Katie Moody is a mixed media artist based on the South Coast of England. Her work takes a joyful approach to absorbing the world around her, favouring playfulness and experimentation over the pursuit of perfection. In this article, she discusses the vastly important role sketchbooks play for her as an artist, the broad range of materials she uses, and how her intuitive approach leads to finished pieces within her sketchbooks.
Inside the Sketchbook of Katie Moody
I have so many sketchbooks on the go! I fill them all with a variety of subjects rather than ones with specific themes, though I do love the idea of seeing the progression more clearly that way. They are very mixed, and I reach for them based on media and size. There are some I know work better with wet mediums, with paper that holds up to the amount of layers and materials I throw at it. Others work better with thicker paint layers or dry materials.
Most have smooth hot-pressed paper, which I love for brush pens. Sometimes I just want something small that’s easy to carry when I’m drawing outside. I have many half-filled sketchbooks, but they’ll get finished eventually. I’m ok with that! I’m not racing to fill my sketchbooks, and I love being able to pick and choose the sketchbook I’ll work in on that day.
Because of my love for mixed media, most of my sketchbooks have to have paper that can handle a lot. For mixed media, I love the Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Sketchbook with a soft cover. And for watercolour work, I’ve been really enjoying the Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. Both of these work brilliantly with plenty of layers and don’t have too much tooth. I prefer a relatively smooth paper stock because I love to add pencil and details using Caran d’Ache Neocolor on top. And I love having smooth linework.
The Strathmore sketchbook is 8.5 x 11 in, so is one of my larger sketchbooks, but my most used and loved size is A5. It feels like just the right amount of paper to fill without having so much white space, and can easily be broken down into panels for faster work, too.
For my general day-to-day sketchbook, I love the A5 Royal Talens Art Creation Sketchbooks. I’ve been using them for years, and I love how affordable they are. It can be daunting when creating in an expensive sketchbook, so cheap and cheerful really takes that pressure away.
It holds a huge amount of media, including gouache and brush pens, but watercolour has to be reserved for my other sketchbooks. It was the sketchbook I used a lot during my daily art challenges, and so they feel very special to me!
As a mixed-media artist, my supply list is pretty endless! It’s a blessing and a curse because I love playing and experimenting with all my supplies, but sometimes it can be hard to choose. I find a lot of joy in combining different mediums, changing the order of my layers, and just experimenting with many supplies to create nice textures. Some purists don’t like this approach, but to me, the only way to use an art supply ‘wrong’ is by not using it at all!
I love watercolour, gouache, or acrylic ink as my base if I’m using wet media, and these are often followed with coloured pencil and Caran d’Ache Neocolor II details on top. If I want to use dry media, I love Tombow and Ecoline brush pens for my base, again followed by pencils (my favourites are Caran d’Ache Luminance). Recently, I’ve also loved using more lines in my work, and a Sailor Fude De Mannen fountain pen has been my go-to. The angled nib creates such a lovely variation of line and allows me to be really playful and keep my linework energetic.
I’m a bit of a magpie with art supplies, but they all get used. Sometimes things may not be touched in a while because I’m exploring a specific medium, but I know that they’ll all come back around. I think it’s really important to follow those sparks of interest, to pull the thread of experimentation and just have fun with it in your sketchbook pages.
I use my sketchbooks most days, though I don’t create art every day. My sketchbooks are my final work – sometimes I’ll create originals on loose paper, but 90% of my work is in sketchbooks. Many artists use them for preliminary work, and there is often debate on my YouTube channel if sketchbooks shouldn’t be for ‘finished’ art. In my opinion, you can do both, but there is no wrong way to use them!
I’ve had sketchbooks filled with thumbnails, notes, and sketches, but most of the time my pages are filled with final art. I work fast and can fill spreads quickly, but it’s all just about enjoying the process for me. It’s less about the end result and creating what I deem as ‘good’ art, and more about the joy I had in putting pencil to paper.
It’s why sketchbooks are so important to me, because they are what makes me an artist. I discovered my style by filling page after page, exploring so many different subjects and trying various mediums. I’m not limited by the page, it encourages me to create, and if something goes wrong, that’s ok too! I can just turn the page and try again. All my mistakes and ‘bad’ art lead to my good pieces.
My sketches are my finished works, and so rather than using my sketchbooks to create specific pieces, I let them all overlap and feed into my next page. A specific colour palette or a combination of supplies will lead into more explorations and more ideas, rather than planned, finished art.
My favourite thing about working in this way is that you can see the progression and growth. From that very first spread right to the last, there’s development there. It’s not often noticeable whilst we create, but as you fill each spread, there is going to be learning. I’ve learnt so many things by filling my sketchbooks, such as style preference, but also about myself as an artist. There is joy in letting go and creating for me, doing what I want to do in this little book that is just my own.
If you want to make the most of your sketchbooks, I highly recommend personal art challenges, whether that’s creating every day (or even every other day), or focusing on a specific subject that inspires you, or a medium to explore. It’s scary at first, but sketchbooks are what you make them, and they don’t need to be filled with beautiful masterpieces. You only need 5 or 10 minutes a day for quick doodles, scribbles or ideas. Timers are a big part of my practice and allow me to not overthink, and are a big factor in my own daily art challenges. I’ve done a few, from a year-long one to 30 and 100 days, and they were all monumental in my growth as an artist. It stopped me from being scared to create, it held me accountable and helped me grow my community too.
If you’re worried about it, just start. I promise that opening the page and putting down the first mark is the hardest part – once you’ve done that, you’re away! Have fun and just enjoy putting colour down. Don’t aim for perfection, just enjoy the process.
Materials
Winsor & Newton Designer Gouache
Watercolour (Daniel Smith, Roman Szmal, Schmincke, Rosa Gallery, Holbein)
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour
Caran d’Ache Luminance Pencils
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Watercolour Crayons
Daler-Rowney System 3 Acrylic Ink
Daler-Rowney Tear-off Palette For Oil and Acrylic
Derwent Push Button Waterbrushes
Sailor Fude De Mannen Fountain Pens
De Atramentis Document Ink
Derwent Inktense Blocks and Pencils
About Katie Moody
Katie is a mixed media artist living on the south coast of England and is hugely inspired by nature. She teaches and shares her art on YouTube, Patreon, and Instagram, encouraging more people to pick up their sketchbooks, and find their creative joy with painting. Katie is an advocate that creativity is for everyone.
Further Reading
Using Watercolours for Illustration
Arches Aquarelle: A Traditional Watercolour Paper
Recreating the Colour Palette of Eric Ravilious
Preparing a Watercolour Gouache Palette for Painting on Location
Shop Sketchbooks on jacksonsart.com
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