drawing postage stamps

with Sketchbook Skool

Aaaaaages ago, when I was first thinking about properly getting into art, I wanted to just learn to draw. Not paint, just draw. I found two books, How to Make a Journal of your Life by Dan Price, and another called The Creative License by Danny Gregory. I pored over both, and although I was a long way off from finding my artistic voice, they were both fun books which embraced expression over slavish accuracy, and demonstrated the need for a regular art practice.

Danny Gregory has gone on to develop a cornucopia of resources on his website, and I like his style and delivery – friendly and avuncular – and I know he has inspired a huge number of people to start drawing. Every Thursday, he and his wife host a Draw with Me livestream based around a theme, and I try and catch it if I am around and I like the subject matter; they are based in Arizona so the time difference means it’s at 5pm for me.

This week it was stamps, and I suppose I am so used to the monarch’s portrait or quite intricate photos or illustrations on ours, so wasn’t sure what to expect. We worked through 8 different designs in the 45 minute session; it’s normally an hour but there were a few technical issues!

Here are my pencil drawings. I used an HB as I wanted to add colour later:

There’s always a good chat and lots of people from all over the world show up each week, so there is a really nice atmosphere. As with the Wild Life Drawing sessions, having some dedicated time to draw is really important, and for someone who works on my own, the community aspect is valuable, as is someone else making the decisions about what to draw.

I added some gouache, and I’m really pleased with how this spread turned out, although I have just realised that Emily Dickinson’s hair should be brown…oops.

I like the combo of design and lettering of postage stamps, which I must admit had never occurred to me. Which is your favourite?