Welcome to my (failed?) attempt at creating an entire scene in my sketchbook.

This experience was most definitely an interesting one. When drawing characters, I typically stray away from backgrounds—mainly because I have no clue where to even begin.

But at one point, drawing a floating character on the middle of a page no longer makes the cut.

It was about time to step up my art game, and experimentation makes up a large part of this. I initially drew out a thumbnail of characters from each of the zodiac signs. This scene in particular is of a Taurus on a treasure hunt.

I used my Arteza watercolor paints for this since the palette I created with the watercolor tubes is the most portable set that I own. Compared to the Meiliang watercolors (A.K.A. my absolute favorite), the color payoff isn’t as impressive. But it does what it’s supposed to.

Creating the background was quite an experience. First off, I acknowledge that my perspective is off as per usual—a common theme in my life, both literally and metaphorically. The sense of value and contrast in my use of paint is also less than impressive. At this point, I believe it’s fairly clear that I don’t know exactly what I’m doing.

Also note, I really like this piece in my sketchbook. I love how I managed to fill an entire page in full color. And I’m glad that I tried to create more of a story rather than a static image. It’s a simplistic and incomplete story, but eludes at one nonetheless. Hey, I’ll take what I can get.

After letting this sketch sit in my Canson Mixed Media sketchbook for a while, upon looking at it again, I realized that it was missing something. The background elements bled into one another too much. There were no distinct features. So I went in with a Muji pen and roughly outlined everything. I also added highlights with my white gel pen.

Although this was a quick fix to make up for my lack of experience at drawing backgrounds, I love how it turned out. The roughness of it all adds to my sense of experimentation. A year ago, I wouldn’t dare to risk ruining a piece on the chance that it might look better if I try something new.

I mean, I tried something similar with this sketch, and it’s definitely not my most shining moment.

Overall, I’m looking forward to this next step to my art development. I hope you all have a chance to develop new art skills as well.

A/N: Have you experimented with anything new in your art?

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