Drawing Masterclass | Review + Demo

Hello all! I'm back with another review of an artsy product! If you watched my Dick Blick Warehouse Haul video a while back, you would have seen this Drawing Masterclass book! It's actually a really awesome book, and I'm so glad I was able to snag it for so cheap.

Drawing Masterclass | REVIEW + DEMO

I'd say it's a bit over the level of beginner, just because there's not much text to explain why lines are being placed in certain places, but if you're a visual learner, like me, you should be able to get the hang of it! Each drawing in this book goes step-by-step, so even if there's no text you can see where new lines have been placed, etc.

Here are my ratings!

Overall : 4.5 / 5

Text : 2 / 5

Visuals : 4 / 5

Step-By-Step Instruction : 3 / 5

Quality : 5 / 5

The intended audience for this book is probably for artists who aren't at a very beginner level. I've had background with linear perspective for several years now, so the lack of text and smaller step-by-step drawing visuals (even though they had plenty of room to make them bigger, it seemed) didn't bother me whenever I used it. To a beginning artist, who's just learning, it would most likely be overwhelming or confusing until some basics of linear perspective were learned. There are some information chunks in the beginning, but as you move through the book it starts to fade away from the text aspect and more toward the step-by-step processes. In my own demo, I was able to complete the drawings I tried out from this book (I did it freehand, no ruler used) without any text to really help me, so if you can find the lines they add in, as they're not marked or colored differently, you'll be alright with following along. The examples in this book are a bit more advanced than what you would probably find in a beginner's book. There are a lot of details, a lot of depth, and just a lot more in each drawing than what a class might require. Definitely a book for practice before tackling a major perspective piece.

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In my honest opinion, I feel this book is for artists who have at least tried linear perspective before and understand the basics of it. This was a nice refresher for me, since I once thought of doing this for a living as an architect way back when, and I really think this is more of a "relearning" sort of book that dusts the cobwebs off of the knowledge already stored away.

I personally loved filling pages in my sketchbook with these practice drawings. I did them small enough that I didn't really need a ruler, so it went by much quicker and I didn't really care if the lines were messed up or not perfectly straight. Again, it was fun just to PRACTICE and not have to worry about how it looked like. That's the enjoyment I get out of this book most of all. I mean, I could go ahead and do a full piece from that book, but I don't feel like it would personally help me as much as just practicing the basics and learning the techniques required to make my own scene from it.

Hope you enjoyed! <3

Dick Blick Link

Amazon Link

Plan With Me | FEBRUARY

Hey hey hey, everybody! It's time for another plan with me video! :D I'm excited for February because my birthday is on the 1st and I'll be 21! Also, it's me and Amelia's 13th anniversary of being friends, ON February 13th! Golden year! So this month's theme will be anchor, green, and blue themed to celebrate our friendship.

Plan With Me | FEBRUARY

I go over January in this video because it's probably one of my favorite months I've done so far and I totally spaced and didn't make a video for it. So you're kind of getting two months in one video, but you mostly see February. Also, you'll notice a bunch of washi in the thumbnail because at the end of the video I timelapse my washi tape process! Enjoy! (:

I used a lot of spreads and ideas from other bullet journalists, so here are their links!

@sunshine.and.stationery (mini calendar, washi layering)

@bujoboosted (checker life check, ultimate productivity challenge)

@blank_space_bujo (column weekly spread)

@bluelahe (running list)

@chartreuse_giraffe_bujo (post-it note memories spread)

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Overall, I'm kind of disappointed with how my February turned out. I don't hate it, but I wish I had better washi combos for this month since so many milestones will be happening. Also, I realized how redundant my weekly dashboards were after I inked them in, so March will probably look vastly different depending on if I decide I like the last week of February or not. I can definitely say that I'm going to be making a February Review + March Planning spread like I did for November and December of last year because that helped a TON for me and I'm surprised I didn't do it for January and February considering it was my first Leuchtturm experience. Also, the music in the video got messed up and I didn't catch it so you can barely hear me toward the end of the video, so sorry! :(

Oh well, bullet journaling is all about learning what works for you and making mistakes to get there! Happy February, everyone! <3

My Healing Crystal Experience + Shop Reviews

Hi all! Today I'm going to share with you my experiences with healing crystals! I'm really excited to "show and tell" in this post because I'm OBSESSED with my crystals, and it's one of the few things I actually believe in 100%, as I've seen it work wonders with myself and others! I originally was introduced to healing crystals by GentleWhispering and her second vlog channel on YouTube and I hope to have her size of a collection someday, but hopefully it'll be over time and not all at once. Crystals are expensive, sometimes!

