Not much time for urban sketching this summer with my two young children are home full time. We are quite busy getting to know our new city and neighborhood through playground visits and other outings. While I have sketched our favorite playground before and I'm not all that interested in drawing it again beyond small bits inside larger sketches. Instead I park myself at a picnic table and draw using my imagination and record feelings and events as they come while my kids play. It's pretty different but also pretty wonderful. I might get the chance to sneak out and draw some Oxford buildings in detail during the evenings or weekends but so far I am satisfied with my current sketching habit. Happy summer!
Just some stairs
Nothing exciting except after twelve years of single floor living and two kids this simple staircase is just about the best thing. A bigger space for my family, tons of inspiring local structures to draw as well as a vibrant art community to join plus traveling all over Europe these past five months in the UK have been pretty fantastic.
Changing plans
Monday was filled with energy and inspiration. I started the day with a run and later took a sketching hike and caught up on Sketchbook Skool. Big plans for more running, hiking and studio time on Tuesday. Then Charlotte woke up with a fever and started throwing up. I'm still sketching and stretching though, just had to trade messy dip pens for brush pens and large loose sheets of paper for sketchbooks. All this sketching helps me get through watching Dora (the Explorer) with her all day long.
Oxford Spring!
Is showing up more and more after a long spell of Oxford dull dreariness. Happy Friday!
Curveballs
There seems to be some rule that as soon as I give myself a big challenge and start on it within a short period of time life throws a curveball at me to make the challenge all the more challenging. It happened within the first few weeks of my 365 daily creativity project and now just a few days into a month of daily blogging I am sick. It started out as a sore throat last night, now today I am full blown sick. I get one "I'm sick" blog post out of it. Then I need to keep generating content while feeling like crud. I can do it! No big deal.
Sick day watercolor abstracts in my sketchbook while I sip tea with honey.
Moved in!
Shelving is up and my printmaking tool pegboard is up. That makes me officially moved in to my new space in England!
Happy Spring!
Spring sprung a few weeks ago here in Oxford, or so I thought before it got cold and grey for an extended period of time. Today marks the first official day of spring and the sun is shining and flowers are blooming. Hurrah!
March is my sketching anniversary!
A year ago in March I decided to keep a regular daily sketchbook and picked up my first set of watercolors since childhood. Things have changed a lot for me in this year and a sketchbook and some paint has always been nearby and along for the ride. I am super grateful for this adventure and looking forward to sketching more and continuing to grow my skills in the coming year. Thank you for following along. Here is some then and now. I try to only compare myself to my past not to other artists.
One of my earliest watercolor sketches. If I could go back in time I would tell my past self to use more paint!
Thinking of spring a few days ago in Oxford.
Plenty of paint on this paper!
Keeping multiple sketchbooks.
A year ago I couldn't fill one sketchbook, now I am filling multiple sketchbooks at once and loving it! I currently have small small square format Handbook sketchbook that stays in my bag and sketches my life out and about in the UK. And for in the studio I have a large inexpensive book that doesn't take ink or wet media well that I like to use colored pencil in as well as a small wire bound watercolor sketchbook. This slows down the rate at which I consume each book which in turn takes off some of the pressure and allows me to enjoy the process of filling them rather than the final product. This is about as Zen as I ever get.
