A while ago I came across this cool book thingy that my uncle gave me a few years back. It’s called the New Beauty Advisor Guide Book by Estée Lauder. He made the book at his job and thought I would like it because it has a lot of information about skincare, fragrances, makeup, etc. I actually don’t care about most of the stuff in the book, but since I don’t know who to give it to and I don’t want to throw it away, I’m thinking of turning it into an art journal. It has pretty good binding and a few sturdy pages. I plan to use some of the other pages in my mixed media paintings. I’ll update on that later if it turns out good!

Front Cover

Inside Book

My aunt gifted me this 5 x 7 watercolor paper pad by Royal & Langnickel that she caught on sale for dirt cheap. I used it to sketch a few things a couple months ago, but I was so nervous about painting the sketches with my acrylics since the paper is only 96 lbs. Luckily, it seems to be holding up well with pretty much no warping or bleeding. So far I’m definitely pleased with this paper and would purchase it myself. Although I think I’d go for 140 lbs, of course. I’ll post the finished painting when it’s ready.

Original Sketch; Acrylics on Watercolor Paper (Incomplete)

After my last sketch I watched more videos on sketching to try to get down the fundamentals, and I think I made some improvement. I realized I was holding the pencil as if I was writing, instead of using it more like a paintbrush. I also realized I had to shade in the dark areas and blend to light. I think this shows improvement. The image is Christina Aguilera, by the way. Oh, that’s another thing. I studied the reference image and kept it on the screen as I was drawing. I never did that before since most of the things I draw are from my head. This was done with a regular mechanical pencil and a Q-tip. I’m definitely going to have to buy some good sketching paper, pencils and tortillions now.

Mechanical Pencil on 20 lb Multipurpose Paper