Filling an Autumn Sketchbook Page! // witches, moths, & inktober!

This video is sponsored by Squarespace. You can make your own beautiful website or online store with this all-in-one platform. Hi everyone! In this video we are filling a sketchbook page with a bunch of fall doodles and I had an idea for this page because I was trying to do sketches for the October Patreon package. I wanted it to be a little more spooky themed and I was already working on this print of a bug witch. So it's like a witch and her witch hat is covered in a bunch of different little creepy crawlies and bugs and it was really fun drawing all the little bugs and I thought maybe for the sketchbook page I'll draw some witch bugs or bug witches. It's like bugs that are witches so they have witch hats and broomsticks even though most of them can probably fly. It's just like cute little witch bugs and it was a lot of fun designing these little guys. I drew a lot of them. There are some pill bugs. This one is just kind of like a generic beetle bug thing. I like drawing their little antenna poking through their hats. If you want to get a print of this entire sketchbook page it's up on my Patreon right now. You can get the October package. It's the witch bug print and the sketchbook page and you can get a little pill bug, a little roly-poly witch sticker. It's like a really cute little bug riding a broomstick sticker and they came in the mail and they're really cute. So if you want to grab that package you can choose your tier before the month ends. There's a tier for just getting the sticker or just the print and then there's a tier for everything. So there's three options to choose from. I really like drawing pill bugs. It's really fun to simplify them and make them really round and have cute big eyes. I just really like making bugs look cartoony because it's just really cute. I don't know because bugs can be a little creepy in real life. Some people might not find them that creepy but they have so many legs and so many moving parts and they're really small and they crawl around. But if you simplify them you can make them not as creepy and lean more into the cute side. I still find a lot of bugs cute but it's not like I would want them to crawl on my hand or anything like that. But I like to take critters and animals and draw them in a cuter way. I used watercolor for this page. I also used a pencil crayon, like a brown standard pencil crayon. I think it was like a Faber-Castell Polychromos pencil crayon to do the sketches and then I went in with watercolor. At first I was using gouache and I was like, you know what, I think I want this to be watercolor because watercolor is a little more translucent. So I switched to watercolor and started coloring the bugs and it was a very clear color scheme with like dark purples and blues for some of the bugs and then like browns and yellows for the broomsticks. And after drawing this really rounded cute pill bug I wanted to try drawing a more realistic looking like isopod one that actually looks more like an isopod. Actually there's like two kinds of pill bugs that I've seen. One of them is like wood lice or something and those ones can't roll into a ball but then like the roly polies are the ones that roll into a ball. So I don't really know what the difference is but I think they're like two different bugs and I wanted to draw the one that looked a little bit more like a little bit flatter and less round. Maybe I'll put pictures up so you know what I'm talking about. But a fun thing with drawing like bugs is that they have the like exoskeleton which is pretty shiny. So it's fun to kind of map out where the highlights will be with the watercolor by leaving a gap. I think that's the key to getting them to look like an insect is to like make sure you leave gaps in the paint for where the highlights will be like preserve your your lights because you can't really add lights back in with watercolor you have to preserve them whereas with like acrylic paint or gouache you can paint the lights back in and bring the highlights back. Of course you can always go into watercolor with gouache on top but if you want it to really just have that watercolor look it's good to preserve your highlights. And I just kind of went back and forth adding little details I usually do one wash of the colors and then go in with darker more bold lines because watercolor always dries later than you'd think. Like whenever I lay the color down I'm like oh this is a nice like vibrant color I like this and then it dries and it's not what you wanted exactly so I tried to overcompensate with that by going in with like a darker and bolder color than you would want it to be and then when it dries it gets a little lighter and then it looks the way you actually intended. And I also decided today to use a brush pen a Tombow brush pen they're my favorite brush pens they're just like pretty nice. They're not too flexible but not too firm so it's nice to get like a little bit of a varied line weight and to add details on top. So I decided to do that for this page and it was pretty fun and I don't only draw bugs there's actually a lot of stuff that goes on on this page which is why the video is kind of long so I hope you'll enjoy seeing all of that. It does start off with just the bugs and it's honestly really fun to just like draw these bugs it's pretty relaxing because they