New Drawings...Day 134-140

I played catch-up again all last week.  This time of year there is just too much to do and way too little time to do it.  :)  But, with a few late nights (including last night, which is why this post is a bit late) I managed to get everything up to date.  Hope you enjoy them.  :) 

The Latest Drawings from My Sketchbook

I did a lot of playing catch up with drawing this last week.  It seemed I spent the whole week at least a couple of days behind.  This week will probably be the same because I have band concerts Tuesday and Thursday evenings so I'll be extra busy.  Once I'm through with this week, though, summer "vacation" can officially begin...which usually means even more busyness--trips, gardening, family, outside projects.  :)



Latest Drawings / Paintings

This week I seemed to have a desire to paint buildings.  I'm not sure why but it's been good practice.  :)  I actually had a breakthrough with the second and third ones.  For the first time, I didn't overwork the painting.  Huge step for me.  :)  I would still like to be painting looser but one step at a time, huh?

Here they are.  :)

This one counted as two days--it took a lot longer than I thought it would.  ")

Drawings or May 2nd through May 8th

New Drawings are Here...

I had a lot of fun this week messing around with some pen and wash drawings.  I don't know why I love them so much except that the process of washing over the pen can transform a so-so drawing into something that looks really cool.  I even tried something that I always avoid--I drew a portrait.  It's not perfect (sorry Alex) but I got a lot closer than I thought I would.  Made me happy.  :)

This Week's New Drawings

Making a New Watercolor Sketchbook

I'm pretty close to being out of pages in my current sketchbook so I've been doing a lot of thinking about how I wanted to make the next one.  I wanted one that was easier to use for doing landscapes and that would include drawing paper for doing value sketches.  I also wanted to be able to add and remove paper if I needed to.  And I wanted something that was easier to photograph--right now, I have to use rubberbands and masking tape to get the pages flat enough to take photos.

I looked online and checked out how other people were making their sketchbooks and found some good ideas to try. 

I started by dividing a 22 x 30 sheet of watercolor paper into eighths, which gave me pages that are 7 1/2" x 11".  Then I cut 9" x12" drawing paper in half to make pages that are 6" x 9".   The last step with the paper was to measure and punch two holes in each sheet.  Then I cut two peices of book board that were slightly bigger than the size of the watercolor paper and decided on some paper to cover the book board.

Everything all cut out and ready

After changing my mind 3 or 4 times, I finally decided what paper to use to cover the book board and started the process of gluing the paper onto the board.  

Gluing the decorative paper onto the front side of the book board.

Gluing the paper on the inside of the book board.

After the covers had a chance to dry, I decided to have some fun and I dropped and splattered paint all over the paper to make it prettier.

After the paint dried, I put clear Contac paper on the covers so that they would be waterproof.  (I want to be able to clip a piece of paper to the front cover with bulldog clips so that when I'm painting I can keep the paper from warping so much.  I hope it works!)  The I punched holes in the covers.  After much noisy hammering and slightly bruised fingers, I had all the makings of a watercolor sketchbook.  Here it is all finished.  I can't wait to start using it.  :)