 Hello everybody and welcome back to The Average. My name is Steph. I'm the average artist as I have called myself So ever since I first started this channel about four Four years ago, I think four years ago. That seems like a long time And I'm having a bit of an existential crisis, but never mind moving on I thought what I'd do today instead of just doing a sketchbook tour because I finally finished your sketchbook after a year of Doing it. I would compare it to a sketchbook that I did in 2018 which is four years ago and I think it would be interesting to see how I've developed If I've developed a tour I'm quite scared But yeah, this is my 2018 sketchbook and I've probably done a sketchbook tour on this one before Somewhere on my channel really old don't look at them probably really cringe But this was kind of where I was at during that time I think this was when I Began to think about making a comic again So this was pretty Emily is burning And I'm just gonna flick through these pages really quickly and I want you to bear in mind that when I was making or doing this sketchbook I was trying to be a full-time artist So I didn't have a job at that time and I didn't really have freelance jobs. I just Was doing like YouTube and the occasional Project on the side and things like that. So I had a lot of time to just be drawing continuous continuously and I Think it shows that like when you draw a lot in your time it can help you develop quite quickly and I think when I look at this sketchbook I can see like I Don't know a lot of passion in it and a lot of freedom and a lot of exploration of styles I really particularly like these hourly comics that I did Pesto that I did that the year I just really like the style and stuff and I did that I think I did them just like freehand has to do mind And I really like the colors and I think I was taking a lot of inspiration from like other artists that year I mean, I still do that I still try to look at other artists and think what do I like about their style and how maybe I can incorporate that a Little bit into my own work and see here that I was trying to continue on doing those kind of comics But I think whatever magic juice I had that day Really worked out and then I don't really like these but I like Looking back at this comic or this sketch page Diary thing. It's really nice to look at it and be like, oh, yeah, I did that. That was that was cool and It's quite nice. I wish I would do more of this kind of thing where I keep like a diary of My life basically because it's really a nice thing to look back on So you can see here. I'm doing loads of different like sketchy stuff. I don't really know What I'm doing It's funny when you look back at sketchbooks because you can remember where you were when you did them and stuff or like the Situation you were in it's kind of like re-reading a book that you read and remembering How you felt at that time or how you were then it's really odd here are bits of a comic that I cut up or not a comic a Sort of comic I wanted to work on and I did loads of like concept bits and writing down And I was really really into this idea, but I just let it go for some reason but I found it it was gonna be like a fantasy funny comic and Yeah, I quite liked it, but I think the idea became too big of a thing for me to work on I just wanted to do some short stories Just working on faces. I Really like these sharks that I did I used to draw like derpy sharks a lot back in the day And I never did that again because I think I saw like other people were doing it and whenever I thought oh It looks like I might be copying or other people are doing this. So I shouldn't do this That's what my attitude used to be but now I'm like everybody Has like conflicting ideas or loads of people have the same idea and loads of people work on something That is similar to something else doesn't mean it's not original so I think what I want to do is actually make some stickers out of these sharks anyway because They were my idea. So why can't I just cuz somebody else did something similar? It's like a bit silly, isn't it to be like no, I can't do that now. It's just like well, it's completely different It's my style. It's it's just doesn't make sense. Yeah, so this is my style I'm just gonna flick through this quickly You can see here. This is probably like one of the worst pages And I just think sorry about the train I've just moved flats and there's a train that goes by every now and then so you're just gonna have to do This is just random stuff. I think maybe I had a little bit of art block You can see that I'm just trying to explore loads of different styles trying to find My style I guess which I still don't think I have found. This is a really big sketchbook So I think Maybe I just was doing anything and everything in it. I really like this sketchbook. I got it from Little And it's like a really nice sketchbook even though it's super cheap I remember I bought two of them and I wish I could find them again because they were like in that middle aisle You know in in little and I don't think I've ever seen them again See like things like this is horrible But whatever it's a sketchbook sometimes you're gonna have really detailed stuff and sometimes you're gonna have really Rubbishy stuff and I don't think it really matters Like some people have like perfect