As part of a sketchbook exchange that I am involved with, and in response to some beautiful surfaces my sketchbook buddy had created, I wanted to have a go at drawing on some interesting surfaces, rather than on white paper. I painted some white tissue with coloured inks. You could use inks, watercolour or watered down acrylic for this part of the process.
I stuck down the inked tissue paper across two double page spreads. I like the way the tissue ripped and creased. Layering it created interesting effects and mixed the colours even more. I deliberately let the tissue come off the edge of the page.
The newspaper that I had placed under the tissue also became interestingly stained. (A happy accident) I decided to incorporate it into my second double-page spread, placing it in a diagonal across the page.
Keen to push myself into doing some direct observation, I headed into my garden.
Some drawings were better than others but I chose to remind myself – this is only a sketchbook, not everything has to be perfect.
I then went back to inside as I knew I wanted to make the drawings stand out a little more. On the first drawing, I used Paynes grey watercolour. You can get this on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. A tube will last a long time as you only need a tiny amount.
On the remaining drawings, I added white acrylic around the edge. Sometimes this was straight from the tube, sometimes watered down to a single cream-like consistency. I like the last drawing in particular. I think if you’re pleased with one in four drawings in a sketchbook, that’s not bad.
These are my latest Sketchbook Circle pages. Sketchbook Circle is a sketchbook exchange group.
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If you are interested in getting your students to draw natural forms, I have lots of natural forms resources on this website.