It all started with four! My friend, Krissy, bought some and shared it on her Snapchat story and at that time I was half-and-half about healing crystals. I wasn't sure if they really worked so I didn't want to waste the money, but at the same time I was always drawn to them so it was hard for me to stay away. I've always been interested in crystals, ever since I was little. I used to write stories about them and now I'm glad it's come full circle and now I can use them efficiently! So, instead of buying the chakra set, I bought the four I thought would benefit me most. I ended up buying Citrine (which is still my favorite crystal kind to this day), Carnelian, Blue Onyx, and of course some Clear Quartz.




My friend and I got these off of Sacred Soul Stones, and just because of the person I am, I was a little nervous to see how these would come to me! I had never ordered crystals before and I didn't know what to expect. But they took care of me VERY nicely! I received my four crystals in little baggies, each with a piece of paper that explained each crystal's properties in detail. I even got a personalized letter, coupon code, and a free mesh bag of dried rose petals, which scented my room for a good few months! They're all tumbled crystals, as I'm attracted to them more and at the time natural crystals were too expensive for me to purchase.

I tried these crystals out for a few weeks and I just, overall, felt better when I used them. I accidentally missed my whole class once because I carried Carnelian (which helps with creativity, along with Citrine) and I ended up planning all of November in my bullet journal and totally lost track of time! A lot of my stones have the property to help with creativity, I'm so predictable. I remember feeling odd carrying around a crystal throughout my day because:
1) I was afraid to lose it.
2) Even though no one could see it I still felt silly carrying around a "rock."
3) I didn't know how it would affect me, and I didn't see the results at first.

Crystals truly are the kind of thing that chooses YOU. Even when I buy my crystals online I always feel pulled toward one more than another and it's crazy to wrap my head around that my own spirit is choosing which crystals come into my life, not necessarily my brain. And this might sound crazy, but if you work with crystals or have had experiences with them, you know the feeling.

After I bonded with my first four crystals, I decided to look around for other crystal sites, because I knew there had to be cheaper ones out there. Soon, I found Raven and Crone and I was happy to see their prices were about $3.00 less per crystal than Sacred Soul Stones. Another perk at Raven and Crone was that I can choose what size crystal I wanted. For example, on SSS my Blue Onyx was the same price as my Citrine and it's about half it's size. Over at RaC I can choose between extra small, small, medium, large, extra large, and sometimes larger than that! They have decently sized crystals, and a ton of options of each kind of crystal, for $2.00 and under. It's amazing but VERY dangerous for my wallet!

My order from there had 9 crystals for the same price as I paid for 4 at SSS, and they sent me a FREE CRYSTAL! The packaging was a simple small white box (I ordered mostly small or medium stones) with each of my crystals in their own tiny baggies, and in those tiny bags they had specified properties neatly typed up for me to read about. All of that information PLUS more than what you get on the little papers is found in all of the crystals' descriptions on their website. I've since gotten some crystals from my friend, Nicole, when she went to California over break, and in shops around me! (I'm secretly hoping Nicole and I can go on a crystal shopping weekend and go around to places haha).

Overall, my crystal experience has been a very positive one. Rarely, do I ever feel negative, as I tend to do a lot of the time, whenever I have a crystal with me. I keep them on my artsy table that sits at the head of my bed, and I've noticed a significant decrease in nightmares since I've started collecting more. I read somewhere that some crystals can dissipate nightmares, so I'm assuming that's what's happening! I've learned to tell my crystals their intentions and they listen to me very well. I've cleansed them a few times, but it's been a while since I've done that, so I'll probably do that this week sometime. To share something that Maria (GentleWhispering) said in one of her videos, no crystal can be harmful unless you will it to be. And as I'm experimenting with these crystals, I'm seeing more and more how they improve my life and I hope to have quite the collection someday, because it's nice to believe in something like this when the outside world can be so negative and dark.

I highly recommend healing crystals to anyone who wants to try them. And if they don't work for you, that's okay too! They're fairly inexpensive if you get smaller crystals to start out with! <3

*~* My Crystal Collection *~*

My crystal collection has grown over the last few months, so I'll share which ones I have in the best way I can, based on the above photo!

• To the far left I have a fossil whose organism turned into a crystal whenever it died (I got one for Austin and I from a state park near us and we broke ours open together), going to the right of the smaller piece, I have a Selenite sphere (local find), Natural Rose Quartz (from Nicole), Tumbled Rose Quartz (RaC), and Chrysophase (Nicole).
• Second "row" is Basalt (RaC), Tiger's Eye Red (freebie from RaC), Tiger's Eye Gold (RaC), Clear Quartz (SSS), and Carnelian (SSS).
• Two middle ones are Green Aventurine (RaC) and Tumbled Citrine (SSS)
• Third "row" I have South African Amethyst (RaC), Blue Lace Agate (RaC), Jade Nephrite (RaC), and Natural Citrine (RaC).
• The bottom two are Natural Blue Calcite (RaC) and Amazonite (from Nicole).