I haven’t done a prompt with challenges in a couple of years.
I have no trouble thinking of things to sketch and time is what makes
filling a sketchbook hard — I work at our business full-time.

So why do a challenge when I was swamped and stressed over a deadline on a huge project?   Because sketching is my second form of meditation (first is actual meditation), and it provides me a way to free my mind, calm my stress, enjoy my day.

To up the ante, I did no pencil —
NOT that I think pencil is a no-no — I’m not one of those people —
but pencil does slow me down, make me prepare mentally for a “good” sketch.
I wanted to just make it through the month still sketching every day, because I am doing a sketch a day even if I don’t post them (sometimes I can’t for privacy reasons.)

I chose a too-small Hahnemühle Watercolour Book —
I ordered the A6 size by accident — I don’t like small journals —
because as I started this I thought of the exercise as a throwaway.
It was a throwaway —
I threw away
judgements and perfection (10-minute sketches do that for you)!
I gained a fun finished journal, sanity during a long push,
an appreciation for small journals,
and even a few tricks I will continue with —
like more colored ink-in-waterbrushes (besides the greys for grisaille.)

My cover and commitment on the inside cover…  …my test pages for inks (you can really see that I started with my normal inks in waterbrushes — browns and greys — but then added a whole other page of colorful inks.
I started using them in waterbrushes two years ago, so I had color for the middle of the night!  Then I loved them for grisaille or brunaille…

And finally, my thoughts — which I often record at the end
of a journal looking back — but rarely share.

You can run through these like slides…

Jutta and admins, thank you for the best EDIM ever!

See You next year! The list, above.