Loose Lines and Chunky Brush Marks.
My 12 Days of Christmas sketchbook prompts - a deep-dive.
About two weeks before the beginning of December, I decided I wanted to create some festive sketchbook prompts. It is worth noting here that, if you are thinking of doing something similar, leave yourself more than two weeks! Don’t do a ‘me' and work late to get it organised, and not leave yourself enough time to advertise it properly…
Anyway - prompts created, social media scheduled, I just had to do a prompt a day. That shouldn’t be too taxing should it.
Well…
Turns out if you decide to do a prompt series in December when you have client work to close before Christmas, deadlines to meet, and you also have two online shops to run, you get pretty busy every day. This does not leave a lot of time for drawing, filming, editing and uploading…
However, I couldn’t not do my own prompts, and actually after the first couple of days, I really got into the rhythm of it. I even ended up enjoying myself, experimenting, and exploring materials that have been in a drawer for a while - working bigger and bigger!
Introductions over, let me deep dive into my 12 Days of Christmas prompts: what I decided to draw each day, what materials I picked, and the end results.
Day 1: Christmas Tree
I purposefully made the first prompt something easy that everyone could draw without too much thought. I didn’t want to start off with anything that required a significant amount of effort, since it is a busy time of year for everyone, including myself!
I have lots of source books in my studio that I have collected over the years. I have been gifted some, bought some myself, and found a lot in charity shops. I've always found that they prove useful time and time again. For this prompt, I have a book published by the National Trust (a conservation charity here in the U.K) all about trees, and I used a few images of pine trees for my inspiration.
Lots of loose lines, chunky brush marks, and scribbly pastel marks later and I had drawn my first prompt! I added a light gouache background as I have a tendency to work without one; a key personal challenge in my work for next year is to do more with backgrounds.
Materials I used:
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Stabilo Woody
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Ecoline brush pen
Dip pen and Parker Quink ink
Faber Castell watercolour marker
Liquitex acrylic marker
Day 2: Mountains
When I was creating these prompts, I wanted to make them a little more accessible. The idea was so anyone could feel like they could not only join in, but also that the topics were wide enough for interpretation. With the mountains prompt, I had a good think about which mountains, what aspects, and if I wanted lots of snow on or not in the composition.
I opted for the Alps but I wanted to draw them a little snow covered but not totally, and I really wanted to get some icy blues in there!
Materials I used:
Derwent Graphitone
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Stabilo Woody
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Ecoline brush pen
Parker Quink ink
Faber Castell watercolour marker
Staedtler Mars Lumograph graphite pencils
Day 3: Snowflake
Out of all the prompts I created, this was the prompt I had a really strong idea about what I was going to draw and how I was going to do it. Way back when I was doing my Art Foundation, I was shown a drawing/painting technique using Parker Quink ink and regular household bleach. From then on it had me hook-line-and-sinker!
I love this technique because it looks so simple (and it is), but it is also so unforgiving if you place your brush or dip pen somewhere you don’t want the bleach to go! This did happen with these snowflakes and I had to cover up a splodge (which I tried to make into a star shape, and it just got worse)! Regardless of how long you have drawn for, you will always make mistakes!
I had fun going back into the shapes left behind by the bleach and really adding some depth and shape to these snowflakes. If you haven’t tried this technique before I would highly recommend it. Just be aware that: 1. It’s bleach, so obviously be careful! 2. Not all inks will react with bleach, so you might need to do a bit of trial and error.
Materials I used:
Parker Quink ink - blue
Regular household bleach
Posca pen
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Sakura Koi colouring brush pen
Day 4: Robin
On day 4, I really struggled with time. I had grand plans of creating a full colour sketchbook spread, and the reality was I had 20 minutes to draw, film, and edit that day’s prompt! So, again, I grabbed a book from my shelf (‘The Great British Year’ and it is full of amazing photographs) and scribbled some Robins. I stripped back my materials and only added the famous red breast they are known for, and a touch of white.
Some of the robins aren’t my best drawings, that’s for sure, but I still drew something, and still showed up! Annoyingly, I am guilty of not showing drawings if I don’t think they are that great, especially on social media. But by self-censoring, I am also not showing that it is absolutely ok to make a bad drawing - it’s a good thing in fact! How else do you learn? Time to practise what I preach!
Materials I used:
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Ecoline brush pen
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Posca pen
V Pilot pen
Day 5: Pinecone
I’ve known for a long time that I work better when bigger! With that in mind, I decided to paint one big pinecone, rather than, say, pinecones on a tree or a collection of pine cones. I find the bigger I draw, the more detail I can get in, and the better my mark making is - because I have left room for it. I tighten up when I have to work on a smaller scale, and I just don’t enjoy it as much.
I could have kept going and added in a lot more detail, but I decided to stop in case I started to go over some of the nice marks I had already made. I still need to learn that, a lot of the time, less really is more!
Materials I used:
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Liquitex acrylic marker
Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils
Ecoline brush pen
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Faber Castell watercolour marker
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Day 6: Festive Foliage
This was another prompt I wanted to leave very open ended. Since I was half way through already, I wanted to start to use these prompts as a way of going back to basics with my drawing practice - trying techniques I knew but didn’t always utilise, and most importantly having fun with it. After all, what else are sketchbooks for?!
I opted to go really simple with this prompt. I wanted to use nothing more than graphite, charcoal and a rubber. Some might see this technique as a bit ‘GCSE’, but I am a firm believer in using drawing foundations, and the techniques we learn when we are studying. In one way or another they do inform our creative practice.
