The Making Hour .8

I really needed my hour of creativity this week. It’s been so busy lately, in a good way and we are lucky for that! But we needed to recharge. Netflix wasn’t cutting it I needed to get some drawing on the go. I needed to sketch and mark make!

When drawing for design work I like to look at man-made structures but when drawing for myself I’ll look at anything. I do have a little weird interest for lichens and moss. They are just so interesting in how they grow, how they are used (dyeing) and how they look delicate but strong at the same time.

It was a rainy cold day so I looked through my phone for some images to sketch from and found some from a nice walk to our local park with the wee boss earlier in the year. So I grabbed by pencils, pens and ink along with one of my new FORM sketchbooks and started mark making. Letting my hand move energetically in the directions I thought would best represent the image I was seeing. Some of it looked a mess and some of it looked okay. I decided to re-draw some on to tracing paper and pop in to the sketchbook with washi tape, orange tape of course.

Drawing just for the sake of it is very relaxing, not knowing what will come of it and just collecting images and marks that make you happy is refreshing. Mark making is my favourite drawing technique, it’s about texture, line and pattern. It’s almost like feeling for what you are seeing as much as it is seeing it. You don’t have to be amazing at drawing to enjoy this so give it ago!

If you like the look of our sketchbooks then remember to sign up to our newsletter to know when they first are available online. Our notebooks are online now - here. Share your mark making with us on Instagram and Twitter by tagging @Paper_Houses, we’d love to see what you do!

- Mhairi