Sketchbook as a Laboratory for Play with April Howlett

[00:00:00] diane: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode. This is episode 476, and I am here with April Howlet. I’m not sure if I said that right? 

[00:00:14] April Howlett: Yeah, perfect. 

[00:00:15] diane: Okay. Um, and she’s also known as Monkey Mink, aka. 

[00:00:20] April Howlett: Yep. AKA. 

[00:00:22] diane: Okay. Um, online, and I have been following April for at least two years, and [00:00:30] she’s somebody who is on the other side of the pond from me at least.

[00:00:36] And. She is somebody who limits her color palette. She uses her sketchbook all the time. She sketches on location, but she also does lives on YouTube. I’m super excited to have her here. I am a huge fan. I bought all the postcards, love these birds, and then she has stickers and I’ll share [00:01:00] links, um, a in a little bit.

[00:01:02] But April, I didn’t do a great you by day. You do, uh, motion design or an animated Yeah. Motion designer. Mm-Hmm. In London. But not, you don’t work. I mean, yeah. My You work remote? 

[00:01:16] April Howlett: Yeah. I’m in the Lake District, but my company, I used to work in the office, but we moved a few years ago, so 

[00:01:22] diane: And so tell ’em I didn’t do a great job of explaining who you are and what you do.

[00:01:28] So can you tell us who you [00:01:30] are, what you do? And you’re in England? 

[00:01:32] April Howlett: Yeah. Um, yeah, but up in the lake district, which is in the north. Um, which I found out when we moved here. Didn’t know where I was before and, uh, I’m a motion designer by day, so yeah, I make videos and animations and my background is like in animation.

[00:01:47] I went to school for that and then I started getting, like, I started getting sick of the computer, um, after a few years of being in the industry and I really wanted to get back, like to use my [00:02:00] hands and stuff. So I started to, uh, draw again, which I hadn’t done since I was a teenager. So I started in 2017 and I’ve just kind of like, I.

[00:02:10] Gone from there, from there. And now I, I try and do every day I have like the YouTubes and a patron and I’ve also recently signed up with an agent to hopefully work on up my own book. So yeah, exciting stuff happening, hopefully in the future. 

[00:02:27] diane: That’s awesome. But it’s not that. Um, [00:02:30] and, and you do fun creatures.

[00:02:32] Lots of birds for bird fest. You do lots of landscapes. Um, what else do you, I mean, you draw the super cute cat a lot. You lo lots of fun critters, I think. 

[00:02:45] April Howlett: Yeah, I love animals and birds especially. Um, I became a bird watcher like maybe a year and a half ago, and I was drawing birds before then, but like drawing birds made me interested in birds and I never really knew what birds I was drawing, so I [00:03:00] thought I would learn about them.

[00:03:01] So now I’m like a bird watcher. So that’s, that’s the thing. Not very good one. Um, you have, um. Binoculars. Binoculars. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. But, um, yeah, so I love animals, drawing animals. I find them more interesting than humans just because I feel like you can get them wrong and they’re still fun.

[00:03:22] But I actually have been enjoying drawing humans the last, like, few months to a year. So I’m trying to work on that. [00:03:30] And I recently realized about myself that I need to have something like manmade or something structural. If I’m drawing like a landscape, I really struggle with just like mountains and nothing else.

[00:03:41] So I’ve learned that about myself, which is cool. 

[00:03:44] diane: Yeah, that’s, that is good. It’s, it’s good to know where your, your. Limitations are what you need to help you grow better. So you choose some great color palettes. Um, that’s one of the things that I love is that they’re [00:04:00] really funky. You’ll make your, your cat green or something.

[00:04:04] And, and I just find your, I have a, I struggle with color, so your color combos are phenomenal, and I just really love the energy and the, even in your landscapes, you’ll choose three kind of random colors sometimes, or it seems like maybe they’re random. 

[00:04:21] April Howlett: Well, uh, yeah. I’ve been doing that recently with a three material drawing challenge.

[00:04:26] Mm-Hmm. But, um, I don’t normally do that. I normally literally use, I [00:04:30] would use every single color, um, if I can. But yeah, the three material drawing challenge is really fun. I’m sure some people in the chat are doing it as well. Um, it’s like, it’s a real challenge because using three colors is like, is hard work.

[00:04:43] diane: It is. And, but you, you also have like. So one’s like a pencil, one’s like a neo color, and then one’s something else. 

[00:04:52] April Howlett: Yeah, yeah. A paint or something. 

[00:04:54] diane: But I think that that’s also interesting of limit, like you’re not just using three [00:05:00] pencils, you know? Yeah. And you, 

[00:05:03] April Howlett: it’s like limit the text. Um, like yeah, vary the texture as well, so you can Yes.

[00:05:07] More interest him. 

[00:05:08] diane: Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Makes 

[00:05:10] April Howlett: way 

[00:05:10] diane: It is for us to watch. So you have lots of people over in the chat that are also your Paton fans, and so it’s awesome. And if you guys have questions, just put it over in the chat, and if you’re watching on YouTube, you can always join us live. Um, all right, so April, um, how long have you been, [00:05:30] when did you start a YouTube channel and why?

[00:05:33] April Howlett: Um, so I actually, okay, I actually looked today because I wasn’t, I couldn’t remember. I knew that I started in 2017. I actually started in 2017 December, so right at the end of the year. And so, like I said, I wanted to start drawing again, but I didn’t know what to draw. And I had this idea in my head, um, like a book I’d written a while ago and I wanted to turn it into a graphic novel.

[00:05:55] But when I had that idea to turn into a graphic novel, I was like, wait a minute. I actually have [00:06:00] forgotten how to draw. Like, I didn’t know how to draw anything, so I thought I would learn to draw, and so I could do the graphic novel. And then the graphic novel after a few months just kind of like disappeared from my mind.

[00:06:09] Um, so I just started drawing. And then you obviously, like, how do I draw this? So on YouTube, you know, like for a tutorial, back in the day, uh, there was a lot of tutorials and I draw with mes and stuff and it just looked really fun. So I don’t know how long it was after drawing, but I started, but I just decided to like put a [00:06:30] sketchbook tour on.

[00:06:31] Then I did like some draw with mes and I kind of went from there. Um, I literally had like no subscribers. I don’t think anyone was watching. I just kept putting them up and I looked and I actually did videos for two years before I was even braven enough to put my face on YouTube. So, yeah, because that’s a 

[00:06:50] diane: hard thing for a lot of 

[00:06:51] April Howlett: people.

[00:06:52] It was pretty difficult. Yeah. I did a lot of practicing. I like spoke to the camera a lot in the mirror. 

[00:06:57] diane: Oh, in the, oh, the 

[00:06:58] April Howlett: camera. Yeah, [00:07:00] it was, I have, I have a video on my YouTube called, I think it’s something like how to get confident, like put like something about confidence to go make a YouTube channel or something.

[00:07:10] And I have the practice videos in that video if you guys wanna see it. They’re like so cringey, but it’s hilarious. 

[00:07:17] diane: That’s awesome. I think it’s fun to have. It is really hard. I know. Um, some other people here probably have had that, especially when everybody went, um, when the whole world [00:07:30] shut down, we all had to get on camera and so it, you kind of had to get over it by that point.

[00:07:35] You were over it. I think. I think it’s also, you also draw on like it on location, which can also be very, um, fearful for a lot of people because there might be someone walking by or, you know. Mm-Hmm. Does that ever bother you? 

[00:07:54] April Howlett: Well, a lot of the location stuff I do is in the late district at the moment, so there’s no one around apart from the sheep.[00:08:00] 

[00:08:00] Um, so it’s not too bad. They’re like not very judgmental. Right. Thank goodness. But yeah. Um, but I think when I go to cities or stuff like that, normally, like I try, I have done in the past with a, with a friend that’s kind of nice ’cause someone else is doing it. Or I always try and have like my back. To the a wall.

[00:08:20] I’ve heard that’s a good tip as well. Like that’s one of the tips I, you know, when I was looking to do, um, like playing their sketching or whatever. But it’s fun. It’s definitely a [00:08:30] skill though. Like, um, I, I’d like to get better at it and go like to more public places. People go to cafes and train stations.

[00:08:36] I have no idea how they do that. I’m not brave enough yet. But 

[00:08:40] diane: yeah, it is a, it is take some bravery, but I think it also, ’cause sometimes, I mean, you’re filming and you’re all be on this beautiful location. There are still people walking by sometimes. 

[00:08:52] April Howlett: Yeah. No, I don’t think, I’ve never had anyone look at what I’ve, what I’m drawing.

[00:08:56] Like maybe I’m not that interested enough or I’m [00:09:00] just like the ducks or something. Yeah. I just like hide in my little, my cave. Did you want me to, I have like a whole bunch of sketchbooks if you want me to. I would. 