sketchbooks and I don't think you need to do that Like it's nice to have some nice pages To look back on but I don't think every single page needs to be like a perfect spread because then I think you just get Trapped in that idea that everything you do has to be perfect And then that will be a blocker for you to not be able to draw So you just need to be like okay that didn't work and move on You can see where I started doing the book painter is because this is room book painter that I did Yeah, it's so funny like it's weird looking back and as well It's weird looking back because I feel like I did a lot more charactery stuff And I don't think like I'm doing that very much anymore So that's a good point to look back and be like maybe I should try and do more character work a little bit In in the next sketchbook that I will start because I feel like I've lost that along the way a little bit And it would be nice to pick it up again because I think You know if I want to do comics, I would like to have different character Designs of different silhouettes rather than something that is very similar because I think that might be an issue with my newer comics is that I'm falling into that trap of doing a similar character design over and over again But yeah, I think it will be cool to just Try and do more character studies. I I really like this sketchbook. I think it's a really nice piece of work This was when Casey did she used to do the prompts and she did a prompt And it was like this and then I did like I got obsessed with the characters that she drew So I made like a comic out of her characters And this was when she asked people to do like things to do with the prompt or you could draw What she did and things like that. So that's why I did it. Oh, I wouldn't because it's a bit weird to just go and do some of these Character and stuff, but I really liked it. I just had a fun day. I remember that day doing it But yeah, just being inspired by other artists is really good as well just Thinking what they're doing how you can do something similar. It's nice I don't really know what's going on here. I think I was whenever I get towards the end of a sketchbook I'm always like, ah, don't really feel it anymore. I don't know if anybody else feels like that Well, you're just like it's not fresh anymore. So I'm not really that bothered This is my old desk setup, which is really nice to look at and Makes me a little bit not homesick but nostalgic for that time because I think yeah I just I felt happy but also not but like, you know, you know what I mean when you look back and I really like drawing Work spaces because I think when you look back on them You can just get a real good memory of the space and how you felt and who you were at that time And it's not like taking a photo but similar vibe Yeah This I remember this so this was when I was thinking about doing a comic and you can see The kind of style is developing for Emily is burning I'll just get a comic to show you So this is Emily is burning and this is a comic that I made and I did a lot of vlogs on my channel About how I made it and stuff so you can probably go watch that if you haven't Sorry about the train again. If you don't know anything about that, but you can see kind of the style is Developing here into what it becomes. But yeah, you can see here that I'm starting to think about What I could do and I think what I did was I started drawing settings of places with houses And I really liked the way that alcohol markers worked with like this thin line pen at the time It then developed into this pencil this thick black pencil, which I still use Basically today. This is my favorite one that I found. It's a polychromos. Just a black pencil They're quite expensive. But I really like it's very soft and nice to draw with That's just something I like. So what I do is it can get smudged slightly by the alcohol markers So I can I do like that effect sometimes But I try to not let that happen so much. This is kind of an old style now compared to where I'm at now, but I think I'm still proud of it and I heard that rumor that was like if you're not Looking back on your stuff and thinking oh It's a bit dated now. Then you're not really developing. But yeah These are the houses drawings that went on to inspire emily's burning because I started drawing Haunted houses and stuff like that in The next sketchbook is some more sharks, which I do like I want to make stickers out of them now And that is the end of that one. So this is um july um No june um 2018 so literally like four years ago. So let's see if I've developed I finished a sketchbook. It's taken me a year to do it. Usually I back in the day I would be doing sketchbooks quite quickly But this time I've had a lot of stuff going on So I had to go back to work full time in the office after covid I mean I was working full time, but I was working from home. So there was a big uh, oh, it's just got Pastels all over my hand. There was a big moment of Realization that that wasn't how I wanted to work like that's not how I wanted to be so I went through a lot of thinking and I quit my job and became freelance and Then I moved to the UK. So there's been a lot of stuff going on within this year that has just stopped me from Drawing drawing drawing so much. So now I think what I'm going to do is Be on the drawing Like make