I’m delighted to let you know I’ve written an art technique book. Expressive Sketchbooks, Developing Creative Skills, Courage and Confidence.

My hope is that this book will help you think about what lights you up, what makes you curious and what fascinates you, so you can incorporate more of this into your art practice. My intention is that it offers insight into how to magnify your creativity and enliven your art skills by using an expressive sketchbook as your creativity companion.

The book is published by Quarry Books and is available to buy now.

I’ve put lots of love, thought and effort into making this book for you and my biggest hope is that it will help you develop your own creative confidence and incorporate more art into your life.

In the book I share with you a whole host of creative ideas and prompts, tools and techniques for working in your own sketchbook.

WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?

This book is for anyone who wants some help in getting started or keeping going with their creative practice in a sketchbook. We are all at different points on our creative and life journey.

It may be that you have never used a sketchbook, it might be that you are a lapsed user, you may lack confidence, or just need some inspiration, ideas, or starting points or want to advance your skills and creative practice into something more meaningful, more expressive and fulfilling.

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WHY I HAVE WRITTEN THIS BOOK

This is the book I wished I’d read when I was younger. I am now in my 40s and work as an artist, but for many years I didn’t do anything creative at all. I went from being a child who revelled in creating, colouring-in and playing with paint, to an adult who didn’t do anything artistic.

OVERCOMING EXPECTATIONS

For at least a decade in my 20s I rarely picked up a pencil or a brush. During those years, I occasionally attempted a small drawing. But I was always so ashamed of the terrible outcome that I’d throw it away and not do anything creative again for a few more years. The small things I did create were never good enough, accomplished enough or sophisticated enough in my eyes. The drawing would never ever look as good as I thought it should. A less than perfect first attempt was enough to prevent any more attempts. I was so critical of my abilities that I didn’t even give myself the chance to begin. The weight of my expectation was too heavy. I allowed fear of failure, fear of not being good enough to stop me even starting. I allowed my high expectations to steal so much joy, so much experimentation, so much development.

This is not what I want for you. I’ve written this book to help you feel more courageous and confident in developing your own artistic practice.

EXPRESSIVE SKETCHBOOKS

Sketchbooks and art journals are magical playgrounds. They are not about faultless drawings or perfect outcomes, but about messy and joyful experiments along the way to finding your own style and artistic voice. Sketchbooks are where you develop an artistic practice, not where you turn-up fully formed. They are part of the artistic journey, they are not the final destination.

Sketchbooks have helped me to incorporate art into my life. In fact I would say my use of sketchbooks has been life changing. Sketchbooks have allowed me to develop my confidence, uncover my inner artist and express myself. They were a small corner in which my creativity and art could flourish. A place to develop my skills and a springboard to a more colourful and creative life.

In this book I share all I have learned long the way, so that you too can use sketchbooks as a springboard to help your creativity flourish and thrive.

Inside the book you’ll find techniques and creative exercises that incorporate mark making, watercolour, mixed media, collage, words and text, and more. 

The book unpacks some of the obstacles and barriers that you may face along the way and offers wisdom and encouragement to help you decide why and how to start your sketchbook and how to develop and expand your artistic practice.

The book is packed with ideas and exercises, including:

• Exploratory drawing exercises

• How to utilise colour in your sketchbook

• How to create dynamic and varied sketchbook pages

• How to find inspiration in nature and your everyday life

• Ways to mix media and art supplies

• Ways to kick start your creativity

• How to find and develop a process which feels personal to you

LICENCE MY ARTWORK

I frequently license my art for commercial use. My art has featured on numerous products and brands, from book covers to wine bottles, posters to postcards… it has also been licensed for walls all over the world from high end hotels to private hospitals. 

I am always delighted to discuss licensing my work to make your products eye-catching and unique.

I specialise in bright and bold contemporary abstracts, with an emphasis on colour and pattern. Contact me here

I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments about my work or would like to work with me.

hello@helenwellsartist.com

Telephone 07974 097752

UPPERCASE MAGAZINE

Sketchbooks are the foundation of my artistic practice. They are where I try things out, develop and track ideas, explore and experiment. They’re a magical place to meet my creative self on the page and get to know her better. They’re where I play with ideas, material and approaches. A place where I can test things out, embrace mistakes, learn, make and create with no agenda or end game.

PATTERN OBSERVER

For nearly all of my thirties art was a hobby, I tried to go to art collage and was rejected after a terrible interview, so I just thought that creating art would remain a life enhancing, life enriching hobby. In my late thirties as I climbed the career ladder at the charity I had worked at for for nearly a decade, I began to feel that perhaps I had laid my ladder against the wrong wall. I had a clear epiphany out of the blue one day, that I really did want to make  art a more significant part of my life… so I set about trying to make art my career.

Studio EL

“I get inspired by all sorts of things. I am fascinated by the natural world, colors, patterns, shapes, seeing organic forms. I love mixing art materials in different and unusual ways and responding to what I’ve created. I’m inspired by living by the sea, the coastal landscape, textiles, ceramics...So, I can find inspiration in lots of different places. I love patch-working the things I’m curious about together in my art.”

ART FEEDS SOULS

“In creating art I better understand myself, the world and my place in it. I enjoy the problem solving involved in art making, overcoming the obstacles, the satisfaction from keeping going when something isn’t working and finding a way to resolve it. Creating art helps me to see the world with new and curious eyes, it brings more wonder and awe into my life. It brings joy, colour and pattern into my life. I notice more, pay more attention to details and become more fascinated by random and unexpected beauty. Making art is a way to uncover, discover and explore my interests and come up with new ones. Art helps me to connect to myself and the world around me.”

INSIDE ARTISTS MAGAZINE  

"Based on the Southcoast of England, the water is a constant presence and source of inspiration for mixed media artist, Helen Wells, who takes elements from nature and blends them into beautifully intricate abstract works. Combining mediums such as ink and watercolour on paint on paper, Wells works instinctively and intuitively, finding rhythms in her process while she paints."

SUSSEX LIFE MAGAZINE

"Swathes of her paintings are fanned across a floor, on their way to buyers who have come across her work online and in restaurants and galleries. “The move to the seaside has had a noticeable impact on my work, I think. I often start the day walking on the beach looking for interesting patterns, textures and lines and to me, that’s really coming out in my painting.”

HASTINGS INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER

My painting from the The Connected Planets Series, featured on the whole back page.