 Why hello there, I'm Sandy all not welcome to my YouTube channel. I'm an artist I work in all different sorts of mediums, and I'll be doing some pen and ink today, but also talking about Some art things in general that might be of interest to people of all mediums So don't go away. I'm gonna talk about the difference between Confidence and competence as an artist and I also have a couple other things to share I want to do a little online eventy type stuff coming up in the next two months and I also Want to tell you about this project this pen and ink project and get your feedback on what you think I should do with it All right, let's get started So I want to tell you a little story I know someone who was running for a political office. It wasn't like politics politics It was a city council or a county commissioner or something. It wasn't a huge thing But it was running for office and she was going to have an event She was gonna give a speech at some event and I was so excited because I love nothing better than a good speech because I'm a toast master and Before hand before we went over I asked her how she was feeling about it and she said, oh my goodness I feel just fine. She said I was a toast master or so. I you know, I'm doing great. It'll it'll be no big deal So I said good. That's great. You're not nervous Well, I went to the event and she gave her speech And I have to say it was one of the worst speeches that I have ever heard I was a little shocked Because she said she'd been a toast master and I am used to people who are toast masters in my world are Really good. They have a beginning a middle and a clear end to their speeches. They have a call to action They tell personal stories like there's all these things you learn in toast masters about how to be interesting and compelling and Get people to do things at the end of your speech you inspire them to take an action And I didn't find much of any of that in her speech I asked her afterward like, you know, how did you feel about it? I didn't tell her what I thought of her speech I know she doesn't watch my videos. So I'm safe But she said, oh, I thought I went great. She said, you know, I wasn't nervous at all. I was super She did not end up winning the election And it may or may not have anything to do with how well she did or didn't give any speeches Because I think there's other stuff going on in in all these different kind of races. Anyway, I Just kind of asked her a little bit more about what toast masters had given her that she deployed in that speech Just was curious what she thought made a good speech And she said, well, you know, I got to the point where I was no longer like ready to throw up when I finished a speech So I didn't continue and I said, how far did you make it? And she made it in three out of ten of the lessons in the first the kind of beginner program And that was it. She quit. She quit because the butterflies were gone And all she had gone there for in her mind was to get rid of the butterflies It wasn't to learn how to communicate really well and give a great speech She just wanted to get rid of the butterflies and since she had succeeded at that she was done And that story has come back to my mind in so many different arenas. How many times We end up in our lives becoming confident in ourselves in something But confidence doesn't always mean you're really good at it You haven't conquered it necessarily even if you've conquered the fear of it And that is true of all different kinds of areas of life, but it's true in art as well There's a lot of times when we think we're all that in a bag of chips and we're not really I am 100 aware of how good I'm not I when I look at my work, there's sometimes when I look at something and I'm like, wow That was the most amazing thing I've ever done and there's other times when I'm like I stink at that. I really do I've said previously a couple videos ago that I wanted to work on my figure drawing because I can't draw a person that looks like that person. I can draw something that looks like a person but not necessarily that one And I just want to get better at that. So I continue my education. I continue learning continue practicing And that leads me to an invitation If you choose to join me in something I'm going to call at least for right now, let's draw together Later in the year might be let's paint together or let's sketch together. Who knows what it'll be But I'm going to do two of my drawing classes over again as if I'm a student I'm going to take my own classes And the first one is going to be whimsical sketching. I'm going to start it on january 22nd And if you've already taken it, you're welcome to join me and do it again See how you've grown as an artist since you took the class the first time Or you can take it for the first time And just follow the videos and do the lessons I'm going to just see how my style has changed. Is there something cool and different that I want to do with the lessons When they're done, I'll put my pieces, you know post my pieces in the classroom as well as art venture But art venture is where I'm going to mostly Be doing them talking about them posting them And if I have other learnings or any extra tidbits to add to the classes, then I'll do that So I'm excited to do some pen and ink work and I think it's going to be a lot of fun The class is on sale and will be through the end of my little time period january 31st If you want to join me And use whatever paper and pen that you would like to do. I'm going to use a fountain pen And uh that sort of thing for mine But then we have the second one of these which is going to be 30 days to more confidence sketching It's another class. It's a level two But a lot of people take this Before they take drawing 101 because drawing 101 Feels a little more like an art school class And you know, you draw a lot of cylinders and you shade them and stuff And more this more confidence sketching class is really about building your confidence just getting you to draw things and get used to the fact that, you know, it's not always going to be perfect, but Starting is better than not starting So I'm going to teach you things like how to draw A circle without having to trace it. I'm going to teach you how to do some shading We're going to you know, move our way through the lessons They get a little more complex complex as we go And there's going to be guaranteed some lessons that you don't like because I introduce people Don't like all different kinds of things. There are people who discover trees or they're jam There are other people that are like, I never want to see another tree as long as I live I am not doing landscapes other people Find they love the animals