[00:09:08] diane: So tell while you change your camera. Um, I’m gonna ask you a couple questions. So this most, do you ever sketch.

[00:09:17] Um, digitally? 

[00:09:19] April Howlett: Um, yeah, I do, I do sketch digitally. Um, I’m not sure what to do now though. 

[00:09:26] diane: Oh, oh. To show, to show you. Okay. Okay. So, because I don’t have [00:09:30] my iPad with me. Okay, no problem. So most of these, uh, all that you’re gonna show us is analog. And this is what the majority of the stuff on your channel, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you draw, um, digitally 

[00:09:43] April Howlett: on.

[00:09:43] I have. I used to do it on live 

[00:09:43] diane: streams a lot. Okay. I just, 

[00:09:46] April Howlett: can I, can I just show the first one backwards? Yes, please. I love this guy. Guy I couple of sketch. Yeah. So this is the first one I got. It’s like literally a notebook, but I got for work ’cause I was like not really into work at the time and it just said I’m very happy.

[00:09:58] Which obviously is [00:10:00] wasn’t true. But I had like, just basically notes. And then the very first sketch I made were these, which is in 2017, like the most random, I don’t know who I think this is Ron. He looks like Ron Fromm. Yes. 

[00:10:14] diane: The office. 

[00:10:15] April Howlett: And then basically this first sketchbook is, I won’t show you the whole thing, I’ll just flip through.

[00:10:20] But it was just like, had the most random things, just whatever I wanted to do. And I was just, I wasn’t showing anyone it, I don’t think I’ve ever shown anyone it, but just [00:10:30] like I was just, you know, just learning what I wanted to do and doing random sketches. I got super into portraits and some of them are really bad.

[00:10:39] No, those are great 

[00:10:41] diane: for your first like going in, I think those are incredible. 

[00:10:45] April Howlett: I have this one back down here, which has a note on it, which I really think is funny, um, that I wrote In it, it just says, um, butchering Lala Garry’s face. That was March, 2017. [00:11:00] Oh 

[00:11:00] diane: wow. 

[00:11:01] April Howlett: Yeah, that was the first one. 

[00:11:03] diane: So now on the, the covers, sometimes you will paint and you painted that.

[00:11:08] Oh 

[00:11:08] April Howlett: yeah. I only started doing that recently. 

[00:11:10] diane: So like how, because how many, it looks like number 55 is in front of us. This 

[00:11:15] April Howlett: is my very first one. Um, this is my most recent one that I just finished. Um, and then 

[00:11:20] diane: do you always go in order? So I have multiple sketchbooks at a time. It seems like you do too. 

[00:11:27] April Howlett: Yeah, I do.

[00:11:27] I go in order. So I, I number them when [00:11:30] I start them and I just write like the date. Mm-Hmm. Um, but this one here is a good one actually that just picked up because this one was number 37, but you can see it did have a number, number and it was trees. Um, so I know that you, we were gonna talk about like different sketchbooks that have different Mm-Hmm.

[00:11:46] Um, things. So this was when I started for, uh, patron and it was if any patrons on, he may remember it was the, um, notorious tree sketchbook, which I tried to make a thing for about a year and I [00:12:00] just couldn’t be bothered ’cause it felt like homework. Mm. So then I started just branching off and it became just like a sketchbook for anything.

[00:12:09] Um, this is like dogger stuff. So here I basically just like put in trees and then here it was like doing something else. And then here it was like phase two painting. So some of them have really long lifespans and some of them have really short lifespans. So is 

[00:12:25] diane: trees finished? Is that number 37? Is that one totally complete?

[00:12:29] Oh, of 

[00:12:29] April Howlett: [00:12:30] these sketchbooks are finished right now. Okay. Apart from these two, which are my current sketchbooks. 

[00:12:34] diane: Okay. And so size wise you differ. What, what makes you choose a sketchbook or are you. Um, 

[00:12:42] April Howlett: well, I always had a five, which is this one here. Mm-Hmm. And a lot of people are familiar with the sketchbook, which is the art creations.

[00:12:51] Mm-Hmm. And the sketchbook is, I mean, I think everyone’s using pith now, which I’m also, I’ve turned to. But a five, I just really loved the sketchbook [00:13:00] size ’cause it kind of fit into your bag and you can fill up the page easily. Um, this here, I, I just wanna say, just mention a lot of people online, like when the beginning, they say that copying is really bad, but if anyone recognizes this, this is, I copied Emma Carlow and I did that a few times.

[00:13:21] I just randomly, I didn’t know it was in here. Sorry to mention that. And anyone was like, wait, I, I recognize that, but I think that’s 

[00:13:27] diane: important. That’s how the masters learned, right? [00:13:30] So why I, I also copy it. I’m not gonna ever say it’s mine. I’m gonna say, Hey, I copied them Carlisle, or I copied you, or I copied whoever.

[00:13:39] But why do you think, I think it is important. Why is it important for you to just start by? Um, 

[00:13:45] April Howlett: well, I’ve done this in the past myself copying pe I’ve lost it now, copying people. But, um, I actually did this for Patron. We did a month where we did like master studies, and I did three artists. So the first was Emma Carle, [00:14:00] and the second was, I forgot the name of this guy, but it was really good.

[00:14:06] Um, but I, I’ve done it in the past and there’s a lot of like, um, like podcasts, like people, I don’t know if you know the. Three point perspective podcast. Mm-Hmm. Um, yeah, they’re like three artists. One of them is Jake Parker, who does, um, Mm-Hmm. And he’s the most famous one, I guess, but I’m just flipping through, sorry, as I’m talking.

[00:14:27] Um, but they had, they’re [00:14:30] always talking about copying people and how when you’re learning to play a musical instrument, you learn scales and then you learn someone’s music. Or if you are like any skill apart from art, it’s fine to copy people to learn, but in art it’s frowned upon. And there’s a lot of advice out there.

[00:14:46] So like, you know, obviously like, don’t say it’s yours or don’t try and sell it, but to take bits and pieces from different artists that you like and you learn material that they like, that they use, or, um, a way that they draw hands and you just [00:15:00] kind of like take little pieces from each artist or, um, like even art period, or even like a color palette.

[00:15:07] And eventually that’s how it kind of becomes your style. And then that style changes every time, depending on your tastes. That’s just kind of like how I. Well, 

[00:15:14] diane: and I think you, you learn to use the materials maybe the way they’re using them, and then you are like, oh, this doesn’t fit for me. Or sometimes like certain things are really scratchy and you’re like, Ooh, I don’t wanna use scratchy things.[00:15:30] 

[00:15:30] April Howlett: With Emma Carlo on with this one here, with these cats, you have to literally, like I was staring at her work like, and looking at everything on her desk and thinking she must have used that material there. And then she used this on top and it really does make you think like that. It’s really cool, actually.

[00:15:46] diane: Well, and I think that, um, so Helen says, um, yes, I recognize it, but it’s definitely your style and pauses, pause. No 

[00:15:53] April Howlett: copy. Good enough. 

[00:15:55] diane: No, but that’s good that, so I think that you always put, [00:16:00] we all put our own take on certain things. We might leave out certain elements or we might add something else just to be, but one of the things I love is that you’re really experimenting a lot.

[00:16:12] Do you think that you draw more or less since you started your channel? 

[00:16:17] April Howlett: Um, to begin with? I would have started, uh, I would’ve drawn more for the videos, but now, um, I’m gonna be honest, I probably draw like less for YouTube, if that makes sense. [00:16:30] I draw less to make a video. I’m drawing more for either myself or I.

[00:16:37] I’m like, I’m super busy right now with my life. When I started my YouTube channel, it was a lot different. I feel like I should be showing you something. Um, okay. It’s okay, but what am I doing? 

[00:16:47] diane: Okay, so, um. Let me ask you one other question about videos, and you don’t have to change. Okay. You can just, so you do a lot of, I’m 

[00:16:55] April Howlett: gonna change.

[00:16:55] diane: Okay. You do a lot of different kinds of, [00:17:00] um, video styles, so, or like overhead where you’re drawing on camera, you draw with your patrons, or you do lives like that. You do art halls where you’re not supposed to be buying things, but then you still buy things, things 

[00:17:15] April Howlett: you buy. Yeah. But I mean, there’s still little lies we tell ourselves to get to today.

[00:17:17] I know. I know. 

[00:17:18] diane: Yeah. Um, and um, and then sometimes you’re on location and then sometimes you’re just drawing or you’re doing somebody else’s li or whatever, right? Like you’re drawing with someone [00:17:30] else and you’re just recording it. What’s your favorite or is there a favorite? 

[00:17:35] April Howlett: Oh, that’s, I didn’t know this was question was coming up.

