Starting a Sketchbook (with spreads)

I've been learning how to paint for the past year now, and that was thanks to a sketchbook specifically made for paint. It was pricy enough that not painting in it would feel like a waste. Because of this, I have essentially lost a year of sketching and studies.

That isn't to say I didn't draw. No, quite the opposite. The problem is that they were all doodles. I wasn't experimenting or learning, it was just a load of indulgent slop. 

Now that we're reaching the final month of teaching at uni, and the pressure has ramped up, I would like to expell this energy through drawing. But I still want to learn. So, I finally bit the bullet and opened up a sketchbook I hadn't touched yet. 

Thanks to my dissertation, I've worked out a rotation system for the easter break. By switching between academic writing and reading, anatomy studies, and playing pokemon on my 2ds, I'm learning 2/3 of the time. That way, whether I'm having a breather, or procrastinating, I'm not on my phone. 

The best part of all this is that the book I'm doing my anatomy studies from is in Italian. Which is a language I do not speak. But that way I really need to pay attention to the drawings and analyse them whilst copying them to work out how this builds up the structure of the human body. It's also been fun to work on it in pen, meaning I have to be purposeful with my lines and can't run from mistakes. 

Honestly it's felt like coming home in a way. By being able to whip out a few spreads in a day reminds me of my younger days, where I felt I could be an artist. Maybe I can still can someday. There's still hope.