put called in Mix on the sketch - oops). These hold doggie poop bags for the neighborhood. I know, weird, but I liked the hood shape, which had great shadows. The other sketch is of our bulk mailboxes.

I was in the street sketching the Mutt box. Cars were flying by, and people were walking to a popular trailhead. I got some odd looks. One person did ask what I was sketching.

I got utterly lost in the moment – time flew by.

I tried the watercolor pencils again. I couldn't bring myself to go over the front-facing box with water when I got home – I liked how it looked with just pencil. I tried just to go over the WCP one time with a standard watercolor brush (not a water brush). I do like the results better with a "normal" brush, and I was too scared to use watercolor on top of the WCP – I will get there.