have a lot of repetitive components like the legs and like the segments of their body and I don't know it's fun to just like get lost in the details and to like explore other types of bugs that you didn't know existed. Like when you're on Pinterest and browsing through references you'll probably come across some like really cool insects that you didn't know were a thing. And also since I've been drawing more I've been drawing a lot of like pill bugs and like roly polies lately and I've seen a lot of people comment that they have isopods as pets like in terrariums and I started looking it up and there's some really cool varieties out there there's one that looks like a rubber duck when it like rolls into a ball and their prices reflect that like some of them are like a few hundred dollars if you want to get these like really interesting varieties of isopods and I'm like oh man I will need another hobby. I already keep fish and shrimp and I have like three fish tanks going so I don't need another hobby anytime soon especially not an expensive one but it's definitely like a really cool thing and in another life maybe I had isopod pets in a little terrarium and I think you can keep them with snails. I don't know much about it but if any of you have pet isopods please let me know there's already been a couple people telling me that they have pet isopods and I think that's really cool and like the people who follow me are like very like-minded in that we like the little critters. Now for a break to thank this video's sponsor which is Squarespace. As you probably know Squarespace is an online platform where you can build your own customized website to suit your brand or your business or anything you need it to be. It's really easy to do as well. I would recommend going through all of their templates that are pre-built and selecting one that you think would work and then you can change so many things about it like the fonts and the colors, add your own pages, add text and they have a really cool fluid engine editor which has a built-in grid on your page and you can drag and drop elements to fit on the grid so it has some flexibility with where you want to place things but it still has them in a grid so it looks cohesive. As an artist it's really important for me to have a portfolio so people can easily see all my work and they have a portfolio and galleries feature which lets you upload all of your images and drag and drop them in whatever order you want and then it displays them all beside each other nicely. If this sounds interesting to you go to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com slash gelarts and you can get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. I was also sick for a bit so recording, it was a little bit difficult which is why there wasn't that many videos this month yet or at all. I don't know where my last video was, I really want to post more often but it just seems like things get in the way sometimes. I had this video filmed for so long but like I could not record, my voice sounded nasty and it's still kind of a struggle but I'm pretty much recovered now. It wasn't too bad, it was just a cold but it made my voice sound really weird because it was like all in my nose and I was all like congested and nasally sounding. I also drew a little like rolled up pill bug or potato bug, I should be calling them potato bugs because that's what I called them growing up, they're like little cute little potato bugs. I drew one rolled up with his little witch hat on top and then I put a little speech bubble beside him saying do not disturb because you know he's probably not wanting to be disturbed because he's all hiding inside his shell. I think that could be a cute sticker or something. It's really fun blocking in the colors with watercolor and just like mapping out where you want the shadows and highlights to be and usually I'd like to mix colors together as I do this instead of just doing like one solid blue color but I think I was just keeping things simple. Then I went in with the brush pen and tried to add some varied line weight and define the shapes in it a little more. In case you're curious, the watercolors I use are the Shinhan professional watercolors. They're my favorite just because they're not too expensive and they're very pigmented and it comes with a lot in the tube and I just really like their colors. I don't think they're as translucent as some watercolors are, they're not like on the translucent side, they're still like you know as translucent as watercolors are. Another one I use are the Schmincke Horadam watercolors which are very translucent. Like if you paint with yellow it will be like very very transparent which is pretty cool and they blend together a bit more but sometimes I just prefer using the Shinhan ones even though they're like not as expensive or maybe not like as high quality. I think I just like the slightly more opaque watercolors. I don't really know why maybe because they don't blend together as much. I really should experiment more with the Schmincke ones because they're actually really nice. Very vibrant and very translucent so your paintings can seem like they have a lot of light in them. I really should experiment with them more. After the bugs I wanted to draw some moths and I was just kind of scribbling honestly. I must have been like not... I don't know. These lines