Hello and welcome to Sofa Snippets, a weekly roundup of bits and bobs from my life and work.
If you’re reading this in your email inbox, it might be too long and you might be prompted to read it on the website. Sorry!
This section is mostly about what my Morning Ink practice has shown me this week, and sometimes other general sketchbook insights.
This week was quite bird heavy. And included a morning where I drew my Morning Ink out in the world - on a bench in a park along the canal. I loved the early morning walk a lot. The drawing location felt wrong. Though I should probably try it more than once before dismissing it!
This week there were 25 birds, 4 cats, 1 tree, 1 scene, 1 person, 1 elephant, 1 unknown creature that might possibly be a large cat of some kind and was inspired by motifs within Asian textiles over the years, 1 pattern and 1 grid (a very wonky ogee grid - I do love ogees) and a fair few plants and flowers of varying kinds.
Other sketches included some doodles in my deskpad while planning for some bigger pieces, and a related sketch in my little sketchbook that sits on my desk.
And the thoughts and ramblings included a little story from my childhood about drawing birds and buying good pencils on Tuesday, quite a little selection of thoughts on Wednesday, including about what I’m reading, publishing work, agency work, and even the weather! Thoughts on my uptick in creative energy and productivity when I’m busy with other work on Friday, feeling ill and introspective questioning of my work planning on Saturday, and thoughts about newness and milestones with the upcoming start of the academic year today.
You may have noticed you’ve started getting the Morning Ink in your inbox. I decided to switch it on for everyone and that people can toggle it off (or unsubscribe entirely, if they prefer), rather than on. And I have decided to focus on the Morning Ink daily posts and these weekly Sofa Snippets and not to worry about bigger, single idea posts/letters. Because I am really enjoying them at the moment and I know that some of you are, too. That’s enough for me. It doesn’t mean that I won’t write any bigger posts/letters, but I am happy to stick with this for now. And I am continuing not to paywall anything for the moment, either. If you happen to love getting these you are very welcome to thank me by a month’s (or even year’s) paid subscription - and if you do, and give me your postal address, I’ll send you a little something in the post.
Morning Ink is a section of my publication that goes out daily. I know that not everyone likes to received daily emails, so you can toggle it off via Manage Subscription.
This section is what I’ve been doing illustration business wise - drawing, outreach, and so on.
I managed to create two new mini collections for the agency this week. Which I’m not showing you right now, though you may have seen elements on Notes or Instagram.
And here’s another snippet for you.
I have been finding myself concentrating on a very small number of brushes. Having, last year, curated a bunch of brushes I liked using…
… I have ended up defaulting to really just a few…
It’s interesting to see what I have dug into, and I think this is part of finding my raster style, because for so long I was very much only flat, mostly vector, and no texture, unless it was from mark making. Though looking at that image from last year, I might try to bring one or two more of those back into my process.
This section is about freelancing life, including what I’ve been working on with my educational publishing hat on and just general bits about working from home in a self-employed capacity.
Work has been a mixture this week, with multiple bigger projects needing to be moved along (Spanish IGCSE teacher book, Psychology A Level digital resources and Childcare digital resources) and the odd little bit on another project (e.g. proofreading something that Chris is working on), as well as some admin tasks - like sending out invoices. Something that used to be one of my most hated tasks, and got put off and put off, and I even spent a couple of years paying someone to do them for me, but which is now one of my favourite tasks - because I tricked my brain into thinking that I was earning the amount I was invoicing for the time it took to log and create the invoices. I do know that it’s the actual work and not the invoicing that earns the money, but my brain now loves spending half an hour earning thousands of pounds!
I spent the week following a very granular plan of what to work on that I created the previous Friday. I have such a lot to fit in for a variety of deadlines that I felt this was the way to do it. I am honestly not sure it worked. My plans were structured so that I wouldn’t have to work on the weekend. And yet… I worked yesterday and also need to fit some work in today. My plans involved doing two to three focused chunks of work each day, often totalling seven hours. The idea was to balance out the deeper development editing work with the lighter proofreading, editing and typesetting work. But… I think that perhaps transitioning so much on a daily basis may have used up more energy, because I definitely didn’t do seven hours a day. Including Saturday I am still only just over 30 hours total for the week. I will be adding a few hours today, but it will probably end up closer to five hours a day, just over a full seven days, instead of the preferred five.
