The Sunday Spread: Weekly Sketchbook Exploration
Hi there. How are you?
Every Sunday, I’ve made a habit of sharing my latest sketchbook spread with the members of my Jen + Ink Facebook group. It’s a good way to keep me accountable and ensures that I dedicate time each week to keeping up my creative practice.
For a while, this was the only place I was sharing consistently. Keeping my work to myself as I hashed out new ideas took the pressure off. I could make things purely for my own satisfaction without worrying if they’d be sharable or salable. Plus, it was a way treat my e-course members to a little extra look behind the curtain.
Now, I’m feeling a shift. There's a new energy in the air, and for the first time in nearly 4 years, I’m excited about my art and my business. I’m ready to share my work here more regularly, so prepare to see my sketchbook drawings here most Sundays.
And because I can't resist a little wordplay, I've decided to name this new blog series "The Sunday Spread". (I do love alliteration!)
I’ll share my weekly sketchbook experiments, along with insights into my process. I’ll share the good, the bad, and the ugly.
What is a Sketchbook Spread?
Good question! It’s a fancy way of saying both pages of the sketchbook when it’s open flat. I don’t always fill a whole spread in my sketchbook, sometimes I just use the right side as I did here.
I made this sketch in a Stillman & Birn sketchbook, with my trusty Parker pen and a pink Bic Cristal. The 7.5” square pages are pretty big for the way I work, so working on just one side of the spread seemed less intimidating. What you see above was made over several hours on several occasions over the course of a week.
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Sunday Spread: May 27, 2023
(Yep, this is been in my drafts for an eternity!) Here’s the spread in its finished form after many more hours of work. I enhanced the darks by adding more blue and filled more of the page. I'm not so thrilled with the little "satellite" I added at the bottom, but there's no going back now, and that’s OK.
That’s the great thing about a sketchbook…Just turn the page and start anew!
That’s all for now.
I leave you with grumpy Cleo the cat. She was mad that I made her go inside after an hour outside in the yard.
I’ve got a backlog of sketches to share, so I’ll probably dump many in one post and then start next week with a Sunday Spread post every week.
