Fall 2025 Sketchbook
Our most recent sketch group project.
If you aren’t in a sketch group (or art accountability group of some kind) I highly recommend it. Not only does it encourage camaraderie and support, but it also gets you trying different kinds of art, and keeping a consistent practice with built-in accountability to show your work at regular meetups.
You saw my first two sketch group projects here and here. Now onto the third!
This book was a bit different than the last two. Instead of buying the journal, we made the journal ourselves from a large sheet of fabriano1 paper.
There also was no defined theme - everyone used their journals in a different way. My goal was to push myself outside of my comfort zone, which involved using mediums (especially collage) that I was less familiar with.
Fall 2025 - Spring 2026 Sketchbook Project
What do you think? Did you have a favorite?
The lesson I learned:
It was hard and uncomfortable to do this book… I wanted to try new things but they felt so awkward and I wasn’t liking the end results. Eventually I just kept going. Many of the pages have first drafts underneath the final that look totally different than what I ended with. It was really useful to push myself through the discomfort, and the bad art. I discovered that I don’t love collaging, but I do really like altering/manipulating original photos. Tearing them up, redrawing parts, painting on top, etc.
A challenge for you:
Try something new, different, or bad on purpose. (This was a fun video by Danny Gregory, who you’ll hear me mention a lot.)
Tell me how it goes. Join the subscriber chat and share a photo of your new art.
What did you learn or discover?
Sincerely,
Lana
The Fabriano paper is available via my Blick partnership here. Please note that all Blick links here will provide me a small sales commission, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting me with your purchase! We used an off-white/cream color and dripped coffee or tea across the page before ripping to create textured backgrounds.
More of my favorite art supplies can be found here on my Blick’s Art Supplies List.
Below are the two other sketchbooks I’ve done with this group.
2024 - Finding an Artist Community
I took a bit of a break from painting in 2024 while going from 1 kid to 2, but below are a few images I can share from that year.
9 Views of the Hudson River
This year I finally managed to pick up the pace, taking classes and fitting in a little more time for art.
Did it get easier to push yourself out of your comfort zone as you went along? I like the flower pages where you started with a photo and added paint and pen! I also like the colorful paint splotches. Are those decoupaged flowers next to it?
Good on you for pushing your boundaries and getting out of your comfort zone! It's never easy for me to do that, but always worth it. My favorite composition is your half recreation of the hat on a backpack photo, the watercolor aspect is perfectly subtle and so pleasing to the eye! And "Can of beans" made me chuckle.