sure that I draw every single day because That's important Yeah, it took me a long time to finish this one. Usually I'm quite quicker. This was for a book club that we read Um In my book club on patreon, we don't really do that so much anymore But we do discuss like sometimes what we're reading. It's been a long time. I changed their reward for it But I do miss it a lot, but I felt like it was I became too It became too reliant on me finishing a book in a month that maybe I'm not too into or anything like that So it became quite a difficult one Even though I do love reading sometimes I go through phases of just not wanting to read And it was difficult when I knew I had to read a book because for the book club. But yeah, this is an ink illustration that I did with my ink pen and also alcohol markers and I really wanted to do a autobiographical comic about being an army brat so being a kid with a dad in the army and We went to South Africa when I was quite young and it was like a culture shock And I wanted to just tell the stories of that bit of my life and also like maybe focus on my mum and her strength of Going to a completely different country without some of her children were left behind in boarding school and her parents and It must have been hard thing for her and as a kid I didn't really notice but now I think about it and I think that must be really difficult so I wanted to kind of focus on her but I think it's a very big project and Yeah, I think I would definitely need some time dedicated to that where I'm not Working on free freelance contract, which I'm currently I'm booked up till September. So which is good, but I don't want to I want to dedicate a lot of time to it if I did do it And I was thinking that the title could be hold your breath through the tunnel And I like this style. It's kind of cool. This is my sister me and my brother Um, but yeah, uh, I was doing a lot of painting back then It's something that I want to get back into a lot more because When we move my stuff's been in boxes for a long time. So now I can crack out those paints Here's just a picture of me in Africa. Um, I think Malawi when I was a kid um My dad did a big campaign to save the rhino and we had loads of these t-shirts and he used to wear them all the time Um, this was the courtyard of my work Place so the office that I was kind of forced back Into so my company did this thing where they forced us all back after covet supposedly went away Which it didn't because in Gibraltar the cases were much lower But I felt really uncomfortable there and I just hated being forced back into the office full time straight off And I wrote here where hopes and dreams dare to die because um, obviously I was not in a good place when they did that I remember taking a week off work and I went to the park to just do some plain air drawing Painting rather and I do really like this. I think if I had spent a bit more time in it could be a really solid, uh Painting it's quite nice now. I really like the Texture and the paint strokes Brush strokes, sorry and the energy in it, but yeah, it could be probably more solid if I worked on it a bit longer Uh, I made a little thank you card for my patrons. Don't know what this page is probably feeling a little bit down here, uh, mentally and Trying to persevere through sketching and doing stuff I'm drawing even though I was just a little bit miserable of having to go back to the office full time Which I know sounds really spoiled, but that was just you know, how I realized how I work better at home. Anyway sketchbook This is another ink brush pen because I was thinking I really want to do that comic But autobiographical comic with ink brush and alcohol markers. So this is me On a rope swing at some point. I was just drawing a lot of old photos This is an asos lady. I thought she was cool I do this thing where I just go to asos and I draw the women there because I feel like they have a lot of different shapes and sizes and Different poses, which is quite good because we Drawing people in different poses is good Another ink pen drawing of pesto and little mochi. So this is probably when we first got mochi She was a little baby And pesto always gives me these like crazy poses, which is so great. Uh, this was a sketch I wanted to do a patron print of a tiger Uh, and colors. I don't know. I don't know what the four process was behind this because now I'm looking at it I'm like it doesn't really Speak to me about anything. It just it kind of looks nice the colors Um, but I'm not like blown away by it or anything Here are some more pesto and kubo and mochi And I was thinking maybe I can make these stickers, but then I was like, why would people want stickers on my cats? It's all like maybe not This was an artist study conrad Koenskinooski Koenskinooski. I don't know how to say that. I'm very sorry Um the year 1912 it's a portrait of wife with cat and I really like the style so When they did it in my own style I was thinking about What I could do how I could create A different style because I feel like it's something I'm always exploring is What style do I want? And I know like in the comics emily is burning. I really did like the style and but I really want to develop a bit further I really wanted to work. I was getting that itch to work on another comic So I was thinking this time I'm going to do