Sketchbook Double Spread .... Getting Started

My sketchbook double spreads are often cause for questions like “Where do you start?” Or “ Is your layout planned?”. No easy answer there, but I know where the inspiration for my next one came ..... from my love of pumpkin soup and here is the star of the show, Petronella the pumpkin! 

My sketchbooks have always been important to me from my Art School days, there are not only sketches or photos in there but also less inspiring things like shopping lists and recipes too, (probably the one for the soup is hidden there on a back page.) so don't be deceived by the thought that my sketchbooks are full of sumptuous gorgeous spreads, there are disasters, experiments and humdrum sketches in there too. 

Basically the idea for the double pages was born out of the question of what to draw next, and often having only small pockets of time (and a short concentration span) led to the idea of these themed pages. Sometimes an idea for a theme pops into my head (got to the stage where I really should be writing them down) or I start with one sketch and the idea for the page leads on from there. Whatever starts the ball rolling there is no plan for a layout, one sketch leads on to another and the next follows on from there. 

Here is Petronella having her portrait painted, my desk (much to the despair of others in my house) is always chaos, this is really quite tidy! 

So where does it go from here? Well, I associate pumpkins and their orangey colour with the onset of Autumn, so I'm thinking maybe wellies, or woollies, at this stage it really is an open book ...... unfortunately for pretty Petronella her 15 minutes of fame are over, she's heading for the saucepan, along with onions, leeks, potato, orange juice, kurkuma and coconut milk! Yummy.