New and inspiring books and courses

 I have been enjoying Sketchbook Revival, hosted by Karen Arbend again this year.  It is a free 15 day inspirational set of videos - two per day -  from different tutors with ideas for adding to sketchbooks/art practice.  They all offer a free gift, which usually involves signing up to their websites, but this is no hardship for those that particularly interest you.  I was reminded about this by Amy Maricle, whose weekly slow drawing tutorials I follow, was offering a video again this year.  The videos are available until 19th October for free but if you would like access after that date, you will need to pay.  I have made lots of notes,  as there are many techniques and ideas from the teachers that I would like to try.  

One video was by Lucie Duclos and it was really inspiring to me. I found that she has a book out, so that was straight on my list.  She has a mid-century vibe and uses collage and doodling to create her art works.

Here it is. It is certainly one of the best books I have bought as the images are eminently do-able (and I have all the materials required) and her step by step guidance is really good. Of course, it looks simple, but is all about the placement of the collage, which will no doubt take time to really be good at.

The vase collage she showed in the video is in the book and isn't it fabulous? I am really excited to be able to create pictures (and cards) like this.

Here's another one which looks really complicated, but is broken down into simple steps. She also gives ideas for changing the images and creating different pictures, so there is a lot to enjoy.

This is the other book I had to buy, as it combines abstract watercolours with doodling.  There a few 'flip through' videos of this book on Youtube, which give a good overview of the book. 

Here is just one of the pages, showing what she can do.  I love using watercolours and adding doodled elements will be very relaxing, I think. 

Now, I just need to make some time to play and practise.  I have signed up to some online courses; the Gel Printers Summit which starts tomorrow, the Gratitude Journal, which starts on 1st November and two others with one of the teachers from Sketchbook Revival, (Andrea Garvey), called the 'Travelling Sketchbook' and 'Colourplay'.  I am still doing my art journaling course and my Whimsies, Words and Watercolours' course too, so I have no excuse not to have something creative to do! (Fitting it all in is going to be the challenge but it is a nice challenge to have.)