[00:17:38] It’s like, ask him what your favorite, if you prefer, you know, sriracha soy sauce of ketchup. It’s, I like the water together. Um, I really love. Wait, what’s the question 

[00:17:51] diane: again? So, what kind of video do you like to make the most video. Okay. Okay. Okay. 

[00:17:54] April Howlett: Okay. I can answer that question. I thought you meant what type of drawing do I like best?

[00:17:58] I was like, oh my, no, I 

[00:17:59] diane: know. I’m [00:18:00] sorry. I probably messed up with, um, I, 

[00:18:02] April Howlett: I actually was thinking about this and it’s gonna be like the easiest, uh, it’s gonna be a bit of a phone in answer, but, uh, um, sketchbook tours because they’re really fast to make and you can just flip through the sketchbook. And also lots of people watch them 

[00:18:17] diane: well, but some people don’t have as many sketchbooks as you, or they don’t make as many.

[00:18:22] So, um, if you were to 

[00:18:23] April Howlett: ask ’em a deeper level, okay. I, 

[00:18:26] diane: a deeper level, 

[00:18:27] April Howlett: A deeper level, I really love doing like [00:18:30] just the vlogs, like hiking, vlogs and, yeah. Yeah. I used to love doing studio vlogs, but they’re not really a thing anymore. And also, I outsource a lot of my stuff now. So, um, I just love chatting. I mean, I just love chatting.

[00:18:43] You can’t, you can’t shut me up. Look at me, I’m still going. 

[00:18:47] diane: I know I love it. But that’s what makes it feel like when we’re watching, when I’m watching, I feel like you’re talking to me and you’re, um, so it, there’s a connection and I think maybe that’s why your, your Patreon is [00:19:00] so successful and, you know, there’s, those are things I think that make you great.

[00:19:05] Um, it also, I, I just love how you’re, you aren’t, you don’t really beat yourself up when you’ve done something. You’re like, oh, well we’re gonna just make that tree bend over or whatever. Yeah. There’s, it doesn’t seem like you get too caught up, which to me, it really helps that you’re not taking it too seriously.

[00:19:27] It’s just one page in the sketchbook, you can move [00:19:30] on, which I think is helpful. 

[00:19:33] April Howlett: Yeah. I think that’s why I really love sketchbooks because. It’s like you just turn the page. And I know a lot of people like loose pages for that as well, because you can just use another, it’s kind of the same thing. I lose my loose pages.

[00:19:45] Like I’ll put them in drawer, forget them for five years. Um, but I just wanted to, I actually have some stuff to share about on that kind of topic. Tell. Okay. Cool. Uh, lemme see if I share my screen again. 

[00:19:57] diane: So I’m gonna read you what, uh, Helen says [00:20:00] April has a lovely personality. It really comes across in her Vance, and I agree.

[00:20:05] It does. 

[00:20:07] April Howlett: Um, so for the, it’s like what we’re talking about, we’re talking about for, uh, making like drawings. We don’t like things like that, right? Mm-Hmm. So yeah, this sketchbook. I, I do make drawings that I don’t like. Uh, a lot of the time. Sometimes I share them, sometimes I don’t on, on online. Sometimes I’ll just share ’em in a story.

[00:20:25] Like this one here I did made the other day when I was out on a, this was a plain air [00:20:30] sketch that I did, and I just literally used like every single color I had, and it just came out like so garish. There’s no balance, you know, and I don’t think I’ve shared this with anyone, and I’ll just, I’ll just like flip the page, like, it’s fine.

[00:20:44] Um, like some sketches don’t, like, don’t turn out very well. But, um, these are some, actually some sketches that I, I haven’t shown yet. This is for our upcoming YouTube video. So you guys, again, a sneak peek. Yay. Um, but I sometimes when I’m drawing on livestream or if I post something that I [00:21:00] don’t particularly like and I say something like, oh, I don’t like how this one turned out, or, I.

[00:21:07] Like, I’m not happy with this, but I’ll share in it anyway. Sometimes people will message or they’ll comment and they’re being nice, they’re being like, well-meaning, and they’ll say, no, that’s really nice. Like, it’s great. But I think it is okay to be comfortable in, if you don’t like something you’ve done, like, you know how you draw, you know what we like, you have your own taste and preferences.

[00:21:28] And I think it’s fine to say, I don’t [00:21:30] like this Blackbird, even though I actually love this Blackbird. I’m sorry, Blackbird, I take it back. 

[00:21:36] diane: But I think sometimes yes, absolutely. I think that’s how we learn. Uh, we make certain things that we like in some things that we don’t. Um, last week, Steph Coleman, she said, I try to always find something that I like about it and then something that I could work on.

[00:21:51] And I think sometimes, you know, every, every sketch in the sketchbook isn’t gonna be, um, you know. Go to the [00:22:00] MoMA kind of 

[00:22:02] April Howlett: sketch. I’m trying to find some more sketches I don’t like, but it’s so hard ’cause I am, ugh. I’m just on fire. So you 

[00:22:07] diane: have, you have a lot of random different things. So you’ll do birds and then you’ll do and Yes, and like those ducks or geese, like they’re pink.

[00:22:15] And I think that maybe that helps it so that it’s doesn’t, um, yeah, those ones ducks I guess. I think they’re ducks. I don’t know. I’m, I did a whole series [00:22:30] of geese 

[00:22:30] April Howlett: before I was a bird watcher, so I can’t be certain what they are. They could be pixel. I know. 

[00:22:36] diane: So when you’re doing this, these, like if you, would this have been something that you were at home and you were doing, and then how did you decide on the color palette?

[00:22:49] April Howlett: I. Don’t know why I chose these colors. I think at the time I was sketching a lot of [00:23:00] animals. I had an idea in my head to, um, do a animal sanctuary series for my, uh, et sea shop. So I wanted to do like a lot of farm animals, but I call it animal sanctuary because I prefer that. I want, i, I like to think of the animals being happy and not on a farm.

[00:23:18] So, um, I did a lot of sketches. I don’t know if it was these ones, but I think it was just sometimes I just a sketch a lot of the same thing to kind of get the feeling of the, like, to understand [00:23:30] how the duck looks, how you know how to stylize it, things like that. And I think for this, I just grab random things I think will look nice.

[00:23:38] Mm. Um, I do have, I. I have more somewhere, but I’ve, I got all of these sketchbooks out earlier to show you, but I, I’ve forgotten why, why I got all of them out. 

[00:23:48] diane: Okay. So let me ask you this. While you’re hunting, how often in the past, maybe month then, do you use your sketchbook to experiment maybe with a new style or try something new?

[00:23:59] [00:24:00] Maybe it’s a new tool even. 

[00:24:01] April Howlett: Yeah. Is it how much a month you said? 

[00:24:04] diane: Uh, yes. I said how many, how many days are in 

[00:24:06] April Howlett: the month? 

[00:24:07] diane: So say a normal month is 30 

[00:24:10] April Howlett: every day, you think? I’m just joking. Um, I would say like at least once a week, probably more than once a week. Um, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard because I go through periods.

[00:24:22] So like right now, I would say once a week because I’ve been buying a lot of stuff. Um, so I’ve been trying lots of new [00:24:30] materials. Also, I am illustrating a book for, um, like a. A book I’ll show you actually, I’m illustration, a book called, um, goodnight Apache Bunny. Mm-Hmm. Which is for an indie author, and it’s gonna be self-published.

[00:24:44] So, uh, this is like the sketchbook I made for that one. And so, like, for example, here, this is me experimenting when I was doing this with like different colors, how the bunny looks in different scenarios. So I’ve been doing a lot of that recently just because that’s [00:25:00] kind of, I’m doing lots of different things, so I need to kind of like figure out what I’m doing and then to procrastinate, I’ll buy something new and then I have to try that like today or the other day, I literally just bought these, but I’m don’t tell anyone.

[00:25:13] Okay. Okay. We won’t. No, don’t tell anyone because I’m not mentally be buying anything right now. Um, but then sometimes I’ll just, I just like, if I’m, if I’m feeling overwhelmed or busy, um, or like going through periods at work where I’m really busy, I’ll just do the same [00:25:30] thing over and over, you know, comfort zone stuff.

[00:25:32] diane: Right. Okay. So sorry. So are birds’ comfort zone? No, you’re good. You can interrupt me. 

[00:25:36] April Howlett: Birds, birds, animals, um, mixed media houses. Um, this is something though that might be interested in. So this is an odd orange fish book and I started experimenting, I guess you could call experimenting with pastels. Mm. So oil pastels.

[00:25:54] And I literally have only used oil pastels in her life’s lives. I dunno [00:26:00] why Every time she had her life, I just picked up my oil pastels. Um, so are you having 

[00:26:03] diane: to fixative those 

[00:26:05] April Howlett: pages then? Hey, I have those two. I know, I know. I wanted, this is what I wanted to show you earlier. Um. But the oil pastels now, ’cause I’ve used ’em so much now, it’s gone from experimentation to like comfort zone, but in, in a, in that particular situation.

