New sketch book with cartridge sheets

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with the pencil." Balthus

I recently picked up a sketch book from Art Station, an art stationery shop close to where I stay. It has 4"X 5"cartridge sheets and it seemed perfect for my study works, be it in any medium. To my surprise it worked well for my water colour study sketches. So apart from pencil and charcoal sketches, I am also using it for small water colour paintings.

The sketch book 

The sketch book with one of my water colour study works

What I love about such sketch books is that 

• It gives me the freedom to experiment with the medium. 
• I get to create small landscapes or seascapes selecting subjects which I feel are a little challenging. 
• I get to try out new techniques. If it does not work it does not bother me because I know I can try something else in the next work. 
• Each artwork finishes in about 10 to 15 minutes and it gives me a fair idea as to how the bigger painting will look if I were to enlarge the work. 
• The steps I follow get recorded in my mind like a tape and I can re run it once I am doing the same work on a bigger scale.
• All my works are stored at one place ie in my sketch book itself so that I can browse it even in future at my convenience.

Given below are some of my recent water colour works done in this sketch book. After completing the work, I also make it a point to make a note underneath regarding something new that I tried on that work be it spray technique for foliage, or a different technique for creating the sky.  

Small water colour landscapes on cartridge paper

When I started with the soft pastel landscapes last year, I had followed a similar approach of getting a better understanding of the medium. I would do these thumbnail sketches on small sized canson paper and later use them as reference to create bigger works. My landscapes can be seen HERE.

Thumbnail sketches of landscapes created using soft pastels

My works can be seen on INSTAGRAM and DEVIANTART.