The foundation of any kind of art, whether it be music, dance, or painting, plays a significant role in its success. How solid your foundation or fundamentals are will determine how strong the Art is at its core.
Until I discovered this international group of “Urban Sketchers,” I had no idea how important it was to keep a modest watercolor sketchbook during my years of exploration with the transparent medium. These amazing creators, who go by the moniker “Urban Sketchers,” travel with small sketchbooks in their backpacks. I thought the concept of sketching everything and everywhere was fascinating.
I then went out and bought a watercolor sketchbook and began painting in it. Surprisingly, I soon started to notice some extremely positive results and remained more driven than ever. Therefore, in addition to your large format single works, I advise you to start keeping a sketchbook. To back up my advice, I’ve listed ten reasons why keeping a sketchbook will help you improve your watercolor skills more quickly:
Care is taken of the everyday painting habit:
Practice is the key to success in watercolors. But when you don’t work as an artist full-time, like the majority of us, you lose this crucial component—practice—for obvious reasons. However, you don’t require a lot of additional inspiration to begin drawing when you have a sketchbook close at hand. You simply tend to scribble on the pages while you’re traveling or waiting in an airport. When another urgent task arises, you just fold the notebook, toss it in your luggage, and continue traveling. Essentially, what I was trying to explain is that keeping a sketchbook takes care of your daily habit of sketching.
Not primarily public:
Your sketchbook is not accessible to the public. Consider it your journal. Draw stuff and write your emotions. simply state. Express yourself without concern for criticism. You can decide to keep it confidential, which helps you get over your anxiety about making mistakes. Or otherwise, you may just learn from your errors and become more skillful, which can subsequently be demonstrated in larger-format works.
Enables experimentation:
This is extremely comparable to the second reason listed above. You can experiment with how you perceive a narrative, a vision, or just your imagination by using a sketchbook. Your brain simply learns how to convey a notion most simply and purely when space and other resources are limited.
Your path to developing your distinctive look becomes simpler:
Because of the aforementioned factors 1, 2, and 3, developing your own distinctive watercolor painting style will be easier. You get there so quickly and without even knowing when. What will set you apart from the thousands of other artists out there is your distinctive style. By copying someone else’s style, you can never go too far. You can read this post I wrote for more information on how to create watercolors in your distinctive style.
You work at your own pace when painting.
You experience a new sense of tranquility when you paint at your own pace. Keeping a sketchbook should be one of your main goals if you want to find inner calm. This sketchbook ought to give you a feeling of optimism and productivity. Even while you won’t feel any pressure to finish a painting, you’ll be eager to add more to the sketchbook. You move at that pace. For some, it might be too quick or too sluggish. But you’ll move at that pace.
You maintain your drive
You never lose motivation. Imagine you are traveling and you come across something stunning. It may be as straightforward as having freshly served, attractively presented food on your table. You only pull out your sketchbook, draw in it for five minutes, then paint two watercolor washes over it before writing in it. Wouldn’t it make you feel more productive and accomplished? Wouldn’t it bring you joy and keep you motivated? However, due to the evident fear of eating a cold dinner, you would never paint your freshly served food in a large format on your table.
Your sketchbooks are a well-documented timeline of your painting journey.
They show how far along you have come as an artist. You can readily compare the work you accomplished now to the work you did in the beginning. Isn’t it satisfying to observe your personal growth throughout time? I’m positive it is. You can count on these sketchbooks to rank among your most valuable artistic possessions. learn how to communicate with a painting:
The art of telling a tale is a completely separate game.
For the spectator as much as for you, your work will be boring if it doesn’t convey a narrative or an emotion. However, by keeping a sketchbook, you develop the ability to convey a tale or an emotion.
Stressbuster
We can all agree that painting with watercolors is such an effortless stress reliever. Having a watercolor sketchbook makes it easier to paint whenever and wherever you choose, which improves the experience. Let’s say you had a difficult day and are attending a business meeting in a different city. When you check into your hotel room, you’re anxious. And let’s suppose that one of the few activities that might relieve stress is watercolor painting. Do you not believe that the concept of using a sketchbook as your studio can be really helpful in this circumstance? To paint the city view from your hotel window, you simply pull out your sketchbook, little palette, number 6 round brush, brustro water colour and a cup of water. You will feel less stressed within five minutes.
You develop the ability to paint in challenging circumstances:
As was already said in the previous point, keeping a notebook helps you develop the ability to paint under challenging circumstances. This gives you more self-assurance and helps you get past the occasional case of artist’s block that most people experience. To begin painting, you don’t necessarily need to be in a creative frame of mind. Simply put, you are now programmed to deal with stress.
Conclusion
The aforementioned observations are based on my own experiences. Everyone might start keeping a watercolor sketchbook for a variety of reasons. I attempt to draw memories and events instead of “taking a photograph of a memory or event” these days. Simply put, to me, that makes it more precious.