[00:26:21] So like if I was to use oil pastels in my own work to make something, it would like be like an experimentation because I haven’t used them, if that makes [00:26:30] sense. 

[00:26:30] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:26:30] April Howlett: Um, and to answer your question about fixative is actually one of the questions I get asked probably the most online. And it’s always, I always feel bad for the answer because I literally just, I say no, ’cause I’m just too lazy to go downstairs and do it.

[00:26:43] ’cause I have to go downstairs, get the spray, right, spray it, you know, um, if it’s, but they don’t look like they’re. 

[00:26:49] diane: They don’t look like they’re getting on the other page. 

[00:26:51] April Howlett: Yeah. When I’m drawing in this sketchbook, I’ll have like maybe eight, like 5, 6, 7, 8 pages of paper that I put in between each one. And then [00:27:00] when I flip to the new page, like if I flip to this one, I’ll just take the last one and put it in to the, you know.

[00:27:05] Mm-Hmm. And then as I go through, and then when I finish, I take all the pages out and I close the sketchbook, I put it on my shelf and I forget about it until this interview comes up. 

[00:27:15] diane: Okay. So that was another question. How often are you going back and looking through your sketchbooks? Is it almost never, I mean, you have such gems in there.

[00:27:25] April Howlett: Yeah, I would say every, probably 3, 3, 4 [00:27:30] months. Only because my shelf behind me gets so messy that I have to reorganize my sketchbooks. So I will, I will sometimes go through them as I’m organizing them and just to like for fun. Sometimes also, if I. I forgot. I’ll just stop sharing. Um, I forgot what it was for, but I needed to get some art for, um, my agent.

[00:27:54] She wanted to share some, like some of her artists’ work, like the people that she’s [00:28:00] representing. And I had to go through my sketchbooks to find that. So like if I had to find something, but I mean, not often. 

[00:28:06] diane: Well, um, so when you’re, so when you’re once a week when you’re experimenting. Yeah. Um, so you have the distressed crayons to experiment.

[00:28:15] You do like a lot of water soluble, but the oil that I, that’s cool that, that was your, in the odd orange sketchbook, that was like the first time you were experimenting with oil pastels, but then sometimes they come back around and you add them to the other mixed [00:28:30] media pieces, right? 

[00:28:31] April Howlett: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:28:32] Sometimes I have been trying to use oil pastels a bit more mixed media, um, but. I do find them, like with the whole spraying them because I am, I know I am lazy and I know I won’t do it. I, that’s one, like why I have not done it. But I have, like, I, I did dog August, which is, um, you know, all the dogs I did and I did all those in oil pastel and I sprayed all of them.

[00:28:57] I sprayed them three times. 

[00:28:58] diane: Wow. [00:29:00] That’s ’cause 

[00:29:00] April Howlett: I was trying to sell them, so I was like, these cannot smudge. 

[00:29:04] diane: Right. Because they do sponge. Okay. So, um, how does doing something like, uh, Dogist or, uh, burb Fest, how does, uh, oh wait. First Jamie had a question. Sorry, Jamie, um, from California, she wanted to know, um, are there, or I think she’s from Cal.

[00:29:24] I might messed up. Anyway. Favorite online classes that you recommend? Do you do. [00:29:30] 

[00:29:30] April Howlett: Yeah. Um, I do, I did a lot of online classes. Domestica is one that I really recommend. You can find a lot on there. And also if you have a favorite artist, I would always go to them first and see if they have courses. Um, but some, uh, I like to do courses on creativity, sketch, booking, things that are kind of like bigger rather than this is how you draw, um, a giraffe.

[00:29:56] Like this is our course on giraffes, uh, which I [00:30:00] didn’t know if anyone could make an entire course on that. That would have to be crazy if they, if they could. But, uh, some people, I always forget their names, but I can go through my domestic list and tell you. But, um, I might have, you might have to put that in the show notes after.

[00:30:15] diane: Perfect. That’s good. Uh, there’s 

[00:30:16] April Howlett: one guy I just really, he’s afo Sarah, that’s, 

[00:30:19] diane: oh, yes, he is good. His favorite. 

[00:30:22] April Howlett: Yeah. I’m gonna write it in the chat. Um. He’s amazing. He’s got a couple of, um, ones on creativity. They’re so good. Um, [00:30:30] Maru Goat. Maru. God, yes. God. Oh my gosh. I love, um, there’s one by Sarah Van Dungan about drawing.

[00:30:39] I think it was sketchbook in that one was really good. There’s one by Kate Suton about drawing your daily life. That was really good. Uh, there’s been a few, those are the ones that kind of stand out to me right now from my memory, but also apart from online courses, I also would recommend a few patrons who they have like really in depth, [00:31:00] um, that either posts about how certain things or drawing sessions, which are more ’cause of the drawing sessions I go to a lot are like the fun, entertaining less or chat and draw.

[00:31:09] But some of them, like, um, Emma Carlisle or Sarah Dyer, or Emma Mala Malka. I hope that’s how I’m saying it. Uh, they’re amazing and, but they’re expensive tears, so I, I haven’t joined them much because I’m trying to save my pennies for more art materials. 

[00:31:27] diane: That’s right. And a house. So, [00:31:30] um, okay. So when, um, when you’re doing the Bird Challenge or Dog August or something like that, why does something like that working in, uh, a series for a while, how does that help you as a artist?

[00:31:45] Uh, either just how does it help you as a artist? 

[00:31:49] April Howlett: I’m gonna, I’ll share my camera again while we chat so I can show you. Okay. Um, so I, okay. So it’s kind of difficult because challenges for me are kind of like, [00:32:00] um, a love hate relationship where I have to find all my, all my, all my stuff now. ’cause I’ve completely forgotten them.

[00:32:06] I’ve forgotten where all of my paid dog is. This is Dog August, and I have my Fest one, which I wanted to show you guys because I, here it is. 

[00:32:14] diane: Now you’ve done that one multiple years. 

[00:32:16] April Howlett: Yeah, so I did fest three years ago for the first time. This was my very first one. I did it in this like notebook, which had Martin’s old parents’ house address on.

[00:32:27] So I hope no one saw that I still this book from [00:32:30] Martin and I did it. Super chill. ’cause the thing with challenges is I think you have to be. Super chill and you have to like be really kind to yourself. And if you can’t do all the days, don’t do all the days. I learned that, that I’ve learned that the hard way multiple times.

[00:32:42] And I’ve only just this challenge I’m doing now, the three materials, um, drawing challenge, I’ve only done about half of it, but I’m not like beating myself up about it. And I think you just have to do that. So this was breakfast, the press year. I did this. Mm-Hmm. And these were super, super chill. Um, like I mentioned ink, bamboo pen.

[00:32:59] It was [00:33:00] really fun. And I turned those, these were like the sketches. I got those 

[00:33:04] diane: stickers. 

[00:33:05] April Howlett: Yeah. I turned them into, um, so this was the sketch. And then from the sketch I turned that into these paintings. So actually it wasn’t super chill now that I think about it. 

[00:33:14] diane: But not during, or was this 

[00:33:16] April Howlett: the second year?

[00:33:16] This was the second year. I get so confused. Um, 

[00:33:20] diane: did you, you did the sketch and then you turned it in the same month that Bur Fest was happening, or you did that? Turned it in. Yeah. I 

[00:33:28] April Howlett: got, I got so confused. I’m sorry. [00:33:30] This was the first year where I did it just like this. Um, some of these pages stuck together.

[00:33:34] And then last year and the year before, I actually hosted it as well with Birdie Tam. 

[00:33:39] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:33:40] April Howlett: Which was really fun. And that’s when I got a little bit serious. That’s when it became like, I’ve gotta be good now. Oh, the paintings. Um, so like these guys here, all the originals. 

[00:33:51] diane: Uh, and then, so now were those done?

[00:33:54] ’cause I think that the, was part of like, the backgrounds added in [00:34:00] digitally, like the, um, 

[00:34:02] April Howlett: no, no, no. This is all, the only thing I did digitally was that when I scanned it in, I would just tidy things. So see that like, dunno if you can see, see. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. The little bitty uhhuh. I just take things like that off if they smudge.

[00:34:14] All of this was done. All of these are, ’cause I tried to sell these, oh gosh. I’ve sold a few of them. So these are all, I try to make them all like as perfect as I can. Some of them like this here. I wish he was to the side like half a centimeter, but, uh, [00:34:30] um, but yeah, sorry. I, I was gonna say something about, um, cha I got distracted about challenges.

[00:34:37] So I think challenges are awesome if you are kind to yourself, like I said, but I don’t think you should get stressed about them. And I just wanna, um, shout out another, another artist who I really love called Lee White. He’s also part of the three PERS perspective, three point perspective. And he has a patron.

