Most of my Skillshare classes are about the art of Sketchbooking. Instead of using sketchbooks to practice for something else, sketchbookers consider their sketchbooks as the final art, and keep them forever as personal treasures.

Sketchbooks are a great place to record the moments of your life - large and small - using words and pictures. Everyone enjoys a story with pictures!

This class is about making those pictures to help tell your “sketchbook stories”. They are called “spot illustrations” and are easy to draw and fun to look at.

Our small drawings have a lot to “say” because we will choose “iconic” subjects. Icons are images that carry a lot of association with them and are, therefore, very “narrative”. It is really true that even a small picture can be worth 1000 words.

Spot illustrations are also a great way to learn and practice drawing skills, because there isn’t room to get carried away. You can keep it simple. We will use pencil, ink, and several types of water media - all from our usual supply list.

Even absolute beginners can make pleasing spots following my step-by-step instructions and my tried and true "A-B-See" method.

However, if you are already accomplished in drawing, but not in storytelling in a sketchbook, there is plenty in this class for you as well. It is a great exercise in creativity to select just the right illustration for your words.

For our project, we will create four sketchbook pages full of spots, and you will have a choice whether to copy these pages as a reference or just choose some of the images to make a sketchbook page about what's happening in your life. I can't wait to see what you upload to the Projects section!