Materials I used:
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Derwent Graphitone
Stabilo Othello
Rubber
Stabilo CarbOthello
Staedtler Mars Lumograph graphite pencils
V Pilot pen
Day 7: Nutcracker
With this prompt, I could have easily painted a nutcracker solider, or a selection of festive chestnuts. But I really wanted to challenge myself and draw a ballerina from the famous festive ballet ‘The Nutcracker’. I can draw the human figure, but - and being very honest here - I often shy away from it. It isn’t my favourite subject to draw, and I have a bit of a complex about it that I can’t draw humans! It is silly really, but it stems from school where I was told by an art teacher I really admired that I was better off avoiding the figure as my work would suffer for it. I’ve had that in my head for a long time. It’s funny what sticks isn’t it?
Anyway, with that in mind, I wanted to challenge myself. So I pulled up YouTube, watched a few videos of the ballet, and found a ballerina I wanted to draw. This prompt took me almost twice as long as any other prompt I did. I second-guessed myself a lot and was nervous to commit certain marks to paper for fear of ruining it, but actually, I think I did ok!
Materials I used:
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Tombow pen
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Stabilo CarbOthello
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Day 8: Reindeer
Like with day 4, I didn’t have a huge amount of time to dedicate to this prompt, but I wanted to play around with the idea of drawing a Reindeer with soft materials. I used soft pastels and pastel pencils and they were very lovely to work with. The composition was probably a tad formulaic and a bit ‘obvious’, but the prompt was more about the materials that I chose, rather than the subject.
Sometimes, and actually more often than not for me, materials trump the subject. Even after all these years, playing with materials I still one of my favourite things to do in a sketchbook, and I am always looking for new ways of working, and what new techniques I can discover ,and then incorporate into my work.
Materials I used:
Stabilo CarbOthello
Jackson Arts soft pastels
Derwent charcoal pencils
Day 9: Mulled Wine
I ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhhed’ about what to draw for this prompt, I thought about an entire recipe style spread, with lovely shaped bottles and then listing ingredients. But then I realised that I actually just wanted to draw a chunky Clementine with lots of lovely textures and rich oranges. So that’s what I did!
Remember when I mentioned at the beginning about wanting to work more with backgrounds? Well I also decided that this would be a good drawing to experiment with that too! It turns out that using acrylic gouache with a little print roller works a treat! You get great coverage, lovely solid colour, and it dries quickly! I like to work at a fair pace, so materials that dry quickly (or don’t need to dry at all) are high on the agenda for me!
Materials I used:
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Stabilo CarbOthello
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Ecoline brush pen
Jackson Arts soft pastels
Tombow pen
Day 10: Winter Hare
For this prompt, I really wanted to lean into the Hare’s amazing camouflage, and creating a drawing where it is really subtle in its habitat. I am not someone who usually uses muted or pastel colours either so this was another challenge for me. Top tip: make sure you check your masking fluid before you use it! I discovered as I was using mine that it was too old and the majority had dried up in the bottle! Leaving me with a covering that didn’t rub off properly and left a weird yellow hue on the paper. Lesson learnt!
I also didn’t want to work into the Hare too much. I wanted the features to be subtle and the edges blurred between the Hare and the habitat. Do you think I managed to achieve it?
Materials I used:
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Tombow pen
Daler Rowney Masking Fluid
Stabilo Woody
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Jackson Arts soft pastels
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Stabilo CarbOthello
Day 11: Wreath
The second-to-last prompt; after creating something quite subdued the day before, I wanted to go big, bold and full of colour. I currently don’t own a square sketchbook, so I went rogue and created a large festive wreath full of greenery, berries and holly across the spine of a double page spread. It did mean I could use a really big square brush and get loose with those brush marks - which I love!
Something I discovered whilst doing this prompt is how the materials I used layer on top of one another. I loved seeing how some of my brush pens worked over waxy crayons and soft pastels. It was like it created their own ‘wax resist’ which was really fun! It meant I had created lots of depth in my drawing without really meaning to.
Materials I used:
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Stabilo Woody
Faber Castell watercolour marker
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Jackson Arts soft pastels
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
Stabilo CarbOthello
Day 12: Scandinavia
The final prompt had arrived. Part of me was relieved because it was a lot of work, but I was also a bit sad. I loved working in my sketchbook everyday, and creating something entirely new. I had rediscovered old techniques that I had once loved, learnt new things, and drawn subjects out of my comfort zone! Not bad for 12 days’ worth of work.
I chose this prompt for the final day, because I have got really into maps this year in my client work, and it has extended into my personal work. I thought if I created a location prompt then I could do some map crunching.
Scandinavia seemed like a good area to choose as there are some beautifully wintery landscapes to choose from, and again, lots of variety.
I decided to get my A3 Moleskin art sketchbook out of the drawer. I hardly ever use it because I find the size of it intimidating, and I often think that I don’t have the time to fill a page of that size. But sod it! It’s the final day, and I knew I wanted to draw snowy mountains and incorporate all of those amazing blues. Bigger seemed the only way to go!
Materials I used:
Holbein Acrylic Gouache
Caran d’Ache Neocolor 2 water soluble pastels
Faber Castell watercolour marker
Caran d’Ache Supracolor water soluble colour pencils
Jackson Arts soft pastels
Sakura Koi colouring brush pen
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks
There it is - my 12 Days of Christmas sketchbook prompts in all of their messy, scribbly glory! I thought I would be able to pick my favourite to do, but I actually can’t. But looking at them all together fills me with confidence going into 2025 that next year will be the ‘year of materials’. It is what I love, and have always loved in my work. It brings me so much joy.
Do you have a favourite? Let me know if you use any of these materials too, and if you don’t - what are your favourites?
Until next time,
Really loved reading more of the process behind these. Kinda made me want to crack out a sketchbook!
Some tutors really have a lot to answer for ðŸ«
Oh and I feel ballet figures have an extra layer of difficulty because the positions of the body are not necessarily natural? But then you need to make them look as natural as the ballerina makes them look 😅