Sketchbook Excercises

Saturday was a CQFA day. Jaye shared her journals with us, and then gave us some prompts to get us sketching.


Jaye instructed us to draw a line, enclose it with a curved shape, and draw small shapes around the larger one. I made myself fill the page after I got home with various textures.

She also gave us some word prompts “spiral”, “flame”, and “arches”. My spiral ended up with leaves, and then I put a candle on the same page for a flame. And then I filled this page also. My arches aren’t worth showing. I think I will paint over it and try again another day.

I like to use pen for sketching. If I use pencil, the temptation is too great to do lots of erasing to fix mistakes. Since perfect drawings aren’t my goal when I make sketches, the pen works fine. If I need to, I can start over on a clean sheet, paint over it, or go over the lines I do like with a colored marker.

It’s good to get the sketchbook out again. I haven’t done anything in it for nearly a year. Maybe I should put it in my tote so I can sketch at odd moments.