I believe the best thing about creating art is that anyone can do it. Journaling and sketching is available for anyone with a pencil and a piece of paper. No matter where you are or what time it is, you can use these simple tools to better connect with the world around you.
Visiting a pond, hiking a trail and exploring nature is great but you can also find interesting things to observe right where you are now. You can have your own free sketching session right now. Anywhere, anytime!
How do you fill your sketchbook or journal? You might want to write notes and record your observations and descriptions of what you are noticing, hearing, smelling and seeing. You can fill the pages with simple diagrams, scribbles, quick gesture drawings or really get into developed drawings. Be curious and ask yourself questions. What is this thing? Why is it shaped like this? What is its purpose? And What if ___(fill in the blank)? You can even write down your question and research it later to learn more.
Of course there are many books available on sketching at the local library, so if you want a more structured approach, you will find help there.
Leonardo da Vinci was an avid note taker as you can see in his sketchbook pages here:
Here is a page from my sketchbook today:
The folklore behind Queen Anne’s: Queen Anne II was tatting (a type of embroidery) white lace when she pricked her finger with the tatting needle, causing a drop of blood to fall on the lace. This is why the white flowers have dark red flowers in the center. In the 18th century, English courtiers referred to this flower as Living Lace. Queen Anne II hosted a challenge to her ladies-in-waiting to produce a piece of lace as delicate and beautiful as the flower but none could make lace that could outshine the real thing.
The flower is also a cousin to the modern day carrot. It was crushed and used to prevent pregnancies 2000 years ago and herbalists today use it as an antiseptic and diuretic. *Note: this is not medical advice!
In my opinion, the most important part of this exercise is to have fun with it. When you make it fun, you will want to repeat the exercise and repeating will lead to improvement.
I’d love to hear from others about how they keep their sketching simple and fun. Please share here.
***
katieturnerartblog 