Sketchbook Party: Melissa Lakey, Lisa Congdon, and Kolbie Blume

On Thursday morning, I heard about Sketchbook Party by Pigeon Letters for the first time ever. By Thursday afternoon, I had registered and paid the $29 fee (so affordable!). Classes started Friday morning at 11:00 am. All weekend, I have been taking art classes online... sixteen hour-long classes, to be exact. It's been exhausting and exhilarating, frustrating and fabulous, all at the same time. I've learned so much and am so glad I joined!

Throughout this week, I'll tell you about each of the sixteen classes. I'll share everything I made, even the stuff that is ugly. Sketchbook Party was about experimentation and growth, not completion or perfection. I've resisted the temptation to go back and finish my projects; what you see is what I did during the live instruction. 

Each class had a supply list, which you'll see below. We were encouraged to use what we had; in my case, that didn't always match up with the supply list. I'll be using affiliate links to share what supplies I actually used for each project. 

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The first class was called "Sketch a Cozy Night Scene." 

Melissa Lakey led us through a directed drawing of a bookstore at night. I used Tombow Dual Brush Pens, a black Flair pen, and a grey Prismacolor pencil. 

I struggled with this project. Not because it was difficult to draw, but because I had technological issues at the start and was never quite able to catch up with Melissa after that. I didn't print the reference photo and wasn't able to get it to come up during the class, so I was drawing blind. Despite all that, it was a lot of fun. I would like to go back and try this project again; I know the results would be much better.

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Lisa Congdon's class was called "Make a Cut Paper Abstract Collage." 

This was right up my alley. I love patterned paper and work with it all the time. I enjoy collage and the freedom of abstract composition. 

I have a huge collection of patterned paper scraps, so I picked out 12 or so that I liked and dove in. I actually used a Pioneer glue stick for this project rather than the Tombow Mono I always use with patterned paper. 

I love how my collage turned out. It looks absolutely nothing like Lisa's (literally not a single similarity) and it is so me. I need to do more collage.  

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The third class was called "Monet's Garden." 

I used the travel watercolor set that I love. No other supplies needed! 

Kolbie began by guiding us through swatching, then moved on to mark-making. She emphasized making blobs of color to mimic the impressionist style rather than trying to recreate a shape realistically. 

It should come as no surprise that impressionism isn't my thing. I tried to make Monet's garden (top left) but was much more happy with the fall trees I painted while cleaning off my brush between colors (bottom left). 

Tomorrow I'll show you the results from the next three classes. Like these, it was really a mixed bag. They definitely stretched my creativity!