[00:34:56] And one of, on one of his posts, he did a really [00:35:00] interesting, um, post about challenges and how, if you are doing a challenge just to draw and post on social media when you could be working on a skill like, or working on a project or your portfolio that you have to kind of like decide what’s best for you.

[00:35:17] Um, so doing Burb Fest, ’cause I was hosting it, I feel like that’s super important for me to do that. Um, doing this three materials challenge, which is this one here, I did it in a really tiny sketchbook. Like this is a six [00:35:30] and I haven’t done that. I did, I did about 10 of them before the challenge even started.

[00:35:36] And then I was just posting them. I, I have no idea what day we’re on. I’ve lost track and. I when something else important has come up. I haven’t done this. I’ve just done what’s important. So yeah, sorry. I won’t talk about challenges anymore. That was a really long answer. No, I 

[00:35:52] diane: love that answer and I love that you don’t take it that serious.

[00:35:55] But I mean, some of these are, so this seems like the smallest sketchbook I’ve [00:36:00] seen you do? 

[00:36:01] April Howlett: Yes. Is it because it wasn’t, you know, was an accident? Oh, uh, this is the PTH sketchbook. Mm-Hmm. And I dunno if you guys know about pth, tell us. They’re a sketch of all different sizes. This is my favorite, which is the A four one.

[00:36:16] Um, but they, they don’t call their sketchbooks a four a five. A six, they call them like Penelope or Shelby or something. So I got what I thought was an A five sketchbook and then I got the A six in the middle and I thought, [00:36:30] well, I guess I’ll just draw with that now. But yeah, these are really great. This is, you can do like a lot.

[00:36:36] I mean, I’ve just done pencil in here, but you can, this takes like web media really well. Oh, that’s a bit rude. That page, sorry. Um, has some models on it. Yeah, this is a really nice sketchbook. 

[00:36:48] diane: So it looks like, and I don’t see it bleeding through at all, so doesn’t pages doesn’t seem wrinkly either. 

[00:36:54] April Howlett: Yeah.

[00:36:55] Yeah. They’re really nice thick pages. See the, this is, [00:37:00] um, my, um, this is my fixit tense 

[00:37:02] diane: right? Paper. Yeah. Yeah. I, I have to look back at my notes to, um, ask questions. I just wanna keep reading, uh, keep looking at what you’re showing. I sometimes I’m forgetting that this is not just one of your YouTubes and I actually need to be speaking.

[00:37:20] Um, okay. So sometimes people take things with them if they’re going to the doctor or they’re going to a meeting and there’s gonna be, [00:37:30] um, they’re gonna have some downtime before. Is that something you would do? I know you draw on location, but is like, are you bringing it with you when you’re not like going out with RD to buy art stuff?

[00:37:44] April Howlett: No. No, they never come with me anywhere apart from the fine plan on drawing. Sometimes even when I’m planning on drawing, I just end up taking them for a book. Uh, I just don’t even get them out my back. I’m like, hope you enjoyed the fresh air guys. [00:38:00] Um, but I don’t take them anywhere because like I said back in the start, I do not have the brave fatigue.

[00:38:06] I don’t know if that’s the word, but I’m not brave, brave enough to sit 

[00:38:09] diane: Oh yeah. 

[00:38:09] April Howlett: Yeah. I’m not brave enough to sit in doctor surgery and get my sketch cut. I’m sorry. And also. I’m one of those people and I’m trying to get better at this, but you know those people that are like, I can draw anywhere, I can draw in the snow, I can draw upside, like upside down.

[00:38:24] No, I like my desk. I like my Gilmore Girls on, or like a song or something, [00:38:30] or my materials, you know, I like, I’m a comfort drawer I think. 

[00:38:34] diane: Okay. So Katie says I, and I think this is really awesome. Katie’s in Atlanta, she says April is always inspiring. She’s the reason I started back in my sketchbook, just for fun.

[00:38:44] And I think that should make you feel awesome that you, and the way you draw and sketch is inspiring people to get back, um, into drawing. Yeah, it’s 

[00:38:55] April Howlett: great. 

[00:38:55] diane: I love that. Okay, so 

[00:38:57] April Howlett: Casey’s one of my good friends. We actually met. She [00:39:00] came and we took her out for a day, so it was really nice to see her. She’s great.

[00:39:03] diane: Yeah. Oh, that’s awesome. 

[00:39:05] April Howlett: Okay. Um, but that is awesome. I that. 

[00:39:09] diane: Um, all right, so you have more than one sketchbook at, like, you have the little one that you’re doing the three challenge, three materials challenge in there are some other ones, um, like the one that is the bunny sketchbook that you’re working on When you’re working on that project, like right now, how many do you have that are unfinished?

[00:39:29] April Howlett: I [00:39:30] share my camera again. Okay. Um, so I actually have a lot, I didn’t, I don’t think I have all of them out, but I’m gonna, I think I did try to collect them. So this was my one I just literally finished and I didn’t know I called them this, but I did it on a YouTube video or something. I called it my, my work in sketchbook, if that, I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s not to, uh, to do with a project or anything.

[00:39:55] It’s literally just the sketchbook I pick up when I wanna draw or if I have a [00:40:00] drawing chat, a drawing session or something. So color palettes. This is a crazy page that I hadn’t finished. Um, so this was like my, I called it my work in sketchbook and I guess that’s what I’m calling it now. So right now, this is my current one, which I wouldn’t recommend if anyone, um, Stillman and Burn Zeta series.

[00:40:18] I just picked it up to try and it’s not very good. Um, I mean, it’s fine, but I, I don’t like the format very much like the long format. So I have this [00:40:30] one, I have this one, which is my three materials challenge sketchbook. Mm-Hmm. I have my plainer sketchbook, which, oh, where has it gone? Well, I dunno where it is right now, but I have, this is my old playing a sketchbook.

[00:40:44] So a sketchbook. I would just take on location to draw. 

[00:40:47] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:40:49] April Howlett: Um, that’s I think over on the side there. And then I have a couple of projects sketchbooks right now, which I can’t really share. Right. I can’t share the other one, 

[00:40:58] diane: but they’re like that same [00:41:00] size. You like that, that, uh, format for a project sketchbook?

[00:41:05] Well, 

[00:41:05] April Howlett: I just wanna share this sketchbook. It’s amazing guys. I go, I bought, I bought 20 of them. 

[00:41:13] diane: Wow. 

[00:41:14] April Howlett: I think, I don’t know if Martin’s still watching, but I did buy 20 Martin. Um, these guys are, yeah, he’s still watching. Okay. They’re CY of Brighton. Everyone asks you what these are, they’re so hard to find. Um, STA two five oh [00:41:30] BC is how you find them.

[00:41:32] And I found this in the, um, art shop in town and I’ve never seen them before. They’re square. They have lovely paper to draw on. You can paint on them. And they’re so nice just for like, and a project. So I literally bought, I found one, then the art shop ran out of them. I couldn’t find them anywhere online.

[00:41:50] The only place I can find them was like this random shop, which did wholesale, which is why I bought a whole bunch of them. Mm-Hmm. So I have, I have them for everything. I had them for Hotel Week, [00:42:00] for Hansel and Gretel, this, and then the book I’m working on, which is behind me, which I can’t, I don’t the show.

[00:42:05] Right, right. I think I have like five on the go right now. Sorry, that was a really long answer. Again. 

[00:42:11] diane: No, no. So when you go out, you love chatting. When you go out on a hike with your sketchbooks, sometimes you’re filming. ’cause I’ve seen videos like that. Um, how often do you take them with you and you don’t, do you don’t draw any, or how often are you [00:42:30] taking ’em out and you are drawing?

[00:42:31] Once a month, once a week. 

[00:42:32] April Howlett: Um, I would say probably. It depends again on how busy I am and how much we’re going now, but I would say like a couple of times a week. 

[00:42:43] diane: Okay. 

[00:42:44] April Howlett: On average, 

[00:42:45] diane: so Sam wants to see the back of the C White book again. This one again, please. C White of Brighton. 

[00:42:54] April Howlett: Yeah. I dunno if you can get them outside of the uk, but they’re really nice.

[00:42:59] [00:43:00] They’re so cheap too. They’re like maybe two pounds and it’s just 

[00:43:03] diane: a, um, it’s just a saddle stitch inside maybe. I think it’s staple. Is it stitch? Yeah. That’s a saddle. Saddle stitch. Yes, of course. That’s, that’s a technical term, but that’s okay. I’m just a geek and know that, um, okay, so when like. With this three challenge, um, what do you feel like you’re practicing now or are you practicing different things in different sketchbooks?

