Recently on the blog I wrote about how it’s important to ask yourself questions in your journal.
It’s also important to give yourself feedback in your journal.
I find it useful when I’m making portrait studies to write short notes to myself about the angles that need correction, proportions, colors used and so on.
I find that these notes help me focus more clearly on the “problem areas” when I make the next study.
I make notes about where things come forward or recede, I discuss angles, I make suggestions to myself on what to do differently—here it would have been great if I’d started at a smaller scale so that I could have included the subject’s stand up hair and huge bowtie! Two things I wanted to include.
But I don’t beat myself up. Things happen; the best laid plans of course.
You can always turn the page and begin again, that’s one great thing about a journal. And having a quick feedback session with your Editing Eye who is happy to tell you SPECIFICS that can be fixed is always a good thing.
(Remember if a voice is telling you everything sucks that’s NOT your Editing Eye, that’s your internal critic and you need to work to shut that [bleep] down!)
(The note about the video written on this page is a note about the video I made of this sketching session. It’s something that will be released in the future on my Patreon site.)
This sketch is in a Hand•Book Watercolor sketchbook that is about 5.5 x 8.5 inches; with 90 lb. watercolor paper. I used Schmincke pan watercolors and a variety of watercolor brushes.