it with ink ink brush pen and alcohol markers So you can see me just trying to explore different shapes colors Just really going for it and not really caring of the outcome. I made a little book of inspiration I called it for my patrons Um, I did just have one line here, which I could show you but I don't know where it's gone so I made um A little zine I guess and I sent it to my patrons and it's just of some of the sketchbook stuff in here And I thought it was kind of cute and something that I would probably like to receive if I was someone's patron It did take me a while though to make it. I was like, why have I done this? But I do like that. It's kind of a nice thing to have and I wonder if anyone still has them to be honest So I made them like this and my printer just decided that everything needs to be more blue than it is What you're gonna do Here is a drawing of a sticker I made I don't have one to show you the final sticker, but it came out quite big I was playing around with textures and paints here. I really like this portrait I do like this style of just like water cut. I think that's probably using gouache, but I really like this Loose style everything. It really tells a story. I don't know. It just Ups depth and visual interest Here I am trying to Do that again, but with a horizon and failing horribly Going back to my ink pen and alcohol markers Doing some ballerinas You can see here that I'm a bit like lost on focus of what to do here I was watching squid games and I really did some more watercoloury maybe using gouache, but with a lot of water studies of screenshots of the show and I do like these. I like these a lot. I think I really like this one It has a lot of energy and feeling behind it A cat which you will see a lot of an empty page because This paper is very thin. Oh, no, I just missed a whole page. Never mind I did this for a patron print some witches Brewing something. I wanted at the time to Just do something involving witches and making it cozy and like a full illustration because I felt like I hadn't done one of those in a while I did coloured it in and then I did it with the pencil on this side And I did not like the way that was turning out. So I went back in with the I guess a brush pen an ink brush pen and I really like the The way the lines are here. I think it adds a much more contrast. It's much better for these really bright colours I drew my nightstand and all the little things. I really like Stuff like this so you can just look at it and be like, oh, that's kind of nice and see people's Way they live and things like that. I love seeing things like that from other people Here's some sketches. I think this is when I did my animal crossing print I did a video of drawing all the animal crossing characters Like this or I think all the new animal crossing characters, but I think I got it wrong and they're not new But the print came out a little bit duller than I wanted But I still quite like it Because it's just a nice thing to have like all the little characters I might do something like that again because it was just it took hours Absolutely hours, but it was a really nice thing to make and I really liked it It's like quite therapeutic to just sit and sketch out those little guys And I think I was thinking about making my own animal crossing characters of my cats Because I thought that would just be a cute thing to do Here is a setup of my desk with the ink pen again And very loose line. I really like it. I think it just Again tells a story about where I was what I was doing with situation This was went for a walk and I wanted to draw like the buildings and The garden and the sky, but just whatever reason stopped drawing it Mega art block page and I hate these because you can tell When your art block because it's just like a load of just conscious thought But not anything that's like interesting visually. You can see here my old kind of I don't know version of these pages I guess And you can see that not much has changed to be honest I'm still the same gal from four years ago Yeah, I think I was pretty in print down so made a painting this to shall pass Quite like this wish this was more centered, but there you go. Sometimes we do stuff and it's not centered Definitely here. I was trying to do more character work and just make my characters more distinctive So I was drawing. I really like these ladies And drawing hands because I really like the way that some people draw hands like really thick and big If that makes sense and I want to kind of make that into my style as well like stylize my hands a little bit more That's something that by the end of this Skechwork, you'll see I think yeah here. I was just sketching out characters or trying to sketch out people this was for a challenge I did on youtube about looking at a page of a book of a book that I'd never read before and just interpreting it Didn't like it so much, but I took like inspiration from that and then I came up with this Which I do like I really like her. Um, I don't know why it's not the best drawing slash painting It's just interesting. I think So I like that so I made this one, but I don't like this one so much I think the lines are too thick And uh, it's not as expressive I wanted to enter a graphic design competition about designing a book for girl, woman, other But for whatever reason I just