To be fair, I forgot to log what I was getting done on illustration work through the week, and I think I was getting a couple of hours in most evenings, which would bring it closer to forty hours. I really really do need to remember that I do two jobs and so averaging thirty hours on one and ten to fifteen hours on the other one is more than full-time.
So… yesterday, I spent a bit of time rejigging where I was placing tasks, so that I could aim for focusing on particular projects each day with some individual smaller tasks that can slot in, if I feel up to them, but which can seep into next weekend if necessary.
This is the culture section - mostly what I’ve been reading, but might also include TV and film and wider culture, too.
I realised I forgot to tell you last week what I moved on to reading after David Nicholls’s You Are Here, and which I have now finished already: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell. I thought it was brilliant. I loved Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait and her writing is equally stellar in this book. The characters feel so real - the uncomfortable and unlikeable ones as much as the more relatable and appealing or understandable ones - the environments feel familiar even when they’re actually not, because they just from part of the whole life (or lives) you are experiencing while reading, and the research feels like it has been very thorough. In this book, the insight into mental illness (and/or neurodivergence, as I feel there was perhaps a mix of both) felt revelatory and familiar (having experienced both of these in family members and myself). And the historical research of the upper class Edinburgh and, even more poignant, the asylum and the things that women were locked up there for. (Similar insights and what feels like similarly deep research, to The Mad Women’s Ball / Le Bal des Folles by Victoria Mas.)
And, since then, I have moved on to James by Percival Everett, which is also astounding and I am getting through fairly quickly, for me. I loved Huckleberry Finn when I was young, much more than Tom Sawyer, and reread it many times. In more recent years, I realised that there was some deeply problematic racism in there, which I hadn’t, I think, been aware of as a child. (As there was in a lot of books I enjoyed back then, sadly.) So, it’s wonderful to see this story from the perspective of James, rather than Huck. But, on top of that, it gives an incredible insight into the life of slaves in America and the ways of coping and managing such a life. I’m only about a third of the way through, but I highly recommend it.
Listening-wise I have continued listening to Mi Amice Geniale (My Brilliant Friend) in Italian, which I am enjoying. However, the last couple of days, as I was feeling a bit feverish, due to a diverticular flare-up, I couldn’t cope with the added brainwork behind listening in another language, so I listened to The Archers yesterday and grabbed another audiobook today: Small Island by Andrea Levy. A book that I have read a couple of times, as well as listened to a radio play of it, watched the BBC adaptation and watched the National Theatre production of it (the online version, not in person). This is a brilliant book and, if you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it. And I have loved all other books by Andrea Levy that I have read. This audiobook is narrated by there - there was another version available on Audible, but that was an abridged one and I definitely prefer to listen to full books. So, again, going for something I am very familiar with, rather than listening to a book that I’ve never read before, which is something I still can’t bring myself to do.
TV… I don’t think I’ve watched much this week, to be honest. I think we may have managed an episode or two of Only Murders Only Murders in the Building with Chris. And I think the only other thing I watched this week was a couple of episodes of This is Us. I may see if I can fit in the next episode of Invasion this evening, if I can stay awake late enough. I have had early nights the last few nights, probably due to be the diverticular flare-up, but possibly also due to feeling like I’ve been doing too much work, even though I’ve apparently been doing pretty much exactly the amount I’ve done any other week!
This is the Substack section - Substack posts or publications that I’ve particularly enjoyed over the past week.
A couple of things I’ve enjoyed on Substack over the last week:
These are great interviews that Jo Scott provides and this one I found particularly interesting. I love discovering new artists and illustrators, but when it’s a new type of art (to me) then that can be even more fascinating.
As someone who really hopes to be living in (continental) Europe in a few years, I always love reading about people who are already doing so (both those that have always lived there and those who have emigrated or split their time between their birth country and Europe). Plus, flea markets are the very best thing ever!
It seems I didn’t read a huge amount on Substack this week, about which I am very sad, and for which I entirely blame Instagram. My iPad Instagram app now opens up to ‘Home’ that is a Tik-Tok style infinite scroll of reels. And I have been sucked into it in a horrible way. To the point where I have told the timer to ignore my limits for the day multiple times. And where I am watching things I really really don’t want to be watching. Here’s what seems to be showing up for me a lot there, almost none of it art related:
Reels of people making thousands of pounds/dollars a month online in some way. Who are almost all of them selling some kind of ebook, course, or whatever that shows you how to make thousands a month online (probably by selling people ways to make money online). Grrr… they make it sound so appealing, just to do a little bit of work and make loads of money. But so many of them start with 1. Ask Chat GPT …. Grrr…
Reels about women over 50 needing to lift weights and eat protein. Or not eat quite so much protein. Or eat clean. Or eat all the meat. Or eat no meat. Or be calm and at peace. They got my number. I am over 50. I do need to get healthier and fitter, and almost certainly need to lift weight and eat a bit more protein. And definitely no meat, thank you.