are obviously very messy and not very precise. I think I was just like sketching with the pen. I go back to them eventually but I wanted to add some backgrounds to the little bugs with my Caran d'Ache wax pastels. They are water soluble so for some of the backgrounds I went in with water afterwards just to blend them in because I felt like the texture was a little bit too intense and I wanted to knock it back a little bit and make it more of a flat color because usually for backgrounds I do marker because it's very like flat and doesn't take away from the illustration but I felt like the texture of the pastels were like interfering with the drawing and taking away from it. So when I went in with water it helped blend them together nicely. That's like a cool thing about these is they are water soluble. I highly recommend trying them out if you've never tried pastels before and if you don't like pastels because they are typically like messier and harder to like clean up and stuff these ones are pretty nice because they are water soluble, they can clean up with water, they're not very messy, they're drier and harder but still a lot softer than a pencil crayon so you can get like bigger strokes. They basically feel like a crayon but like a professional crayon so I would highly recommend them. They're the supply I discovered this year that I really like and have been really enjoying. It's like my 2023 one of my like favorites of the year. I should probably do an art supply favorite of the year or maybe like a video about that. Also I was having some problems doing some sketches and I was just in one of those moods where I was like I just want to cover this up and try again because I really want to draw a little cat here and the first one just did not work out so I grabbed some scrap watercolor paper, glued it on top, cut it to fit the moth and I like redrew part of the moth on top and then I drew a little cat on top and it was a lot of fun doing that at first but sometimes I feel like the way I draw cats is not how I want them to look like their faces are a little bit weird and I don't know what it is about it. Maybe to you it looks normal but to me it's like not fitting the vision sometimes. Sometimes I really like the way I draw cats and sometimes I really don't. I always find their faces really difficult just for some reason. I should probably do a bunch of cat studies to help me discover how I actually want to draw them but I was basically just looking at references on my Pinterest. I think I link my Pinterest in the description if you want to see some of the reference photos I tend to use for things if it's a reference specific video I'll put it there. Also a lot of people were asking me about geltober which is my inktober prompt list that I've done for a couple years. I think two years and a lot of people wanted it for this year but I honestly just didn't really want to do any inktober stuff this year. I just really like I don't know I want to focus on other things. I have a lot on my mind. I feel like I'm still trying to find a good work-life balance especially. I think I've almost been graduated from school for like three years this it will be three years next year in like May or April. I think April next year it would have been three years. My first year out of school was like wow I have so much time and like my second year I like moved out for the first time so trying to like establish a new like a totally brand new schedule with my life and like a totally new chapter which was really fun and had a lot of challenges too but it's nice to have like a really big dedicated studio that is like so so nice to have but I still feel like I am figuring out my work-life balance like day by day. I think I have gotten a lot better at not overworking myself but in the process I've almost like I don't know I feel like I've lost some urgency with like making videos and like wanting to like keep a very consistent upload schedule. I'm just like more inclined to like if I'm tired I will let myself rest. I still meet all of my deadlines but I think I'm like I don't know because I'm trying to have a more healthy work-life balance and let myself do fun things like I find it really hard to do things for fun because to me work is fun and it's what makes me feel the most fulfilled but when I actually feel like doing something that isn't work that will make me feel fulfilled or like it'll be fun in the moment I like let myself do that because it's hard for me to find things like that like if I get fixated on a certain game or like a hobby I will like do that in the evenings instead of like catching up on work that I might have usually in the past caught up on which I think is healthier but I also like I don't know I'm still finding the balance I'm still getting everything done that I want to get done but I just really want to post more videos and it's just like I don't know making videos feels like it drains a lot more energy these days than normal I think it's the talking part like I don't mind filming myself drawing well I mean I mind it but it's not the worst thing like I like to capture the process for you and when I'm actually like done the video I feel very accomplished and I'm really like happy to share it and I'm like immediately like I want to get started on the next video but then I have so many other things to do that it sort of takes a backseat and