More from the Sketchbook Project!

I thought while I have the bandwidth I'd come do a quick little post showing more of my art that I've put in the Sketchbook Project book that will be headed back to Brooklyn in July this year so it safely arrives by its due date at the end of August. If you read my previous post where I spoke about it, you will know that my theme for the book is around favourite quotes. So today we have this one:

It floated across my Facebook timeline at some point in time where I really needed to be reminded that even though I feel like I have been broken, numerous times, I come back bigger and stronger every single time and that I am a beast to be reckoned with. So I needed to add the quote to my book. This is actually ink bleed-through from the pages behind it because the paper in the Sketchbook Project book isn't the best paper and I didn't feel like replacing it with mixed media paper (which you can do as long as you keep it within - I think - half an inch thick on completion). The page on the right here has the bleed-through from a page I had done first so I turned the page under the left side into one I could use the same coloured inks so it kind of framed this page. The lettering is done with the black posca pen as usual and the dragon is coloured with my faithful Sakura pens.

This is the spread under the right-hand side:

This one is probably one of my least favourite spread in the whole book. I'm not really sure why. This is just a phase that, at the time, had been running through my head all the time. I think it came from having to live through COVID times, y'know? It is what it is until it's not. So I put it in the book with a cocoon and butterfly to speak to the need to withdraw and metamorphise and emerge a new being. The background is collaged with some pages out of a badly altered Harry Potter book with Copic juice (ink straight from the refill bottles) squirted across the page. I then used Tombow markers for the cocoon and butterfly before using my ever-trusty black posca to outline and do the lettering, finally using my white uniball to put on the finishing touches.

This is what came from having to put ink on the back of the left-hand side page from the first spread in order to make the first one look better:

This is just one page, the other side has a pocket made from scrapbook paper that I'm putting a little envelope in with a coded message. Not sure what the message will be yet, that's future Samm's problem. This spread was super simple. Done entirely with Copic juice and black posca. I also used Americana Pearlizing Medium by itself to make the candle all shiny like but still see the orange underneath. I also used a lettering style that Effy Wild taught in one of her Journal Jams where she showed us how she created her journal prompts. It's one of my favourite lettering styles for simplicity with interest.

This is actually one of the first spreads in the book:

It kind of goes really well with this post and is a good reminder for myself that I am just like a tree or even a house plant. I need to place my roots in the ground and my feet on the bare earth sometimes, I need to breathe, I need water and sunlight and I need to remember to simply go with the flow of life and not be rigid. This one was done with an Artline black pen because I temporarily lost my posca, along with - of course - Sakura metallic and glitter pens and then the colour is filled in with Pan Pastels.

One more before I finish up:

This is something I like to remind myself of often as I know I'm prone to looking outside of myself for validation and my worth when really the only opinion that matters about myself is my own and what I can or cannot live with. Thus, my happiness resides solely within myself, to meet my needs, my goals, my values. This one is done with black posca, my go-to black marker, as well as more of those scrumptious Sakura pens, the metallic ones and glittery ones cause the neon ones I love have all run out! On the other side is some pretty scrapbook paper (really just to cover up the wrap-around of a pocket I made for the following page) that I put three cute digital stamps on after colouring them with my beloved Copics. 

Well, In Joy!