Courses & Sketch Hub

I have had quite a few questions from people recently about how to keep watercolours loose, how to preserve those important white spaces, and how to avoid paintings becoming overworked.

So I have created this video to explain the process in a simple and practical way. I go through brush choices, paint consistency, and the way I move my brush, as well as the importance of stepping back and allowing the painting to breathe rather than constantly adjusting it.

I hope this helps make things feel a little clearer and easier to apply in your own work.

I kind of got lost in the fur and shadows. Sometimes it is hard for me to stay focused But for my first try at ballpoint animal I am satisfied.

That was a good exercise even if I am not a fan of the results. I can copy a reference photo, but my imagination needs practice lol. Also if my painting was looser, I would have more interesting shapes to create from. I will definitely try this again later. But for now, this is what Ai created.

Good thing I’m not a perfectionist 😉It took me many attempts to get proportions I was satisfied with, and I’m still not 100% convinced. And I got a little carried away with the squiggles for the feathers and gray for the shadows. I think in this case less would have better. But I am happy with my background and the contrast between the muted orange in the background and the vibrant orange of the beak.

Re do of the water lilies line and wash. I like this one better. I used thin fineliner on the water lilies and it made them look. lighter and more delicate imo.

Line and wash Waterlilies. I used my pentel brush pen too outline my waterlilies and a very fine fineliner on my lily pads. Probably should have done the lilies with the fineliner and the pads with the brush pen lol.

So I finally used more paint and less water and I really like how vibrant this is although I think there was blue in my water or my brush so my oranges are a little muted orange. I was going to leave my jug white but I liked the green so much with the orange and blue that I made my jug green too lol.

I went to the Miro museum today day and I was inspired to do this master study of Miró’s L’or de l’atzur (“The Gold of Azure”), from 1967. I painted the background with regular acrylic paint and then used my acrylic markers and fineliners. I didn’t have the exact colors but did the best I could.

My fishing boat. My colors are not as vibrant as Irene’s. I think I have to be braver. I put down some very vibrant red for the door and I thought omg that is too much, but probably if I had let it dry it would have toned down to just the vibrancy I wanted. Next painting I will be bold.

And if you are wondering that is a cat on my boat looking over the side. My 12 year old cat died last year and I still miss her. in her remembrance I add a cat to all of my landscape like paintings. All of my wobbly houses, my camper car, by beach house have a small cat silhouette somewhere.

I’m not sure where to post suggestions for weekly subjects, but I would like to suggest chairs and bottles/cups/drinking glasses. I struggle with perspective so these objects would help provide practice with perspective. The shoes were a good perspective practice too.

Beach house line and wash. I will have liked to leave more white, but working in that.

I’m on the fence about this one. But I did kind of reduce fiddling and I did leave some white space.

I sketched some of these from life and some from Pinterest images. Tried to keep it swift and loose.

They say you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince. I am still in the frog-kissing stage lol. I used my Pentel brush pen. I waited 3 or 4 mins yet the little fish on the right the ink smeared when I added water. So I used my blow dryer to dry the ink and the little fish in the left still smeared a little. Then I used too much water so my white stripes did not stay white… but I think the yellow and orange in my water is a little better. I will take a break for a while now. Maybe I am trying too hard to be loose

, an oxymoron if there ever was one.

My attempt at loose lilies lol. I really liked my drawing with the Pentel brush pen, although I probably should have drawn larger flowers and larger leaves for this experiment. And I think it shows that I had a really hard time stepping away, not fiddling with it and leaving white space. I think I will practice the technique with more flowers. I think it is even harder for me to not color it all in when there is a scene, like the

camping.

Still not very loose or splashy, but I added some blooms for texture in the sky. I’m satisfied lol. And I really enjoyed the subject.

Vegitables in line and wash. Not completely satisfied with my composition, something I am working on in general. One of my radishes was too close to my broccoli so it ended up it no leaves and a short stem lol.

I feel like the area above the broccoli need something. Maybe a couple of mushrooms? Ther is already much green there that I didn’t want to put more little leaves.

I do not really use Pinterest, but in the Line and Wash class Irene refers to inspiration photos pinned to her Pinterest board. I searched for “makings and musings” and found something in Pinterest, but for example I am starting the Fruits and Vegitable page in the class and do not find and pinned photos of vegetables. Can someone please post the link here? Or tell me how to find the pics? Thank you

I like my loose tree, the perspective on my chair, and my glowing logs. My fire is too dense and once again I left not enough white. I’m having trouble loosening up and not just painting within the lines. Hopefully by the end of the class…

I am thinking of drawing in some pebbles and rocks in my “dirt” because I had trouble getting a texture with my paint and that is a lot of nothingness. Or should I add some dark

spots with paint when it is dry? esp closer to the front to give this area some interest? I do br feel the grass tufts are enough variety. What do you think?