or whatever And it's really just an exposure to a lot of different things And I want to Go through and do my lessons again. I need to order a new sketchbook, which is why The whimsical sketching is coming first. So I have time to get something in the mail to order one up for myself and Then I'm going to start on February 1st. You're welcome to join me in that. I'm going to do the same thing I'm going to post my work just still pictures of them in art venture Add them to the classroom in the 30 days class And I especially want to redraw this pig because when I look at it now I'm like that is so out of proportion to the actual pig I know so much more about Proportion now than I used to I am excited to see all the areas that I have grown as an artist And how my drawings differ from the original to The one that I'll do this year. So I hope that if you've taken this class already You might consider redoing it along with me And if you have not taken it then take it for the first time The class is on sale from now until March 2nd. So The entire time of me doing this class You can get it at a discount and uh come join me You can join in any time by the way if you don't see this video until later You can join in the middle of February and just start with day one And go from there Now what does it do for you to redo a class? You know, like why would I even bother? Well partially like I said to see where I've grown like how how far have I come And it doesn't have to be redoing classroom work. You can just redo old drawings Just find something that you did a long time ago and see what your skills now bring you But it also helps to keep that education going Like the person I talked about who stopped her toastmasters way too early She stopped growing and the level she reached was the level she was at when she left that program She never got further And I myself I just want to keep getting further because There's so many things that I see that I do and I'm like, yeah, it's okay But I know I can do that better. I can rock that If I just applied myself if I knew how to do this that and the other You know, I'm taking painting lessons from an oil painter even though I'm learning in gouache I I love taking classes in crazy things and learning all different kinds of new skills I get excited by that So maybe that's why I like teaching because I I love learning so much, but I want to encourage you to continue your learning and don't just Stop when you feel confident only Because we never get in art. We never get to that point of complete competence I mean even People who are famous artists and have you know reached pinnacles Are always practicing. They're always testing new colors testing new techniques and things and if you want to be you know A good artist and you want to keep growing and keep developing that requires Just constantly honing your skills Whether through daily sketching or taking classes whatever that Best practice is for you Just invest in yourself and your own Skills in order to grow as an artist I told you back at the beginning that I was going to explain What this whole project is all about that I'm working on I've been drawing these letters for I guess a couple of years now And since it was letter writing week I thought I'd do some letter drawing Because I was drawing letters get it. Yeah, it made that connection Anyway, I did get back to it this week. I have not finished the entire alphabet yet But my original thought was to do a coloring book Of them, but I don't really like coloring book paper So I'm thinking I might research what it would take to print them on a nice card stock And not in a bound book but as separate sheets so you could frame them you could You know color them up and you could foil them you could do all kinds of things with them And if you're interested in that let me know so that I'll know if it's even worth The research time to figure out what to do with that But that's kind of my my big idea The library book one that I did for the L that was at the beginning of this video It doesn't really fit with the character of all of these you can kind of see they're florally and flouncy But I did put it in my shop So if you would like to purchase the L the books version of the L and color it up and maybe go take it to your library And make it a sign they could put on their bulletin board at the library To let them know that you love books Because since everybody's trying to ban books nowadays I thought that would be nice to do something to tell libraries. We love them and we love books So there's there's that at least And I'll put a link to that in the doobly-doo down below As well as the new class like a lot of people missed the video that I did on coffee And I think all my alcohol marker people just kind of I don't know ran away or something So if you missed the announcement about the new copic class go check it out All right, and now let's take a look at the entire collection Including the paper that I'm drawing these on which is a hanamoola paper. It's their lettering paper And it's 80 pounds So it's not very heavy and it comes in different sizes. They're weird sizes It's european measurements. So it's weird to me But it's this hand lettering paper And I'll just do a flip through of the alphabet as it has done so far There's not all the alphabet is in here But I was trying to do each one different There's some that are very similar styles So I might redo those in order to have each one be completely different And then there's some of them like the f that got very static. I'm not really sure if that's great What do you think of the static versus all of the sort of loose edges ones? Haven't really decided what I like But I still don't know what I'm going to do with them. So I guess it doesn't really matter I'm not gonna redo any until I decide what I'm going to do But there's really really fun designs to do and this was the Original l and then that of course compares to the book l. So you can go purchase that one Go color it up and uh Deliver it to your library Um, yeah, so I'll just keep flipping through here. And I just wanted to say thank you For visiting me today. Thank you for hanging out with me while I was drawing And next week I'm going to paint one of these I want to try seeing what it's like to watercolor one without the black lines So I'm going to have to redraw all those little bits and then try to convert it So next week will be a watercolor week. So stay tuned for that. I'm also going to introduce my new palette New colors 2024 And that's about it. Links to the doobly do make sure you check them out Hit the like button if you could subscribe if you haven't yet And I'll see you again very soon. Take care. Bye. Bye