I recently found myself in a hotel room on an icy afternoon with unexpected ample amount of time and extremely limited art supplies (only a pencil and eraser) and no laptop to amuse myself with. Yikes for anyone but a creative, right?!

Luckily there happened to be a thrift store right around the corner and a Hobby Lobby right next door to that. Since I have all the art supplies and sketchbooks I want/need at home, I didn’t want to go buy a bunch of (potential) crapola at a big box store just for one day’s amusement so I decided to challenge myself with finding some kind of toned paper at the thrift store and only purchasing a white chalk pencil for the highlights at Hobby Lobby.

I wound up discovering this fantastic package of long, vibrant red envelopes and walked over to snag the chalk. All the art supplies I could need for hours of amusement for less than $8- score!

Once I was all cozy in my room with a cool seltzer and my modest art supplies by my side, I decided to dig through the ‘Inspo’ folder in my iPhone and see what I could come up with to sketch. Since I was using a graphite pencil instead of a chalk pastel pencil I was able to choose some references that included more precise details, like lace and other fabric details.

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This figure has such a presence and strength…. Even though I found the pic in an ad I couldn’t resist drawing her.

And this is Nadia, an ‘Instagram friend’ who has actually been featured in my artwork previously. I just love her naturally delicate features so much!