then I I post to a month at least and a lot of people are like please post more videos and like I really want to and I'm like working on it but I don't know I'm still figuring out how to maximize my time and like where I exactly want to take my art business and all that stuff but I'm trying my best and I think anyone else out there who is self-employed knows the struggle it can be like like every day can be different but also every day can be the same and it's hard to figure out how long things will take you what should you prioritize first like how should I be breaking down my tasks how to like prioritize things it's just it's always a learning process and I'm still learning and I hope one day I can be like a pro and like know exactly what I need to do and when to get stuff done and I feel like I am with certain things like with patreon I have a really good system down for that for like sending things out and creating the art I create it like every single month and send it out every single month I've never really late with that I've only ever paused patreon once and that was during like finals during school one time and I didn't like I paused the billing for everyone so they wouldn't get charged for an entire month and I wouldn't upload anything for an entire month just to take a break but other than that I've been very consistent with patreon I've been trying to update my shop even more lately but I feel like the YouTube piece is the thing that I really want to like scale more and like make more videos and like make more the kind of content I used to make back when I was still in school I don't like talking about like oh I want to post more videos I don't really like saying those kinds of like like promises because I think it's very common for people to say like I'm gonna be posting every week now but then they don't and I'm not gonna say something like that but I just want you to know it is on my mind and what I'm thinking about YouTube I still you know want to post as much as I can but I also want my videos to be like as enjoyable to make as they as they can and like this kind of video just like doodling on a page is like perfectly fine for me to film it's really long usually I like don't do voiceovers for this long because it's very tiring for me but I wanted to include all of this footage because I had so many sketches on this page I also want to talk about more topics like I don't know like more structured videos where I'm drawing but I'm also giving like specific thoughts about something like I used to do a lot like I did one about character design I did one about imposter syndrome maybe I should talk about imposter syndrome again like when I get started brainstorming topics to discuss I get excited to make videos and I think for a long time I started to make my videos longer and longer and the longer they are the like more tiring it is to make and I end up making less videos because they're longer so if I made like I think recently I started trying to make my videos around 15 minutes or less and I found that way more doable than doing like 25 to 30 minute videos because that's basically double and it's no wonder it's like kind of taxing to do that I don't know I didn't really expect to talk about that in this video but that's kind of like where I am still trying to find a good balance but not totally unhappy with where I am it just always feels like I could be doing more you know and I don't know if that's like a valid feeling or if that's just like common but I'm always feeling like there's something else I need to accomplish that's always out of reach and I never quite like reach it like oh today I want to do this and this and then I only do half of one of the tasks and it's like oh I could have done so much more today but I didn't and like feeling tired all the time and I don't know those are my thoughts about that um I had a lot of fun with this messy little page I think the moths were a lot of fun to do the details on a couple people saw me drawing in my sketchbook like at my house and my sister was like oh that moth is so cool and I was like oh thanks I didn't realize it was like that cool because I kind of did it quickly and like didn't really think too much about it and it's just kind of like a moth I don't know like you see those a lot but it was kind of cool to hear her say that like oh that that moth is so cool Wow and I think my mom said that too so I was like oh that's cool but I enjoyed drawing this page and you can get it as a print you can also shop my new shop update that happened like last month I think there's new enamel pin designs new patches and stickers and did you know you can buy four stickers and get one free on my shop I have it on like a little like announcement bar for a while and some people have done it but it's gonna be a thing going forward like you can buy four stickers and you get one free so if you buy three stickers consider grabbing a fourth and then you can actually get two extra stickers I really hope you enjoyed this video it was a lot of fun to draw these cute little characters I really enjoyed it and I want to do more of them I hope you enjoyed if you're drawing anything while watching this let me know what you were drawing or if you're working on any projects or crafts or hobbies let me know I would love to hear about them in the comments so thanks again and I'll see you in my next video