Visit my website : https://www.sketchaway.co.uk/home/
I offer a 5 module, 10 video online teaching course. Delivered by video on YouTube. I aim to fire you enthusiasm, and extend your creative skills and knowledge culminating in filling your sketchbook with beautiful pages of drawings and paintings. Follow my practical exercises and experience the pleasure of using a sketch book.
Here are 10 top tips to a successful sketchbook course.
1. Making a sketchbook – A5 is good – don’t be too precious.
I often like to make a little sketchbook, smaller than A4 using a selection of different papers giving me plenty of interesting surfaces to work on. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy and don’t make too many pages. Just cut or tear to the same size and tie the pages together with a ribbon or string. Its so simple it can easily be taken apart and put back together again. Concertina sketchbook are fun, I recently toured Japan and recorded my journey in concertina prayer books. I also like Indian paper sketchbooks, they very thin and the paper is textured.
2. Buying a good sketchbook.
My favourite sketchbook is a landscape cartridge paper. I like an A4 Landscape shape. The paper is quite strong, it’s not as good as watercolour paper but it’s really good to draw on and fun to paint on too. I often like to paint across the pages as a double landscape.
3.forget your pencil, only use indelible Pens.
Its best to draw with a fine liner Uni-Pin Pen, size 0.2. Very reliable and easy to use. I also use this pen as a measuring stick enabling me to draw everything to scale.
4. Transparent watercolour paints.
A small watercolour kit of 10 colours is all you need. However I do highly recommend only transparent colours. There are lots of tiny sets out there and they are easily adapted to contain only my favourite transparent colours.
5. The Cotman Travel bag:
I highly recommend this bag of goodies. The size is perfect as small as a wash bag, it comes with loads of kit and it is all useful. It has a small set of paints in it which can easily be adapted. There is a brush holder that you can fill with all your fave brushes. A water holder and a collapsible water pot. An A5 watercolour pad, two brushes a pencil and an eraser.
6. A4 Palette:
My luxury a plastic palette with lots of small wells and 5/6 big areas to mix in.
7.Fun extras – Wax crayon, Natural sponges, Masking fluid
8. Drawing skills: I can teach you to draw, it takes patience and practise. Once you get the hang of it you will be away sketching and drawing everything.
9. Painting skills: I can teach you how to use your paints, and have fun embellishing and colouring your drawings. It’s easy, I teach the basic skills of watercolour.
10. Most importantly – the will to have a go!