stopped. This is a drawing of franard, I think Empty page and this was when we were moving So we were packing all our stuff up and I remember making this youtube video about the shiny About these shiny paints kind of like them um, kind of like the painting overall Nice, but I was very stressed at the time. It's a common theme throughout this sketchbook This is when we just moved to the uk and I just drew the house across the street and mochi Then I was just like, I don't know stressed out trying to find a place to live Drawing my cats manifesting manifest that shit Drawing my cats With loose pen These are the books that I read that year that at the time so I was trying to Keep up with the book club on patreon and just drawing out the books I read Just trying to sketch but not really enjoying it. Um Here I'm just more thinking about Maybe a cutesy style and trying to I wanted to do like You know those stamp washi tapes where you have like each Bit of the washi tape this kind of looks like a stamp and you can like tear them off I wanted to do that, but with like little landscapes still kind of want to do that, but we'll see um Also, I decided that I really wanted to do a badge or a pin or something like being like I read books Because I remember when I was a kid In school you used to get like badges for reading so many books So like if you read a hundred you got like the the gold badge or whatever And I remember being so jealous because I couldn't read very well because I'm dyslexic So I couldn't do it and I just was like wow those people must be so smart and I was like so jealous of them And now I look back on it And I think that's kind of messed up to like reward kids for reading so much when other kids might have issues with that I don't know Um messed up for me. I guess so I just wanted to do a badge being like I read books whatever Uh, but yeah, still something I'm thinking about doing. This is my you deserve to rest sticker, which I will grab for you These are all my stickers. Um, I draw them first in the sketchbook sometimes or digitally And I really like this one it came out glittery It just says you deserve to rest because I feel like another time when we're working from home or Or anyone really we just feel like we don't deserve to rest We just need to keep doing stuff we need to keep working and I don't think that's true. I think people need rest It's good for our mental health You know, it's it's a lot Somebody's gonna drew my foot I remember doing this thinking ah, this is gonna make a really nice picture and print and then I just hated it so You know what I was saying before sometimes you just do stuff and you you hate it I really wanted to draw a chair from clueless and I do kind of like this style but It wasn't really giving me clueless vibes Um, but I do like that style that kind of like kind of grungy. I guess is the expression Um here I didn't have many art supplies because I was just in the uk looking for a flat and all my stuff was in boxes So I was just using limited art supply and yeah I think that's what was kind of holding me back at this point of the sketchbook I made this into a print this little guy. Um, just drew it for spring and it was the patreon reward. This is how it came out It's a little bit darker. Um But that always tends to be the case when you're printing out stuff because you don't have when you're looking at something on the screen It has light behind it and but when it's printed out it doesn't so it looks It can sometimes trick you as to how light is going to come out But also I think I do really like this one. So Yeah So that was the patreon reward that's also on my shop if you guys want to check out my shop I have all this stuff went to heave a castle and it was the childhood home of amberlyn And so I just got a bit obsessed with her. Um, or like the tutors again And generally went to another castle and just drawing like the tulips there and little statue during another painting from the castle I tested out all my alcohol markers because some of them were running out So I just wanted to see which ones I needed to replace This is another ink. Um, you can see that I'm not I'm trying not to let the ink brush pen thing go Even though I clearly enjoy drawing with the black pencil a little bit more Here's some pictures of my cats again. So we have mochi pesto gg and then pesto Oh, so funny. She cracks me up. There's another drawing with amberlyn, but just using a blue paint Don't know why Here is a nice spread. I like the spread a lot. I think I was really coming back into myself with this spread um self portrait here of me pesto plants just nice colors that I enjoy and Yeah, I think I really like this this page Um, I think I was really realizing. Oh, yeah, that's the style I like Um, why have I stopped doing that? That's what I enjoy So I think it's kind of like a full circle here. