Well, February was a very full month here on the blog and I managed to stick to my resolution to publish five new articles a week. As mentioned previously,  regular posting is a great way for me to get my creative juices flowing, and this has certainly been the case in the last month or so.

It’s always fun to review what I got up to and find the main themes…

Finishing up Sketchbook Design

Obviously, this was a big part of February and I’ve already mentioned many times how amazing it was to share this course with an incredible group of sketchers from around the world. I enjoyed the challenge of doing the homework each week, and was surprised how much I enjoyed doing contained compositions in Lesson 2! This article – From contained to open compositions – explains more and includes the transition to the lesson 3 concepts. Each week there were so many amazing examples in the classroom to discuss in the weekly livestream. I did this spread – Thinking about my niece and the Isle of Harris – to work through some concepts of open compositions.

My final post about the course –  Wrapping up Sketchbook Design.

Note: Sketchbook Design will be returning in a few month’s time so make sure you are signed up to my monthly newsletter for updates.

Outings

For a number of reasons, I wasn’t able to go out much this month for some sketch outings. I was keen to do so, but it just wasn’t possible! But I did manage to finally get back to a USK Sydney meet which was wonderful despite the weather: Sketching in the rain (USK Sydney meet)

I also shared on the blog the final pages from my January filming outing: A productive morning of sketching in The Rocks

Architecture

All of the prep for the Sketchbook Design course got me really back into an architectural mood. (A combination of going through my old work and also using some architectural design principles inside the lessons)

So there were two Italian Baroque themed pages showing two oval-shaped churches in Rome

A little Borromini

Another oval building and revisiting work from 2004

And then two UK based architecture sketching sessions:

Some London sketches

Two Scottish castles: Two different approaches (step by step)

For those of you who enjoyed seeing a step-by-step article – I’ve collected some more here.

Materials and Supplies

I do plan to continue regular articles on materials/supplies. This is what I managed to publish in February:

What’s your favourite fountain pen? – This article gives an update on my selection and the moment and includes lots of interesting comments!

Thoughts on the StablO Nomadic Easel – A new addition to my urban sketching kit these days

Ultramarine Comparisons – Part 2 is coming soon!

Getting back to sketching teacups

After my huge 2019-2020 project of sketching all the cups in my collection, I had a little break from sketching them. But it seems that I have started a new mini-series – choosing the easy ones! A favourite cup to sketch

and there is another easy teacup in this article: Last week’s sketches: A lean week?

I also added to my collection – My Sketchbook Design teacup.

Looking forward…

My big sketching challenge for next month will be doing One Week 100 people again: 8-12 March 2021. And then another project coming up sometime this year will be a big NSW road trip. Thanks to everyone who commented with suggestions!

Finally – the most commented article this month was what you want to see me discuss here on the blog.

What do you want to see more of? (on the blog)

A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to this article and many others this month. It feels so great to be active here again so I really appreciate you taking the time to comment.

So how was your February sketching? Are you happy with what you managed to achieve?