Summer Sketchbook Dump

There's more where that came from....

Allie Yacina

Sep 16, 2023

On my bike ride home from work yesterday I made note of all the smells:

Perfume

Sewage

River

Bread

Garbage

Bread again

Would you be able to guess my route home based on this list of smells?

My job is hybrid so a few days a week I make my way over to the office. I currently work full-time at a mobile game developer at a graphic designer and illustrator. The job is challenging and rewarding and the people I work with are amazing-ly nerdy.

Having a full-time design job requires me to be very intentional about my time since I am dedicated to keeping some kind of consistent art practice. The mornings have been my chosen time to broadly “make art” – 90% of the time this means doing something in my sketchbook. My routine kind of fell apart a little in August and I’m getting back on track this September (this is probably very relatable for most of you – and I don’t even have kids going back to school!)

Without further ado, here is some sketchbook work from the second half of summer:

A collection of Lone Fir Cemetery studies – the first one is paint and colored pencil, the second two are marker

Yale Lake plein air gouache painting. Trying to capture that water!

Yale Lake sketchbook drawing that started out with non-dominant hand marker and finished with colored pencil. On the left you can see me explaining tides to Cole. We weren’t sure if the lake experienced tides… Google says very very slightly.

Plein air marker drawing of a backyard in Bellingham belonging to my friends Nicole and Brandon.

Making stuff up while I had coffee at the Society Hotel in Bingen, WA

Neskowin beach plain air painting. There’s some sand in this one! It’s available as a print to purchase on TheCraftedPrints.com – just search for my name

Cole and I tried drawing and painting with our non-dominant hands at Neskowin beach

Thank you for reading and looking! I appreciate this space that is off of the Inst*gram grid. An extra special thank you to those of you that subscribed financially – it makes me feel even more like a valid artist. And if you’re simply here taking a look know that I appreciate that support as well :,)

Upcoming Events:

I’m having a little backyard pop-up gallery show tonight in a treehouse! I’ll be sure to post photos of the event on Instagram and in my next newsletter. I am selling a variety of prints, old and new – plus some small originals and framed originals – all at a big discount. Anything in this newsletter outside of a sketchbook is for sale for under $100. Just email me at allie@allieyacina.com if you’re interested. I’ll be having an Inst*gram story sale soon so keep an eye out for that!
Prints are available at here and here
My second ever Sketchbook Journey class is happening now! It’s full but keep an eye out here for any future classes

Currently reading:

The Mountain is You – a self help book on self-sabotage :))) oooh boy
I finished the second book from the Court of Thorns and Roses series and I’m about to start the third one. It’s YA fantasy and despite myself, I am invested…

Currently listening to:

It’s Phoebe Bridgers sad music season for me!!
Discovered this song by Niki & The Dove recently – it’s a BOP