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is what I enjoy doing This was a page where I planned out my starbucks, uh, cup paint over Which is a video on my channel I drew some youtubers so books and lala and lee, uh, who's an artist on youtube and then also a statue She's not she's not an artist on youtube. She's a statue Uh another painting from another like Old mansion house that we lived mana house that we lived that we visited. Uh, yeah, quite like her Um And then I did a landscape piece that I really enjoy. I really like the way that this turned out It was just fun and I really like the non unconventional colors I used for the hills and stuff pretty cool And this was testing out my homemade paints that I made which is also a video on my channel I got a new pen, which is basically It's called I literally got okay. I can't remember the name of this pen fountain pen. Oh my gosh. I was like, this is not I could not remember the name. Uh, but yeah, it's this beautiful like pearlescent fountain pen and I remember just thinking it's really nice to just draw with it because You can get some really nice consistent line quality and just Yeah, I was just doodling out cats and I really think it's kind of funny like the Some of the imagery that I've captured of the cats and I do really like this pen. I was drawing a lot. We did my some friends visiting and we did some Draw these pokemon from memory games And uh, yeah, I think these are quite funny and quite like tend to tend to cool there um Yeah, it's very nice and I was drawing Brighton because that's what we've moved to it's like during the building top and just during different things Here I'm back on my Because I went back to my pencil. I was like, oh, yeah, I like this again And uh, yeah, I really like how this turned out. This is actually a photo from a photo of me I uh went on tiktok and They have like different filters and I use the filter that like stretches your face out and stuff because I thought it would make really interesting ideas for like character design So this is actually my face, but like stretched out in different ways And I really thought that was an interesting idea to try and draw. Oh um Here's a paint page. I think I was a little art block. This is when we were moving so Or just after we've moved in um, just drawing the plants and I mean, I do like this kind of page of just I think it's interesting This is a video on my channel where I tested out these pens the Liquitex Uh paint pens which I'm not a huge fan of they weren't They're like very shiny. Um, but they're all right. They're nice. They're okay Um much preferred Posca pens or Molotow pens Uh here is a character design for A comic that I've been thinking about another short little like horror comic But I'm not sure if it's gonna be anything. Um just starting out ideas and I was like, okay If I'm gonna do a woman In a swimming costume, then I should just like Look at different women And yeah, I was doing like different sketches or people. I was watching um the white queen. I think it's called. It's a show about Um, I can't remember name one of the old marks and I really liked it. I did the style with this like thin pen and then the So yeah, it's just a A drawing of Her they star of the show becoming the queen and I like that. It's kind of nice I like watching shows then pausing it and drawing the screen grab because I think it tells a lot about um Setting and composition and lighting because it's obviously all been fought out carefully by the producers and the cinematographer and everything so it's interesting to see how you could maybe reflect that in your own art Uh, here is a page. I hate. I think I was just trying to Draw loads of texture. I think I was covering up like This is a page that would have just been left blank because of drawings on the other sides And uh, yeah, so it just I did you have some plants like the texture not much else during some plants in pots Uh, did like a kiki's delivery service No draw, but I went freehand with the ink brush pen Just to practice with it and then I use just colored pencils. I don't I don't like it very much But it's not terrible I think when you copy like a character well-known character, you have to get them Spots on or a completely different style. Otherwise, it just looks silly So you can see here that it's trying to be that style and it just doesn't work Uh, I drew this lady in the fields with stars flowing down and I do like that I like the texture and the pencils and I used again Realizing that I like to use the black pencil for outlines and I keep forgetting that and every time I don't use that I'm like, oh something's wrong with that picture Drawing some cats and stuff just thinking of like a style for a cat would be quite cute So I was like drawing out different stuff and uh, yeah, that's the end of the sketchbook So I'm just gonna say that I finished this in 07 2022 Yeah, so that's my sketchbook. Do you guys think I've developed a bit over the years? I hope I have um Yeah, I think I have anyway And uh, yeah, I said this was before my other two comics, but actually was after So I think what was happening here was like once I do a big project I'm kind of like tired of art a little bit So I think that's why I Maybe this one isn't as cool as my other sketchbook that I did just before this one But yeah, I'm trying to hope to um, keep drawing every day Keep trying to be inspired by other people and hoping that it inspires you guys somehow to keep going and keep drawing and Find out what it is that you like about your artwork Um, so that's it for the video if you guys were mind checking out my patreon or my xe or anything It really helps the channel out and I'd really appreciate it But thanks for watching guys if you go up to the end, it's really awesome of you and I hope to see you next time