Sketch Diary September 2015

Welcome to my inky world!

The first week in September was taken up with rescuing the disastrous blackberry jelly-jam with bottles of liquid pectin. Thankfully I had three days with the part-time pup to help me recover :)

week 36

Ah the weather was kind during week 37. We borrowed my dad's touring caravan and took it off to the Peak District for a few days.

week 37

Highlights of week 38 included a couple of days with Rory (the borrowed dog) and singing in the church choir at a wedding on the Saturday.

week 38

On the 21st September my new super duper 15mm thick yoga mat arrived - I am the envy of the class :D

week 39

The last week of the month was a busy one. Rory was 1 year old so we made him a set of special birthday muffin cakes - basically carrot cake without any sugar. Yum said Rory and wolfed the lot down, paper and all. Lots of bike repairs happened during the week in anticipation of the university drop offs, which were on Thursday for my son, and Saturday for my daughter. They've both settled in really well.

You can catch up on previous entries here:

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015
• June 2015
• July 2015
• August 2015

Sketch Diary July 2015

July was a super fun month; wedding dress shopping with my niece (carefully leaving the actual dress chosen out of the sketch or life would have been not worth living), my daughter passed her driving test and we had a lovely fortnight in Cornwall followed by a few days in the Peak District. A thoroughly spoilt time!

week 27

week 28

week 29

week 30

week 31

You can catch up on previous entries here:

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015
• June 2015

Sketch diary June 2015

Here are my sketch diary entries for June 2015 and I'm half way through the year already!

week 23

week 24

week 25

week 26

You can catch up on previous entries here:

• January 2015
• February 2015
• March 2015
• April 2015
• May 2015

I do hope you're enjoying your peek into my world.

Keeping a sketch diary

A Happy New Year to all my readers, I hope you all enjoyed the festivities! I had a lovely time with my family and friends, it was kind of sad to take down the decorations today.

What was your best Christmas present? I have two favourites - one was a blackboard mug which is surprisingly good fun, but the one I want to show you today is this:

and inside it looks like this...

I'm super excited about this - there's just enough space for me to record my year in sketches! This is an idea that we saw in the museum of life in Leamington Spa, where a lady from bygone times kept a sketch diary of all her social outings. It was really very interesting and much easier to browse than a written diary.

My diary's very first outing was to Costa Coffee in Ormskirk, one of my daughter's favourite destinations for completing homework and revising for exams.

By the end of the first week it looks like this:

Tuesday: my budgies Chiquitita and Lollipop

Wednesday (New Year's Eve): Jules Holland's Hootenanny - I love that program!

Thursday (New Year's Day): a cup of tea in my Edwardian teacup; our handmade chinese lantern fairy lights that we bought in Germany just before Christmas; and a fox screen cleaner that our Xmas house guest forgot to take back to the USA with her :( 

Friday: a gorgeous fox red labrador that daughter was puppy sitting

Saturday: a small part of our family New Year's meal and my birthday scooter (enjoyed by most of the oldies and only a couple of the younger more self concious adults of the family) 

Sunday: surprise surprise, we're back in Costa - the Maghull one this time for a change :D

I do hope you like seeing my sketches. I'll show you some more over the course of the year here on my blog and will be showing more regular updates over on my Stephanie Guy Fine Art facebook page

Did you get any good arty Christmas gifts this year? Share your favourite ones with me in the comments!

Slowing down the pace of life with artstagram sketches

I have a confession. I used to take hundreds of photos.

I'd see a beautiful scene and want to capture it immediately - I'd pull out my camera and snap away, but more often than not the photos would be nothing like the scene I had wanted to capture. Yes, proportions were (mostly) spot on, and yes the actions were accurate...but the mood? the atmosphere? the colours? No, these were nearly always disappointing

That old man cycling along the street? the teenager out with the dog? people punting on the river? Everyday scenes would be flat and uninspiring.

Nowadays I much prefer to take a little time over a sketch rather than snap a quick photo, it helps me to appreciate and really look at my world. 

Ink sketch, my local garden centre

Ink sketch, Cambridge UK

•  Can't draw straight lines? Who cares - a wobble here and there adds charm.

Ink Sketch, Ormskirk, England

• Struggle with perspective? Don't worry about theory - grab a pencil, hold it at arms length between you and your subject, close one eye and measure angles and distances between key points. And then draw what you see. It's only a piece of paper after all!

Ink Sketch, Ormskirk Motorfest 2013, England

• Find it difficult to see lights and darks? Squint at your subject to take out some of the confusing colours.

Ink Sketch, Coronation Park
Ormskirk, England

Ink Sketch, Ormskirk, England

Most of all - get out there and practice!

Ink Sketch, Liverpool Philharmonic Rehearsals
Liverpool, England

I still take far too many photos, and do use many of them when I'm back in the studio, but my favourite method of painting these days is on the spot with my mini sketching kit.

• I always carry a watersoluble pen, a water brush, a small tin full of 2.5 x 3.5 inch pre-cut watercolour paper, and a cardboard coaster to use as a mini drawing board.

Ink Sketch, Ormskirk Motorfest 2013, England

No longer do I sit bored in the doctors waiting room or whilst waiting to perform taxi duties for my teenagers

Ink Sketch, Cross Hall Brow, Ormskirk

Ink Sketch, Doctor's waiting room

I have to say, my studio art has also improved no end because of this.

And why the title "artstagram"? In my last post my daughter laughing said that instead of "instagramming" my life I "art" it!

So do you take lots of photos and never look at them again? Try slowing down the pace of life and sketch instead. Let me know how you get on...


I owe the wonderfully talented Polly Birchall many many thanks for introducing me to this pen (Speedball Elegant Writer). Polly's blog is one of my favourites, I always look forward to reading her posts - do have a nosey round her blog, it's well worth a follow.