I’m kind of happy with my blooms lol. Drawing the neck and a proportional head was quite a challenge. I’m very glad I started with pencil. Once I got the head and neck done when I found there was not room for as much of the legs I wanted, I just went with deeper water lol.

Line and Wash daisy. Jane I’m catching up with you lol. Actually I decided to spread it out and only do one per day, so you are safe in your lead Jane 😉

I am very happy with this. Not sure why lol. I think because usually I get carried away with splattering and this time I think I managed to control myself lol. And I used my pentel brush pen more or less successfully (stilll need LOTS of practice with it). I managed to leave the tips of the flowers white. And I used my liner brush for the first time to make the veins on the petals. So overall successful painting for me because of the progress. And I’m not unhappy with the product either 😊

Last one until Irene creates the new class lol.

Hi everyone! 🎨

The doors to Sketchbook in 30 Days have been open for a few days now, and I'm so pleased to see the first of you diving in — I can already see people completing videos and logging in, which makes me really happy!

I'm curious to know how you're all getting on. I hope the materials feel clear and that you're feeling inspired to pick up your sketchbook. If you haven't started yet, maybe this weekend is the perfect moment for your first drawing? 😊

If you have any questions at all, this is the easiest place to reach me — just drop a message here. You're also always welcome to email me directly. contact@makingsandmusings.com

I'm planning a live session towards the end of May, once people are a bit further into the course — it'll also be a lovely little nudge to get through all the…

I only have one more part of Irene’s lives to inspire me 😪 It’s been a lot of fun playing with acrylic markers. I hope I can find my own inspiration to continue.

I thought it would be fun to work though the Line and Wash class at same time as Jane. I am using a sketchbook whose paper I have never tried before and this turned out a hot mess lol.

I never leave enough white space

More fun with acrylic markers. Very loosely inspired by the grass in Irene’s live.

This was fun being very expressive and dabbing with my acrylic markers. Inspired by the last of Irene’s acrylic marker lives.

Another acrylic marker pattern with Irene. I really like how you can see the shadow of the fish underneath the lily pad.

Imaginary flowers in acrylic markers inspired by Irene’s live

Another acrylic marker pattern inspired

by Irene’s live

Inspired by another of Irene’s acrylic markers livestreams

I am finally back! I have tried drawing with a grid before. I took an art class and we had to do a masters copy. We were told to make a grid of about 40 squares. It was very tedious and because I am not very precise, with that many squares my proportions got off and my lines did not end up connecting properly lol. We had to do a second one. The second time I just pretended to follow the grid and instead free-handed it. I (and the instructor) were happier with the result.

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It was easier with just 4 squares. I did have to do a screenshot and crop to completrky block the other squares. It was too distracting to see the things even at the edge of other squares.

I think it takes practice to do grid method in a very small format. I am drawing…

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share a little glimpse into what I’ve been working on lately.

In the creative community, we’ve been playing with patterns over the past couple of weeks. We explored ocean-inspired designs, and last night we created some beautiful peacock feather pieces. It has been such a joy to see how differently everyone approaches the same idea.

Over in the Sketch Hub, we’ve been taking a slightly different direction. Rather than focusing on a specific subject like an animal or a plant, we are exploring a range of sketching techniques next week. Each day we practise a different approach, which has been really refreshing and, I think, quite freeing. The bicycle study using negative space will be available from Monday.

I truly love seeing all your creations. It has also been wonderful to see what many of you are making as part of Sketchbook Revival. Please…

Not as round and soothing as Irene’s but still fun to create. Less light blue and more orange - so more like a lava flow into the ocean than sparkling reflections of sunset on an ocean 🤣

Hello everyone,

If you have not seen it yet, there are quite a few extra videos waiting for you in the freebies section on my website. Do have a little look when you can, there is plenty there to explore. Some of these are recordings from previous YouTube lives I hosted, which are no longer available on YouTube, but you can still watch them there.

If you create anything alongside these videos, I would really love to see it. Please do share your artwork here in the group. It is always so inspiring to see what everyone is making, and it helps us learn from each other too.

I know the community membership is a separate space, but it would be wonderful to make this group just as lively and supportive. So I warmly invite you to share your creations, comment on each other’s work, and connect a little more. It…

From Irene’s wonky house in Sketchbook Revival. I couldn’t stop myself so not much white space…but it was fun. I loved creating the stylized “ocean”

A stylized hummingbird in acrylic marker from one of Irene’s livestreams. I highly recommend these streams they are so much fun and no push for realism, so really reduces perfectionism. You can get really inexpensive acrylic markers (I recommend as large a set as you can find/afford because even with a set of 90 I don’t always have the color I want and I don’t think it is that easy to mix them (but Irene may know a trick or two lol)