(An experiment in which I look back at a month of my creative life at the start of a new one. See last months’ here.)
1. Paintings on Canvas
I completed three 11x14 inch acrylic paintings on canvas, the first work I started and finished in the new studio. I posted a couple of these last month and mentioned my process here. I seem to be continuing with the “animals in unlikely places” theme, more to come on that.
Process note: It took me longer than I expected to settle in and feel comfortable working here, in the third bedroom in our new home. Unpacking and organizing took forever, and then I had to spend some time just hanging out in the studio, doing other things besides artwork. (I was easily working on sketchbooks and art journals in the living room and dining room, that’s always felt more fluent to me.) Since I was physically unable to spend as much time here as I’d have preferred, due to caregiving responsibilities, it kept feeling like re-entering a brand new space. Honestly, I had no idea I was so space sensitive — previously I was working in a screened-off corner of the dining room! But now my studio space is starting to feel like a creative ally.
2. Location Drawing
Lots of location drawing, which gives life to my years. I’ve previously posted a number of them here.
I’m especially excited about some sketchbook drawings I made at my local community pool, which saved my sanity daily this summer. This one has stuck in my mind for some reason, and I’ve started to develop it further.
3. Other Sketchbook Drawings and Drawing Sessions
☀️ Drawing from National Geographic magazine is still a pleasure — a quarantine habit that’s stuck! (Sometimes I draw straight from an image, other times I combine freely.) I’ve noticed that my usual “horror vacuii” style is sometimes being joined by a few compositions with more white space. (Also the case the bathing suit sketch above.) This was a style I worked in more a few years ago and I wonder if it’s returning in some way — although obviously I’m still pretty good at packing a page.
🌈 I also did a bunch of sketches of 1970s hotel interiors. These are from the heyday of the Poconos.
Although I know this makes me sooooo oooooooooold, the 70s were when I made my debut on this planet, and its design ethos is present in my blood. My memories are of course vague — In Kindergarten, I remember having a disco lunch box, and thinking that Jimmy Carter and Jiminiy Cricket were probably the same person!
🙄 I read another biography of Marc Chagall, this one by Jackie Wullschlager. (Earlier this year, I’d read one by Jonathan Wilson.) My grandparents had a lithograph of his that I lived with for many years. I love his art and wanted very much to admire him as a person, but… “I felt disappointed i what a spoiled and petty shithead he was,” I wrote in my notes. I did admire Bella Chagall, though, so I made some drawings of her and her daughter Ida.
✅ Online drawing sessions: Holly Surplice’s Wonderful Wolves session replay entirely lived up to its name! Emma Carlisle and Sarah Dyer teamed up to draw cars, which I weirdly liked a lot. (I have a little internal cringe about car enthusiasm, due to it being an obsession of the ex-husband, but I actually do quite like the look of vintage cars…I’ve actually been drawing more of them since.) I also joined Beth Spencer’s Introvert Drawing Club, which could not be more perfect for me, the confirmed introvert. I’ll have more drawings from that next month.
Hi Embroidery!
My fingers got itchy for the needle as I prepped my embroidery books for their star turn at The Art of The Book Show in Rochester, opening on September 18th. I’d been on a little break from embroidery, but I’m back, baby.
Here’s the ignoble first of my “Collaborations with Anonymous Project,” in which I use the incomplete embroidery project of a stranger as a prompt. I shared the second one here, the first one was kind of a mess because I went too far and then I kept going! I failed to take a photo of the first one before I started stitching, but the first one was taken before I’d done too much.
Hi Refillable Pens, and Bye Markers!
Note: I’m not adding links to common art supplies I’m mentioning, you know how to Google and I’m not doing affiliate links at the moment. As a matter of policy I’ll just add links to things that are in some way specific, or a little more tricky to find.
I made a real switch in my art materials. I’ve been feeling uncomfortable with non-refillable markers for a long time — for one thing, they are very expensive, and for another thing — just a lot of plastic in the trash.
This is the second time in my creative life that I’ve made this switch. Back in my full-time writing days, I was very particular about a certain Uni-Ball pen and bought boxes of them. At some point, I realized that I would be saving money and resources by using a refillable pen, which is when I got my Lamy fountain pen, a refillable cartridge, a syringe, and Noodler’s Ink, the very best ink.
Over the past few months, I’ve been slowly experimenting with filling water brush pens with liquid watercolor or ink, with the goal of replacing my Tombow brush markers.
It’s taken some trial and error and some very annoying and messy leaking, but I was able to finally put away my markers and go 100% refillable.
I found that Pentel Brush Pens are the only ones that don’t leak on me. In the brush pens, I use Ph. Martin Concentrated Radiant Water Color and some of their Bombay inks, Ecoline liquid water color, Noodler’s ink and some Winsor and Newton — I really like their Polar White. Michael’s Artist Loft liquid watercolors are also pretty good and very affordable! It’s really great to be able to mix the exact colors that I want.
To replace fine liners, a Sailor Fude pen with Noodler’s X_Feather Black Ink is the way to go. I also have a calligraphy nib on a long Lamy pen, which I use with Lamy’s gray ink, gorgeous.
I’m still experimenting with empty brushes and containers for acrylic paint, to replace my Poscas. Still not thrilled with this yet, but so far, some cheap refillable dauber bottles from Amazon filled with a mix of acrylic paint and water are doing the job.
In Conclusion!
I didn’t think that I’d gotten a lot done, but it was actually not a bad month now that I see it all in one place. So I guess I’ll keep these reviews going for now, since it makes me feel all productive.
P.S. Please forgive the imperfect photo editing and any typos…if I got uptight about it, this would never have been posted!