Sketchbook Revival 2024: An Inventory of Inspiration

One of my resolutions for 2024 was to take two creative classes. I'm happy to report that I've (significantly!) exceeded that goal by participating in Sketchbook Revival. Sketchbook Revival is an annual online workshop, organized by Karen Abend, with classes from over 30 practicing artists. It is completely free, with an option to upgrade if you need more time to get through all the classes. This is the 7th annual event. I wish I had found it sooner because I love it so much!

I went into Sketchbook Revival knowing I was not going to create along with all 30+ artists. Instead, I decided that I would watch as many of the classes as I could (not always at a place where I could do the project), then pick a handful of the most inspiring classes to guide my own creations. I'll be telling you about each class and, when applicable, I'll show you what I made.

Before Sketchbook Revival officially started, there were three Pre-Workshop sessions. All three were very interesting and completely different from each other. From the get-go, I loved the diversity of instructors, styles, materials, and topics. These sessions gave me an idea of what to expect from the rest of Sketchbook Revival. 

Day 1 began with a session called Lazy Line Drawings. The exercises in the session were largely things I'd done before, but with a fresh way of doing them. 

The second session of the first day was about creating an inventory of inspiration - basically, digging through your art materials to remind you what you have and how those things interact. 

Since I've been playing with using different art materials on coloring pages, I was eager to give this a try. Maybe I'd find more media I could use for my next sets of coloring pages. I was inspired by the class, but took the project in my own direction. I ended up with this: 

I started by taping off the edges of the spread. I mentally divided the space into six rectangles, then added swashes of paint in each in rainbow order. I used a bunch of different types of paints (acrylic, watercolor, gouache) in different colors, playing with how they looked layered on each other.

When everything was dry, I added marks on top of the paint, using everything I could think of that might color over paint. I didn't pay any attention to creating a pretty sketchbook spread; instead the focus was on trial and error. This process was a lot of fun and very informative. 

After I took off the tape, I added various glitter glues in small areas. They didn't photograph well, but they're easy to see in real life. 

Want to see more of what I've done so far with Sketchbook Revival? Tomorrow I'll tell you about my next two projects.