Sometimes there are nice-looking recipes that do inspire me. I’m OK with them. I guess.
Reels about people having been emotionally abused by their parents. Why in the living hell am I being served these? I had a brilliant relationship with both my parents and a wonderful childhood. I am pretty sure that I am a fairly good parent myself. I don’t want these. Really don’t.
Quite a few reels showing me garden rooms and offices. I really want one. I have been trying hard to manifest a windfall of around £120,000 so that I can get two of them for us and one for my sister, because she also really wants one. But, honestly? Seeing them again and again and again? Not helping. Definitely not helping manifest the money to buy them. Just kind of making me what them more. Which doesn’t help.
I can’t take Instagram off the iPad, because I already took it off my phone and you can’t do everything via the desktop. Particularly annoying because the desktop version is not showing comments and likes properly.
Apologies for replacing a nice little collection of Substack post links with a ragey moan about Instagram. Did I say, I freaking hate short-form video and reels? The only ones I like are timelapses of drawing. That’s it. Oh, and the videos my sister posts, but that’s just because they’re about her.
This is the food section - meals I cooked, new food I tried, places I ate out, and other food-related bits and pieces.
I took barely any photos of food this week. Entirely because my new favourite bowl never seemed to be available (I guess other people have discovered it) and I genuinely love taking photos of food in it so much that it feels wrong to photograph food in other dishes!
Sunday and Monday were spicy tomato and tofu noodles. Tuesday was roasted tomato and garlic pasta. Wednesday was spicy tomato and sausage pasta. And Thursday was mushroom pasta. And Friday evening I just had bread and peanut butter and chocolate spread as I was starting to feel grotty and convinced that the mushroom pasta was at fault. I am not sure how, unless possibly it was whizzing up the silken tofu, which perhaps put too much air into it. Or, it was nothing to do with the mushroom pasta and just a coincidence. Last night, after a day of broth and herbal teas, I made some mashed potato (vegan butter, nutritional yeast, splash of almond milk and a lot of salt, which was really lovely and also had some salted caramel (vegan) ice cream. Today I will continue with low fibre and hopefully tomorrow I might be able to make my creamy leeky pasta.
This last section is for general other stuff - things you might talk about over a cuppa at the kitchen table.
I have, again, very little else to talk about. I already talked about having a diverticular flare-up, which is very annoying. I don’t think I’ve done much else about my travel plans. Oh, no, I tell a lie, I think I have decided where to go for my November trip. I think I will go to Florence. I need to triple-check the trains will work. I think I can do Paris to Florence in one day and Milan to home in one day, so would need an overnight in Paris on the way and an overnight in Milan on the way back. I might go with two nights in Milan, as I’d like to explore Milan a bit having read a bit about it recently.
I haven’t been to Florence since I was twenty-one, when I went in the Easter holidays during my year abroad. I was an English Assistante in a collège and lycée in Bonneville, in the Alps. I took my fiancé, at the time (not Chris, who I met a couple of years later), with me for the year and so we both went to Italy for a trip in the holidays. We took a sleeper train to Venice, which is the only time I have taken a sleeper train as it was a really bad experience. It stopped somewhere (I think it was Turin) for around four hours and the doors were not locked and basically lots of thieves would come on board and try all the doors and so we got literally no sleep because we were staying awake to make sure nothing was stolen. We then stumbled round Venice not enjoying it at all because we’d had no sleep, before getting out next train to Florence. Florence I remember being lovely, but don’t remember much about it except for the absolutely stunning view from our room, which was up a hill, so you could see the whole Florence, with all the gorgeous terracotta rooves and white walls.
I hope you enjoy this weekly roundup format. I will still be writing some ‘proper’ posts on individual topics, but I enjoy reading these and it will keep me regularly showing up in your inbox (it has a section of its own, though, so you can untoggle it if you prefer, by going to Manage subscription).
It's ok to not Like my short videos. (I know you said the opposite) my ADHD brain loves short videos i get so much dopamine watching them. All brains are different and that's where thr beauty is in differences. Hope you feel better soon. And good luck manifesting the money for the garden art rooms ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