[00:43:28] April Howlett: Okay. Um, [00:43:30] well right now I haven’t really had any time to, I mean, okay, so this is my three material one right now. I’m literally for the challenge. I’m literally just practicing how to draw three materials. And I did a, I think I did a post on Patron about this. I can’t remember. I think I did, yeah, I did a post on Patron about how I’ve been picking the materials.

[00:43:48] Um, so how I always try and have, basically I’m trying to learn how to draw with a limited color palette. And one thing that I’ve learned is to always have, uh, very light value, a very dark value [00:44:00] at least. And then maybe a medium, but it depends. You can kind of go like either way. And then also, like what you mentioned earlier, I always like to have a pencil or something sharp that you can draw with.

[00:44:10] ’cause I really love lime. I think that’s a personal preference though. And then something I like, this was all with pencil, which I really struggled with. So I like to have something wet, if that makes sense. 

[00:44:21] diane: Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Something that can move more. 

[00:44:23] April Howlett: Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I have been finding it quite challenging, so I’ve been dipping in and out and doing stuff on the [00:44:30] side.

[00:44:30] It’s kind of like having a fling with like no material that is, I’m gonna see my, my other materials, but I’ve been using every single color just to kind of like have a break from it. ’cause it is difficult to think about it all the time. 

[00:44:43] diane: It’s like one best friend all the time. You gotta spread it a little bit.

[00:44:48] Right. You gotta go hang out with your others. I think that’s, that’s good to know though. So, all right. How does, um, creating a final piece look like? So with, [00:45:00] uh, bird Fest, it looked like you had the sketches on, uh, in the sketchbook, and then you took them on. Regular pieces of paper, correct? 

[00:45:08] April Howlett: Yeah. I, I don’t have the sketches with me that I did bur burb Fest with, but I do have this that I thought I could show you for this particular question.

[00:45:17] So this is just a random sketchbook that I had back in 2020, 2021, and I did any, this was kind of like when I, um, so a lot of the stuff from my Etsy, I just, or my shop, I [00:45:30] just kind of draw whatever I’m feeling like and then when I find something that I think could make a good product, I make into product.

[00:45:36] Um, okay. So how 

[00:45:37] diane: do you, how do you know what will be, or what do you. Um, I don’t know. Actually that’s a good question When I see something, because you did the farm animals. ’cause I have those stickers too. 

[00:45:47] April Howlett: Yeah. Well this is what I was gonna say about the farm animals. This is what I actually knew I wanted to draw.

[00:45:52] Sorry. I think my camera’s super bright, like it’s making all the colors really bright and vibrant. Um, I knew I wanted to draw this, so I [00:46:00] started drawing all of these and I did um, all of these on livestream too. So I did this whole thing on livestream. Oh look, this is Sarah from Dungan one from her patron.

[00:46:13] Um, so yeah, I did a whole bunch of them and I didn’t know they were gonna be popular. I just wanted to draw them. I just wanted to do them. So I, I scanned these all into the computer. ’cause you can see like they’re all pencil sketches. Mm-Hmm. So some of them are a little bit, uh, messy. And I scanned them in.

[00:46:28] And I think I [00:46:30] have some of the stickers here. This is when I did digital stuff. You know how you were asking if I do digital? Mm-Hmm. This is the main thing I used to do. I would scan them in and then I would go through and all this liner is digital. ’cause I cleaned it all up. ’cause sometimes the pencil line gets like shiny when you scan it.

[00:46:47] And then I made that into a sticker. I, I made these myself. Um, I don’t do that anymore because I don’t have time to make stickers, but, well this was cut and printed by, um, me and my office assistant Gerty, which was [00:47:00] my, in my silhouette machine. 

[00:47:01] diane: So, okay. So then you were just using your silhouette to do it.

[00:47:04] So now, like my most recent purchase. Yeah. These are. 

[00:47:12] April Howlett: So like this, this was made, um, outsourced and honestly, you literally can’t even like the quality, you know, like the, I actually think mine’s better, but, 

[00:47:24] diane: but it’s, it takes a lot longer to do it. It does, yeah. And then you have to keep all the things. [00:47:30] So, so just as a technical question about, for anybody else who’s running a business that’s doing this, are you having, are you doing small batches or are you saying I’m gonna get a hundred ’cause it’s cheaper?

[00:47:44] April Howlett: Um, I am, uh, getting a bunch of designs and then I’m doing like 250 and then or a hundred depending on how much I need. And I’ll divide it by like 20. So I’ll get 25 of each sticker. So every time I’ve done it [00:48:00] so far, I’ve got 250 sheets and divided it by five or 10, and then I’ll get that number of sticker sheets of each.

[00:48:08] It makes a price up a little bit more. But yeah, it’s worth it because I don’t know how much I’m gonna sell. Right. If something’s popular, I just order it again. Right. 

[00:48:19] diane: Okay. So then that’s, so they, they might be out, but they’re not out for forever. You’re gonna, you can get ’em reprinted unless 

[00:48:26] April Howlett: I made them.

[00:48:27] There are some things that I’ve made [00:48:30] that I won’t be making again ’cause I just can’t be bothered to like make the thing. I also have another thing to, to share. I can’t remember where it is though, but I used to make heaps of stuff at home. I think it’s in this sketchbook here. I used to make heaps of things at home.

[00:48:45] Um, and one of them was a memo pad, which I just was flipping through these and I found this here. Oh, I actually put a poster. There’s funny, and I had this idea to make memo pads of cats. So I did all [00:49:00] these and then I made them all on, um, procreate. So this is all digital. And then I made them into like. A memo pad and I printed them all myself.

[00:49:10] Cut them, glued them. Oh, how cute. Yeah, it’s like a little iPad. So that’s one I, that’s one thing. But most of the time I’ll literally just draw something and I think, oh, like this here. I just painted this for fun. And then I thought that could make a cute little night book cover, and I made it into like a notebook.

[00:49:29] diane: Oh, [00:49:30] cool. Yeah. So are you gonna do like print on demand or is that, you’re like, no, I am not doing print on demand. Um, 

[00:49:40] April Howlett: I’m just unsure. Sorry. So, uh, I think print on demand might be a possible future endeavor, but right now I don’t have, I don’t still sell enough to worry about that I don’t think. 

[00:49:51] diane: Okay. 

[00:49:53] April Howlett: Um, oh, I have another thing to show 

[00:49:54] diane: you.

[00:49:54] Okay. Show. 

[00:49:56] April Howlett: Okay. Sorry. Oh, no, I’m, I just, I just, [00:50:00] because when you were asking me questions like, to prepare for this, I was going through all of my sketchbooks to find stuff. Um. I think, oh gosh, I think it’s in the sketchbook here. Okay. So this is another, it’s one of the project I like. I think you have a question about taking things out of my sketchbook.

[00:50:15] I’m sorry, I’m ahead. Yes, 

[00:50:17] diane: that’s exactly it. So, um, so sometimes I don’t really know when people take, like, some people do scenes, some of yours are scenes, some, and then [00:50:30] I don’t know how people decide what gets made into print stickers or products. But I said, what is, how, when do you take it out of your sketchbook?

[00:50:37] Like meaning, um, you’ve done a sketch? Yeah. Yeah. And then you make a final piece of art. 

[00:50:44] April Howlett: Yeah. Um, well most of the time a lot of my finals are in my sketchbook and I will take, like, I’m trying to find one. I don’t think I have any recent ones ’cause I haven’t done any prints for so long. But for example, this one here, I actually wanna make this into a print.

[00:50:58] So I did this in my [00:51:00] sketchbook. It was just some trees. I just wanted to practice with different materials and stuff. Um, so I would sketch, I would scan this in probably in two, or no, I’d do three. So like this, this, and then a middle part, stitch it together in Photoshop and then make that into a print.

[00:51:18] Like get rid of this line. Are you doing, 

[00:51:21] diane: are you using that Photoshop Merge photo merge? Have you used 

[00:51:25] April Howlett: Yeah. Auto photo merge, which I only got told about, which [00:51:30] is so dumb. ’cause I’ve been using Photoshop since I was since Photoshop seven. It’s new’s new. Yeah. 

[00:51:34] diane: It wasn’t in those old ones. No, no. 

[00:51:36] April Howlett: I should know about it, but I, I was doing the old school way where I was like rotating it.

[00:51:40] Me too. Mm. Like the photo merch. It has saved me so much time recently. It’s amazing. But like the 

[00:51:46] diane: line, you might still have to do some, um, 

[00:51:50] April Howlett: you have to get rid of the line because this is in the middle of the page. It doesn’t take long though. ’cause I’ve been using Photoshop since, like, literally since uni, since years ago.

[00:51:59] Mm-Hmm. [00:52:00] Um, so I’m pretty fast around it. So, yeah, to answer your question, that’s how I would do a print, but. This is just for fun. I wanted to show you this, I dunno if anyone was at this odd orange session, but we did, um, shop fronts, which were these Mm-Hmm. And I had so much fun with these shop fronts. I decided I wanted to keep going.

