Here's what I did last Wednesday with with the sketch group

Artists are always learning new techniques, refining skills and trying new things, and that's what a sketchbook is for. Sometimes it is difficult to open up what you are doing in your sketchbook to the world, because sketchbooks are for trying things out, recording information and the equivalent to taking notes of places you've been or scenes that you might want to paint at a later time. We aren't trying to create the Mona Lisa in our sketchbooks.

Here's an example of that. This sketch was done in our local cemetery...I was trying out a technique where I don't draw things out in pencil first...I just painted freehand right on the page. It's a daring move and forces you to just paint without preliminary marks on the page. I am also using the Niji watercolor brush which is still a new "animal" for me. The brush has a water well stored in the handle and you are not painting as you would if you were dipping your brush in a reservoir. I still don't have the Niji brush technique refined just yet. That's the purpose of the sketchbook, to refine something that is unfamiliar.

As you can see, I had some issues with the angel's face because I was working with a large brush and should have switched to a smaller tipped brush....so instead of a total failure, I whipped out my Micron pens and refined a few things.

If at first you don't succeed, move on and try again....