Studio (and sofa) snippets #004
Monday 8 June 2026 to Sunday 14 June 2026
Thanks for reading my new studio (and sofa) snippets missive, where I share what I have been drawing through the week. I will be updating this as the week goes, and then send it out on the Sunday. You can dip in daily, or just read the whole week on a Sunday.
Monday
Everything is flipped today. I got up at 6 and went pretty much straight to my desk (the ed pub one, not the art one) and got three different projects sent out and a few small tasks done and some emails replied to. And then at 11.30 I went to the studio, where I did a bit of drawing and had a call with Giuseppe (I am doing one of his mentorships, which is very interesting and full of tips and new illustrators to look at and individual guidance ad feedback).
Today’s mind-blowing moment was this change, which makes a ridiculous amount of difference.
I had tried a bunch of layer overlays, but just keeping the line on the birds didn’t remotely occur to me. But I am so much happier with it now. And it allows me to keep some of the inky line in there, which I really want to do more.
After the call, I finished today’s page and decided to diverge a little and have colour and non-ink in there.
Nothing spectacular, but felt kind of freeing. As did working first and drawing later. And going to the studio for the afternoon.
Back home, I did some tidying some cooking for me, some paying for takeaway for teenagers, some reading, some chatting with all members of the immediate family and a few of the extended family, some more tidying (which is not a common occurrence for me!) and now sitting down to watch Rivals before bed. So, quite a good day, really.
Tuesday
Slept in till 7.30 today. Because I had accidentally left the alarm set. I probably would have woken not long after 6 naturally, but I was not happy about being interrupted mid sleep cycle. Which meant I woke later instead. And I just sat on the sofa drinking tea, drawing and listening to The Archers.
And I went with inky day drawing and the rest in colour again. And leaned into decorative because I was sleepy and that’s the easy route for me.
Today will be mostly typesetting and proofreading, and a bit of schedule wrangling and assessment to see if we can fit an extra job in. Spoiler alert: it will be a no if it looks even remotely like it would mean the longer hours we have been doing the past few weeks.
Some desk doodles while catching up on class videos in the evening.
My day was all work, with smatterings of chats with family, reading, eating leftovers and nipping to the shop. No studio time today.
Last day of exams in the house tomorrow, so we will be celebrating tomorrow.
And a little bit more evening exploration, playing with digital cut out and collage of the tracing paper textures I made the other day.
Wednesday
Meh. Not so happy with today’s colour and ink mix. Ah well. Search for something you did like, or found interesting… I think that would be the day drawing, actually. I quite like the ‘day’ being on a separate line, though integrated. And the larger W.
The drawing itself is boring, though, and I wish I had stopped with just the black tree and the peach ground, because it looked quite good with just them.
Oh… I can play around with if digitally, though…
Quite like that.
Oh, what about removing the tree outline and white?
And what about putting the white back, but keeping the outline off?
That was fun and interesting.
Lovely evening, celebrating the end of GCSEs with delicious food, cocktails (!) and a game of Trivial Pursuits.
Thursday
Went with the comfort draw this morning. I know I have not been sitting exams myself, but even so, it feels like the end of a long journey.
Finished a big project today and took the whole evening off. Again! Two nights in a row. I discovered (aka read about it in The Guardian’s Best TV of 2026 so far) Margo’s Got Money Troubles in Apple TV and binged almost he whole thing last night, while eating my new favourite pudding - zapped frozen berries, Greek yoghurt and roasted salted cashew and peanuts. And then decided I wanted to try to mask a pattern repeat from one of my recent(ish) Morning Ink drawings.
It’s still a WIP, though maybe I should leave the white space. I have a tendency to fill every space in pattern design (and home and life, in fact), but I know intellectually that breathing space can make a pattern (and a home, and a life, in fact). I really wanted to keep watching and pattern making until the wee hours but made myself go to bed before midnight.
Friday
I went straight to a shower after feeding the cat and reminded myself that I should do this literally all the time. It makes me feel awake and energetic, rather than sleepy and sedentary. I have plans to trial a new routine from next week, which will involve a shower then going straight to the studio, where I will do a timed sketchbook warm-up, followed by planned specific things every day, and then come back to my publishing desk mid morning. And head back to the studio for another dedicated stint late afternoon. It’s time to get back to a dedicated routine with my art business and to let go of using it mostly for mindfulness.
Not that there is anything at all wrong with using art for mindfulness and self care - just that it is not currently conducive, for me, to earning money from art. Also, not that it is necessary to earn money from one’s art either. But it is what I want to do, and I have had periods where I have got the mindfulness effect from it, as well as making money, and that’s what I want to be doing for the next while.
I am really enjoying t drawing the days at the moment. I am going to dig into this a lot more, I think, and draw more letters and words. I find it fascinating that I am almost always insisting on filling the gaps in the letters. Which is very much digging into my maximalist, fill every space, personality.
This was very nearly a drawing of a naked lady (not any particular naked lady), but I put clothes on her in the end instead. Not sure why. It just happened. Also, he leg underneath her is completely wrong and impossible Amd I have no idea what is going on with her foot. And she has ten fingers and no actual thumbs. But I still quite like her.
Saturday
Sunday
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