Sketchbook Design: Intro Lessons

December 8, 2020 | 18 Comments

 

My posting here on the blog is going to be a little random for the next few weeks as I finish filming my upcoming course – Sketchbook Design – and get everything ready to open up for enrollment… doors will be opening next week!

It’s all happening! 🙂

Last night I released the first of three intro lessons for free to everyone on the dedicated Sketchbook Design mailing list.

UPDATE: THESE INTRO LESSONS ARE NOW ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE YOU PURCHASE THE COURSE

My videographer put together this little promo to give you a sneak peek into these intro lessons. It’s really exciting after all the ups and downs of doing all filming myself (managing four cameras, a few microphones and many piles of sketchbooks) to start sharing some videos with you. This has been an incredibly rewarding course to put together.


If you are receiving this article via email you probably can’t see the video – so here are three images from the video.


And yes, after many requests, I’m finally sharing some handwriting tips!


Registration is now open for Sketchbook Design – find out more here (plus find out more about the course and watch video as well).


Please let me know if you have any questions about the course.
( If you are receiving this article via email please click on the post link below to leave your comment. Thanks!)

18 Comments

  • Fiona says:

    Really appreciated (and enjoyed) your intro lesson. Thank you for sharing your early sketchbooks and thought processes, very encouraging for someone who has felt like a beginner forever (5 years probably !) and still shy about sharing ; )

    • Liz Steel says:

      Thanks Fiona – that’s great to hear!!!! I’ll be sharing a lot of my early work throughout the course too which I hope will encourage people to share.

  • Lin Frye says:

    Signed up for updates for sketchbook design…but have not received my email link…help please.

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Lin -hope you are going well.
      Your email is now in the system and Chantal will look after you. Always best to use the contact form on the site if you have a support related question so Chantal gets it directly. 🙂
      Looking forward to seeing you in the class!!!

  • Yvonne Carpenter says:

    Hi Liz!
    Oh boy, here we go again, so exciting, lol!

    A bunch of us that meet via ZOOM on Wednesdays to sketch together are planning to sign up for the new course. I am so looking forward to what you have in store for us 🙂 We have done many other of your classes and met for the first time face to face last year in Amsterdam at the Usk Symposium (just to jolt your memory!)

    I am not sure you have seen it yet, but Hand Book Co recently released a new sketchbook called Watercolor Journal, this time with watercolor paper (140 pound/300gsm). No cotton content is mentioned. Their previous sketchbook called the Travelogue Watercolor Journal (90pound/200gsm) is liked by many, and I believe you even tested it at one point. I have used their Travelogue and really liked it, so this new one with a thicker paper is promising. Anyway, since you have a lesson on selecting sketchbooks coming up, I figured I would mention it here. In case you want to pick one up yourself, I buy them from Jerry’s Artarama in USA who has the best prices currently: https://www.jerrysartarama.com/hand-book-journal-co. I imagine you can find it local to you as well.

    I am starting the first free lesson right now! (Is it silly to be excited about stuff like this, lol?)
    Anyway, looking forward to January and the full course!
    Bye for now!

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Yvonne! No jolts needed 🙂 – I remember you all (and your work!) and so great to hear that you are still meeting up regularly. Say hi and send a big virtual hug to everyone!

      Thanks for heads up about the new book. Will definitely look it up!

      Not silly at all to be excited! I’ve never been more inspired during the creation of a course so my excitement levels are running high too!

      • Anneli Timmerbacka says:

        Hi Liz, I’m from the same inspiring group than Yvonne and also very exiting ?
        Tools and sketchbooks ready, once again!

        There are so many interesting courses in Internet but they take time and energy from ‘pictures of my life’ which is the reason I keep sketchbooks. However every now and then I take some course (lately from Shari Blaukopf and yourself) and when I shaw this one I thought it is a MUST.

  • Mathilde says:

    Thank you Liz for another interesting video. I so look forward to your new course.
    You are amazing and you inspire me to sketch. I have seen many courses online but but I have found that you teach what I need. I had a messy handwriting but it changed when I started on of your courses in 2017 . You explained it in such a simple way, it was then that i found my handwriting. Now I write neatly and people even comment on how they like my writing. You are truly gifted in teaching the courses you do.

    • Liz Steel says:

      Oh Mathilde!! thank you so much for your message. So glad that you find my courses helpful and wonderful to read about your handwriting.

  • Lin Frye says:

    Re lesson 2…..love ur writing….my question is how much writing u add to ur pages….do u plan ur words so they can fit into the space? Do u ever write spontaneously and run out of space…if so…what do u do? My writing tends to take over my pages…do u limit what u write? What if u find u have more to say?

  • Katherine B says:

    Thank you for putting out the intro lessons! They are helping me get back into the mindset of sketching and following along with your courses after taking a mini-break for the last couple of months. I am so looking forward to your course and I am planning to take a relax approached to your course with a focus on enjoying and letting go of perfection (which is always a goal because it’s so hard to do!). I also liked seeing a little behind the scenes of your process and knowing that you had some technical difficulties and how you adjusted for them. We must adapt and move forward in the face of little problems like that. Always an inspiration. Thank you!

  • Joy Gardner says:

    Hi Liz, I am so excited about this new course! I appreciated your video on lettering and I am wondering if you will be sharing how you make your guide lines. I imagine you have a very quick easy to get them on the page. I have tried a page of lines behind the page I am writing on but it doesn’t seem to work very well for me. Thanks for all the information that you share.

  • Janet Bower says:

    Hi Liz,
    I’m so looking forward to starting the course in January – something to look forward to after a strange Christmas!
    Since I returned home (UK) from visiting my son in Sydney and joining one of Sydney Urban Sketchers sketchcrawls, I have followed your blog and greatly admire your style. Joining one of your courses will be great privilege and learning opportunity. Urban Sketching has enhanced my life enormously and can’t wait to learn more.

  • Misuk Goltz says:

    I missed to enroll your lesson on sketchbook design. Are you planning to offer the same workshop in the future or is it too late to join and catch up with lessons I missed?

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Mosul – it’s still open and not to late to join. It might be next year until I run another interactive group run- through like I’m doing at the moment although you can always work through it at your own pace any time.

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