[00:52:20] So I did, um, a live stream on YouTube and we made this, uh, shopfront book, which is not like, obviously it’s not final. I’m not gonna do [00:52:30] anything with this probably, but we made it. Um, and it was such a fun little project and yeah. And then it pulls 

[00:52:38] diane: out, right? It’s an accordion. 

[00:52:40] April Howlett: Yeah. I asked people online like, what should we add?

[00:52:43] Or like, so I think some people had ideas to act like birds. This was a little dog, peanut and lamppost was so cute. Um, a little cat there. So yeah, we did this all on, um, on livestream, which was really fun. And then I [00:53:00] really wanted to make a cover for it, but I haven’t done that yet. Like a little, 

[00:53:02] diane: yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:04] I love that. One idea, not one. Do you think using different, um, sizes or doing something like that helps you to NN It doesn’t seem like you’ve suffer from creative block very much. 

[00:53:18] April Howlett: Um, I have in the past. Um, I definitely have in the past. I dunno if it was creative block or burnout or, I think there’s so many names, [00:53:30] like buzz words.

[00:53:30] Sure. For the same feeling, which is like, I don’t want to draw, like I don’t want to be creative. And I find that happens to me when I’m really busy at work because my job itself is in the creative field. Mm-Hmm. So when we have a really creative job on it makes my job fun, but then at the end of the day, I’ve like, I’m so tired, I just don’t want to do anything.

[00:53:52] Um, so I go through periods of that and when that happens, I just don’t do any, like, I just, I’m like, I’ll get [00:54:00] through it, it’s fine ’cause it’s happened before. I just watch TV guy crochet. I play. Stodgy valley, you know, just relax. 

[00:54:09] diane: Right. But I think some people don’t, uh, maybe they don’t have a good, uh, litmus test of when they’re going through that, or Yeah.

[00:54:17] They just keep like soldiering through. So, Sam has a question. How do you stop comparing yourself to other artists and believe in your style? That’s a good question. It’s, 

[00:54:26] April Howlett: it’s a such a tough question. Um, [00:54:30] I don’t think you can stop comparing yourself to be honest. I, I think you are always gonna compare yourself.

[00:54:36] And like, even now, I really love my style. I love the things I draw, but sometimes I’ll see someone’s work and I’ll, I’ll still think like, ugh. They’re so much better than me, you know? Or how do they get, like, how can they draw a character like that? Or where do they get their ideas from? And I honestly, I don’t really have any good advice [00:55:00] because I, like, I get jealous of people.

[00:55:03] Um, I feel bad about my, my, my art. Sometimes it happens less and less now. Like I don’t, I think it’s difficult because when I first started to draw, like learn to draw again, everything was bad and I knew the only place to go was up. But once you kind of reach a level where you are like, good, I, that sounds really bad.

[00:55:23] I was like, really braggy? But no, no, you’re, 

[00:55:27] diane: yeah, you feel okay about your drawings, you’re [00:55:30] proud of your drawings. That’s not bad. 

[00:55:31] April Howlett: It’s kind of hard because you’re always gonna be improving. But maybe not as fast as you want. Or not as big because you’ve taken the big steps when you’re first starting to like learn.

[00:55:44] And now I actually, when this does happen, when I do, I do find myself comparing to other artists, or I feel feelings of jealousy or envy. I will literally just not, I will not go on social media [00:56:00] and I will just avoid it until, until I’m feeling better. Mm-Hmm. About my aunt and myself. Um, especially, and this happened to me in the past, like even if they’re friends, like I have friends on social media and sometimes I’m like, oh, they’re so successful.

[00:56:17] They’re doing like much better than me, their artists so much. You know? I hate that feeling, especially when it’s people that you’re friends with. So I just ignore them. Yeah. Sorry. I’ll come back next [00:56:30] week. You know, I 

[00:56:30] diane: think that’s, that’s a smart thing to, and I’m glad you are honest to say it. I think it sometimes we have to take a break and focus on what we like about us, especially if we’re grow, if we are growing and we’re trying to improve.

[00:56:44] If you’re comparing yourself to April, I mean April can compare herself to April, but I can’t compare myself to you, but I can take, well 

[00:56:53] April Howlett: sometimes I compare myself to my past self. 

[00:56:54] diane: Oh yeah. 

[00:56:56] April Howlett: I have these paintings on my wall that I did probably three years ago. Now. Every [00:57:00] time I look at them, I have ’em on my wall ’cause I love them.

[00:57:01] Every time I look at ’em, I think, how the heck did I draw those? Like, they’re amazing. 

[00:57:08] diane: Well, I, that was awesome. I guess. 

[00:57:11] April Howlett: No. 

[00:57:12] diane: Alright, so this goes to this question and we’re almost at the end. So you’re doing really good on time. You’re awesome. I’m never good at time. So how do you deal? We kind of talked about making bad art, so.

[00:57:23] You’ve already answered that, but is your internal voice, um, nice or mean most of the time? [00:57:30] What would you say? 

[00:57:31] April Howlett: Most of the time my internal voice just has too much self-confidence, honestly. But I love Okay, so, 

[00:57:39] diane: so how, 

[00:57:40] April Howlett: it’s 

[00:57:40] diane: nice, it’s nice. How can we, if for people who are, um, say they really, they’re starting where you were, I think your first sketchbook that you showed was pretty darn good, to be honest.

[00:57:54] You know, like if, yeah. So, you know, if they’re like, oh my gosh, I, I’m not even doing this. So what would [00:58:00] be like a little win for somebody who wants to get better? Um, and 

[00:58:06] April Howlett: I think it’s so difficult because literally the only thing, and people are always like looking for the magic pencil, but literally the only thing that helps you get better is to draw more.

[00:58:16] Mm. Um, but I think you just. So cliche. I think you honestly just have to gotta have, try and have fun with it. Because I have gone through and I’ve tried [00:58:30] to do like learn to draw the crap away. Like I’ll try to do a head tutorial or like, especially back in the day when I was trying to be realistic and draw people.

[00:58:40] And it wasn’t until I thought like I’m just, you’re just gonna have fun with it. And if you make a derpy drawing, it’s derpy. What’s derpy? I have to show it. You don’t have to show it to anyone. What does derpy mean? Don’t have Oh, Derpy like silly. Oh. Like you looking like, but in a cute way. Like a pug. [00:59:00] If you look for the word derpy, like a pug face would probably come up in the dictionary.

[00:59:03] Okay. Um, it’s difficult. Like I was, I was trying to show you, I was trying to like look through to kind of show you some, I don’t know if I have like some areas that I’ve like improved at just by practicing. I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t really know how to answer this. Such a big question. What was the question again?

[00:59:24] I’ve forgotten it. Um, 

[00:59:27] diane: oh, I, uh, I, it wasn’t on my [00:59:30] sheet. I said how, what’s something small that someone could do? Oh, yes. 

[00:59:33] April Howlett: A small win. I remember. Um, by yourself. So, new material, art material. Honestly, at the end of the day, if all else fails, um, a bit of dopamine, uh, hit with the new art material purchase. If you can afford it, just something else.

[00:59:52] One tiny pencil or a crayon. Um, and then just have a play with it. And I also think. [01:00:00] Um, challenges or really not challenges? Maybe challenges are kind of a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re learning to draw, but art sessions. Mm. Uh, like I can, I love Odd Orange. She’s one of my favorite people. And I’ll just show her sketchbook again ’cause she makes sketchbooks.

[01:00:16] Um, her sessions are really super relaxed. You can just go along chat. You can have, have your camera off and you can just draw. And I know people, I have heard people say that go into those sessions like once a month, whatever [01:00:30] has made them more confident, improved their drawing, and you can do it in a fun way.

[01:00:35] Um, but yeah, if all else fails, just buy a new pencil, I guess. 

[01:00:39] diane: Okay. I like that. That’s good. Um, all right, LA uh, second to last question. What has been the biggest epiphany that came as a result of having a regular sketchbook practice? 

[01:00:50] April Howlett: I’m gonna, I’m gonna just share, okay. I know what is about this camera. I look like a tomato.

[01:00:58] And I promise you, in real life, I don’t [01:01:00] look, I’m not, I can’t keep looking at myself like this. I look sunburn. Okay, here we go, Sharon, again. Yep. Um, I forgot the question. 

[01:01:09] diane: Oh. What’s the biggest epiphany you’ve had by having a sketch? Uh, keeping a regular sketchbook practice? 

[01:01:16] April Howlett: Yes. Um, well, I think having a regular sketchbook literally will help your art like improve.

