A Tour of My Sketchbook {April 2021}

| Allison

Hello, my friends!

I’m super excited to show you this sketchbook flip-through because I love how so many of the paintings in it turned out! I mostly used this sketchbook for watercolor/gouache artwork, but you’ll find a few graphite sketches and ink drawings too. 

I feel like these posts are pretty self-explanatory, so… let’s just get into it. Sit back, relax, and enjoy some art! 😀

NOTE: This post includes affiliate links. If you purchase something using my link, the price won’t change for you, but I get a small commission for advertising and you get to support this blog for free!

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In case you’re wondering, this is the Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook. It worked great with every medium I used on it, although I think cold-press paper is still my pick for watercolor painting. Still, I like how these two first watercolor pages look on the smooth paper!

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I made these for an e-magazine I contribute to called Christ’s Light Magazine. I duplicated the hand artwork in Photoshop and flipped it to make a full painting with a heart in the middle. 🙂

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If you don’t know what to paint, doodle some patterns in your sketchbook. Just a few simple shapes repeated over and over make for a simple yet pleasing spread.

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On the left: more watercolor pattern doodles. On the right: bunny puns. 😀 Which is your favorite?

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Oops, I painted this one upside down… Anyway, this was a practice piece I made before painting the same scene on a vintage milk can for my grandmother. 🙂 I love how the painting turned out in my sketchbook too!

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A random practice page with shell doodles, cow sketches, and some watercolor portraits.

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Another fun drawing idea: make a bunch of overlapping boxes and fill them in with different angles and views of one subject, like these cute little gourds. I add color swatches around the edges for extra interest. 

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I love the vibrant colors in both of these! The cute plant just makes me happy, and the sunset was incredibly fun to paint. I painted them both with my favorite Himi gouache set.

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For a little while there I was really into painting with black ink. There’s something so satisfying and simple about it! Unfortunately, this page got really smudged, but… you still get the minimalist portrait thing I was going for.

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Another super fun ink painting! Now I want to do more of these…

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I love the way this spread looks! I got the painting on the right printed onto a custom phone case, which I still have and love. The right page was just me practicing hair because… I need a lot of practice with that.

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Left: some fun little watercolor portraits. That pen + watercolor style is a comfortable one for me. Right: Hogwarts castle, painted for some decorative envelopes to put in my shop.

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More Harry Potter art! The little elements on the left were quite fun to paint. I love how detailed you can be with gouache.

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Left: a graphite study for one of my art students. Right: Another gouache floral pattern that I made into a phone case – for my mom’s birthday this time. 🙂

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If I don’t know what else to paint, I’ll probably just make a bunch of flowers. I used only the leftover colors in my palette for this one so the color scheme turned out quite unique and vintage-looking.

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Left: another study from one of the art classes I teach! Right: more elements for the CLM e-magazine, winter edition.

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These are also both for the e-magazine. I think the lettering on the right is the only colored pencil piece in here, haha.

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Left: I love how this cute watercolor piece turned out! I started with a sketch in red pencil and it ended up giving such a cute “rosy glow” to the character. Right: some elements for one of Megan’s snail mail kits!

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And a continuation of the winter birds stationery collection…

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Left: yet another art class study. 😛 Right: a hobbit hole painting for another envelope set. I LOVE how it turned out!

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More LOTR paintings! Check out the finished envelope set here.

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I’m not a huge fan of the way these paintings turned out, but that wasn’t the point. I painted this spread just for fun and I sure enjoyed making it!

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Left: guess what? Another art class study! Right: I didn’t finish this page yet; I’m working on some dog paintings for another stationery release in Megan’s shop.

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Another still-to-be-finished page for the dog paintings. And a gouache landscape I really like, painted from one of the travel photos in this post.

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Another just-for-fun, leftover-paint spread. Painting this made me so happy. 🙂

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I hadn’t done a realistic watercolor painting like this in a while, so I decided to try a pomegranate. The seeds were certainly tricky, but I like how it turned out.

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This last spread is a similar one – a sunny citrus painting! Citrus is so fun to paint. Side note: I love how I can paint over the center seam in this sketchbook since it’s not spiral-bound.

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Welp, that’s it for today, guys! I hope you enjoyed looking through my sketchbook as much as I enjoyed filling it. Feel free to pin this post for future inspiration. 🙂

Which page or spread was your favorite? What is your favorite art medium to use?

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

77 thoughts on “A Tour of My Sketchbook {April 2021}”

  3. Eeeeeppp! I LOVE THESES POSTS! All of your paintings/drawings were amazing but I really loved that road one based off a photo from your trip. So cool! Thanks for sharing these photos Allison 😉

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  4. I love the pomegranate one, the gauche flowers, and the cows-at-pasture .. ahhhhh! *delighted sigh* They’re all so beautiful though!!

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  5. I really enjoyed your artwork. They are all lovely. I loved the funny, creative bunnies and the purple flower pattern — is that the phone case design? — and the Hobbit house. 🙂 I also really liked your Proverbs verse. I’ll have to check out the ezine you mentioned.

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    1. Aww, thank you! Yes, that’s the phone case design. And yes, the ezine is great! They are taking a break at the moment because of software problems, but I think you can read past issues in the meantime. 🙂

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  9. You are an AMAZING artist! Thanks for sharing your artwork! seeing other people’s work is very uplifting inspirational for me!

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    1. AHHH THANK YOU! My tips for artists… oh goodness, that’s a big topic. I would say don’t be afraid to make “bad” art, because the messy sketches and ruined pieces get you to the good ones! Just make a LOT of art; all kinds. Experiment and play around with it and don’t give up when you don’t like a piece!
      Thanks for the comment, dear!

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  16. I loved this post! You are so gifted, and so amazing at being an artist! I love to watercolor, but I usually just do it for my Pen-Pal envelopes!
    I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend! ❤

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  18. Eeep, these are the prettiest!! You are so talented!😍😍😍 My favorite was the smiling hanging plant with the amazing sunset next to it!😁 Also, I always love and am grateful for your lovely art for CLM!❤️

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  22. Gosh, you are such a great artist! I love all of these, they are so, so, so very nice! I’m going to have to try and paint a citrus. It looks so great and fun! I love your blog, it’s nice. I love your attitude and you remind me of one of my good friends. Kinda look like her too. Continue to have fun!

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    1. Ahh, thank you so much! Yes, citrus painting is super fun – especially those white highlights at the end. 😛 Aww, really? Well that makes me happy! I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog, Deanna! Thanks for the lovely comment.

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  23. Wow!! I’m absolutely in love with your style – you are so talented! I can’t even pick a favorite because they’re all so amazing. I love the birds, and the Harry Potter stuff looks amazing. The scene you painted for your grandmother was really beautiful too!

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  25. These are all so beautiful, my word! I especially like the cow landscape and the bunny puns, and those black and white portraits, and the Harry Potter art! AND THAT POMEGRANATE! WOW!

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  27. How absolutely lovely – well done! Thanks for sharing – you’ve inspired me to do some drawings myself! I’ve not picked colours or paints in a while

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  29. Oh my goodness! These were all beautiful! I want to comment on every single one, but this would be a very long comment if I did. 😂 I absolutely love the pomegranate! And the gourds were beautiful!!! I love the LOTR ones, and the flowers you made using the leftover paint were so gorgeous. 😍

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