Daily Sketchbook | July 25 + some old drawings

One of the best parts about a sketchbook is that you can really experiment and do whatever you want because no one has to see it (though now anyone could see mine - but I'm ok with that if posting here holds me accountable to myself to use mine everyday). But I think I take that approach- that it's ok to experiment and do whatever I want- in all my art. Of course I hope that the art I make will resonate with someone but if I'm not having fun in the process, what's the point?

In that spirit, one of my sketches this week was a bit different. On Tuesday, I was really tired and my 4-yr old woke up before me, which meant I didn't have a chance to get to my paints in the studio, so I did a pencil sketch while we were getting ready for the day. I later inked over it, and for now I left it like that but I may apply paint at some point.

 I could see myself doing a series of the moon and florals but in my more intuitive abstract floral painting style.

Although I'm not a representational painter, I do like to incorporate elements of realism into my art occasionally. I wouldn't consider myself great at drawing, but I can do enough to incorporate it into other places.

I learned to draw in my grandparents basement, at my Grampy's draft table (he was an art teacher) by tracing cartoon characters onto tracing paper. I later became proficient enough at drawing from a photo, and only recently started working on drawing from life or my imagination. Before I was a painter, I did calligraphy and thought I wanted to do stationery design, so I think naturally started to evolve into line drawings which evolved into my surface pattern design style, and has started to peek into some of my paintings. Here is some old stuff just for fun:

Oof drawing people is hard (that's my brother) - and definitely not my strength. But seeing this sketch from 2009(?!) did remind me of how much I love working with charcoal, and I think you'll see that come through in some mixed media paintings I'm planning right now. I do love seeing how all of the little things we do are somehow connected and each exploration may pull through just a tiny piece of the thread into our individual style.

Whether you're an artist reading this or someone interested in design, fashion, or anything creative- I'd love to hear about how your style has come together over time- leave a comment below!