[01:01:24] You have to be consistent, obviously. Um, and you can just, you can literally just [01:01:30] practice, like, just play. Look at this. I feel like that TikTok video, have you seen that one? I remember 

[01:01:35] diane: that. That where, where it has post-Its, and you just drew on top of it, 

[01:01:40] April Howlett: those flowers. Yeah. I did this, um, chat with Artie on the phone.

[01:01:42] Mm-Hmm. That was. But I’ve pasted things in random things in here. Mm-Hmm. I’ve painted like all this doodle in like a sketchbook can just be a place where you just play. I’d never drawn camels before I did this page. It was so fun. These [01:02:00] are little creatures that I was trying to come up with for a project.

[01:02:04] Mm-Hmm. Um, so you see like birds obviously are my favorite thing to draw, but just have fun. I just, I, I, I dunno the questions anymore, but just have fun. I love that I can be more succinct than this. Culminate from Get it together. You can do this. Um, sketchbook practice has helped me improve and. Learn new materials.

[01:02:28] Definitely learn new [01:02:30] materials, learn that. I don’t want to draw portraits anymore. I just wanna share this with you quickly. So back in the day, this is number six. You know, I was super into portraits. I got super into Portraits a hundred, I did the a hundred heads challenge. And I think from this, like at the start to the end, I think I got really good at drawing portraits back in the day for sure.

[01:02:51] And this was fun. I was enjoying it. I felt accomplished that I was learning. Mm-Hmm. But look, if I just go to a random page in here, [01:03:00] or just like this is more fun to me. But I think the more you like draw and you try to do things, you’ll find what you enjoy. And if you wanna draw jerky birds, like go for it.

[01:03:12] Yeah. And can I share one last thing? Yes. Okay. So this is like happy notes. It is the happiest project I’ve ever made. I made it for myself and my, I think I shared it on YouTube, but this was a tiny little book that I made of all the things that make me happy. 

[01:03:29] diane: [01:03:30] Oh, I love that. 

[01:03:31] April Howlett: Some are up in a sketchbook.

[01:03:32] This would be, this is like that. My, a sketchbook is my happy place and I made all these tiny little things like the first coffee of the day, all of my plants telling a funny joke that no one else gets and I’m the only one la like just silly little things. Cookies. That was my, one of my fa a new tree of paint.

[01:03:51] Oh, 

[01:03:51] diane: that’s beautiful. 

[01:03:53] April Howlett: This comes back to the buying yourself a new art material helps everything. 

[01:03:56] diane: Mm-Hmm. 

[01:03:57] April Howlett: Um, Sunday walks. There’s [01:04:00] one here that I really love, the perfect, uh, fart. So this is like the silliest little thing. And this made me the happiest to do, just like drawing in this tiny little sketchbook, doing all these silly little things, trying new materials, and you have memories and you have something to look back on and to share with other people.

[01:04:22] And I think I just answered that question perfectly, so I’ll stop talking now. 

[01:04:25] diane: I love that. That is an awesome way to end. So what [01:04:30] is next? Don’t say Sketchbook 56 or I don’t know what number we’re on 50. 

[01:04:36] April Howlett: Yeah. 

[01:04:37] diane: Um, next, um, what is some you want to do that you’re hoping to do in? 

[01:04:44] April Howlett: Well, the thing I’m working on right now, um, is Bell and Bear, which is my book, but I started as Anto book, which I do.

[01:04:53] I have it here. Oh, I do. No I don’t. It’s on that, it’s on the bookshelf. Um, it started as an October [01:05:00] thing back in 2019 and. I’m working on writing it right now, writing a chapter book, which is like a longer book than a picture book. And I’m working with my agent on the story, and we’re gonna make like a book dummy to kind of like try and sell it.

[01:05:16] So that is the thing that I’m focused on the most right now because that, 

[01:05:20] diane: you know how Emma Carlisle has her sketchbooks you? I think I have, it’s right there. I have two of them. Mm-Hmm. Man, I would buy yours like that. Hmm. [01:05:30] I would, 

[01:05:30] April Howlett: I’ll package them up for you now. 

[01:05:32] diane: Lemme put them in a box. No, no. I want you to scan them and, um Oh, right, okay.

[01:05:37] I mean, to me it is kind of heavy, I guess. You’re, you’re your joy and it’s your experimentation. It, like, I, I think that you have a really unique way and it’s, I mean, I asked for that for Christmas every year I get a new one of hers, so why couldn’t I get a new one? A yours? So, well, 

[01:05:59] April Howlett: I, 

[01:05:59] diane: it’s 

[01:05:59] April Howlett: like [01:06:00] a sketchbook theme that she does.

[01:06:01] Yeah. Yeah. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time actually. So maybe it’s something I should try and do. 

[01:06:07] diane: You should check. Yeah. Well, I mean, you showed me this lady, um, Lucy Salmon and I got that. Yes. So this is much smaller thickness wise. 

[01:06:18] April Howlett: Wow. I did not know she had gigantic books like that. Oh 

[01:06:20] diane: my gosh. I want yours like this.

[01:06:23] I think this is a few years, but yeah, it’s, you know, that’s lovely. Anyway, [01:06:30] but there’s some pages just like what you’re. You know, full spreads and she’s not, you know, fixing the line. She’s just scanning it as it is or sometime it’s a picture, but 

[01:06:41] April Howlett: there’s so many. Yeah, I’ve seen people do that and I think it looks great, but when I do it myself, I’m like, no, I gotta tidy up.

[01:06:48] I gotta get rid of that middle rease. I gotta tidy up all the dust, you know? Um, which is it? Take, it takes so long. ’cause I’ve made three zines so far for Burb [01:07:00] Fest. I have to make one for Nick this year. And I made, I’ve made two. I need to make my third one and this takes so long, but this sketchbook, maybe I can just scan them in and that would be, that’d be great.

[01:07:11] Yeah. I’ll get, I’ll get on that. 

[01:07:14] diane: It, it would be fantastic for those of us who love your work to just be able to pull it off the shelf and get inspired. Um, I. I, I asked you because I, to, I [01:07:30] asked people that I absolutely love and I I did not ask Emma Carlisle. Not that I couldn’t have, but I really am so glad that you said yes.

[01:07:37] Um, because to me, you’re, the way you draw and the way you fill the page and the way you practice and the way you push the materials, um, and challenge yourself and just that you don’t seem to take it as serious and just the fun that you’re having is way more inspiring to me and something that I want to have more fun like that and not, you know, it’s just a [01:08:00] page.

[01:08:00] Flip the page, Diane. So I wanna make sure everybody Yeah, you always 

[01:08:03] April Howlett: changed over it. 

[01:08:04] diane: Absolutely. I have definitely done that. Um, but I, hopefully everybody, and Sam says, yes, your energy’s wonderful. Um. I wanna just make sure that anybody who is coming, uh, if they’re listening, uh, wherever you get your podcast, you should have really watched this one, but it’s okay if also on YouTube, the very top is all these links.

[01:08:27] So, um, you can [01:08:30] check all the stuff out. I’m gonna read out, and I’m gonna spell it so that you guys can get there, is, um, her website is monkey M-I-N-T-A-K a.com. I mean Taaka. I don’t know Monkey 

[01:08:43] April Howlett: Mean Taaka. Yeah, Minka is, um, a star in Orion’s Belt. Oh, that’s why you draw Stars Monkey is, um, it’s just a monkey, but yeah.

[01:08:54] diane: Okay. So then you can get on her newsletter by going to Monkey Minka. [01:09:00] Com slash newsletter. You can be a pat patron like I am. Um, you can do patreon.com/monkey minka. It’s really getting me on. Um, I’m not good at saying it. Instagram, you can follow April at Monkey minka and YouTube. Guess what? Monkey minka I’m not good at.

[01:09:22] Okay. And then in on Etsy, you wanna click this one? Um, it is [01:09:30] etsy.com/uk/shop/monkey minka. So, yeah, April, I 

[01:09:34] April Howlett: probably should have thought of a more easy name. No, no, it is. I, 

[01:09:38] diane: I know what it is. I can spell it. It’s super easy. It’s just me. I can’t even say some people’s last names. Good. So, hey, I’m just super thankful and thank you for.

[01:09:50] Coming after a, for having me hiking today and I just, uh, long day. Oh, Dominica says she was [01:10:00] wondering what minka means. So that’s good. We got the answer. Um, thank you so much for everybody who came and just April, thank you so much for being such a great inspiration to me. 

[01:10:13] April Howlett: Oh, thank you. And thanks, um, everyone who joined as well.

[01:10:17] diane: Alright, well I will see you guys next week. Will is gonna do the inspiration in action. Um, we’re gonna do one of those a month and then we’ll go back, we’ll finish up the. The August [01:10:30] with, um, Amarillo Henderson, with her sketchbook and her sketchbook practice. So April, thank you so much and I will see y’all next 

[01:10:38] week.