my breakfast in timelapse. In real-time it took 36 minutes.

I have previously filmed sketching coffee, sketching toast, and sketching fruit. You can see a pattern here – food and drink. Today is another food-based sketch. I will go further afield object-wise and physically in the next video post.

This time it is my breakfast – Weetbix, banana and milk. On this page, I will write commentary which I would speak out loud if I was describing it as I went, or what is going through my head.

In advance I chose the watercolour pencils I will use, put them aside and sharpened them. I know my pencils and what colours they produce on the page and also what happens when I add water to them, as this can change the colour. It’s great to know your tools! Most pencils I have used are from my everyday sketch kit of FaberCastell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils. It is sketched on the first page of my 116th Moleskine watercolour sketchbook (13cm x 19cm) since December 2008. I sketch everyday. They are:

• Ivory
• Cream
• Burnt Umbre
• Brown Ochre
• Black
• Cool Grey III
• Paynes Grey

In my mind, I decide what I want to include on the page and how big I want it to be. Do I include the bowl and any background? How close up? and what do I feature?

I decide what to include and exclude, It is my page. I have decided, like many of my pages, is going to have the unfinished look. This means I don’t have to sketch all of the bowl outline. As a viewer, your mind fills in what you don’t see. It also means I do not have to worry about having a perfect line for the ellipsis of the bowl outline.

I start with the main content and block out the basic shapes – weetbix, banana slices, spoon and bowl. I did not “sketch” the milk, but left the page blank. I sketch the objects in the colour that they are. I do not sketch with a graphite (HB or 2B) pencil first. This approach comes from my travel sketching experiences, where you have to get lines and colour down quickly as you may not have much time. It also stops using an eraser to make the” perfect” sketch.

and a slower version

You will see that I move all over the place and often swap pencils. This allows one area to dry while I work on another. I can “step back” every now and again to look at the page and decide where to add more colour or detail. I use watercolour pencils to build up area, colour and detail. It is not just “colouring in “the page. Once an area has dried I can add more of the same colour to intensify the colour.

Note: individual Weetbix are all different. I enjoy adding the the finer details. Also there is no “right or wrong” Weetbix or banana.

I added a bit to the bowl after the filming as I noticed it was slightly lopsided. I did this by turning the page upside down to “see” how to makes both sides of the page the same curve. Does that make sense?

I hope you have enjoyed this page. Let me know if you have any watercolour pencil questions. Next time it will be a different sort of object. To film outside will require a higher level of technical ability.

Have a happy, safe and creative week.