Well, it didn’t take very long to slip back into comfort drawing in blue. And I wonder why I feel this is a bad thing. Having a phase of drawing lots and lots of one subject matter is how most fine artists work (not that I am claiming to be one). Some of the most successful illustrators are successful based on drawing lots of a particular subject matter. And yet I feel that I should always be mixing it up, producing a diverse catalogue.
Actually, maybe it’s more that I know I get bored. Because every time I have ever tried to do a series of anything, I have pivoted before completing it. But Morning Ink is not a series. It is just what my head wants to draw. So… let it draw.
I stopped by the studio yesterday and put up some more posters and postcards. Can you spot the new ones?
Some are on another wall which I won’t photograph until there are more picture because they look too lonely, on their own in the middle of a huge(ish) expanse of white space.
Oh, alright, I’ll show you.
It might actually be the bits that the previous tenant has left from their shelving (presumably) that makes it look particularly unattractive. I need to take the screws out so I can put some prints over the holes to hide them.
And, for I think what may have actually been the first time since moving in, I went there with an actual plan. Before sitting down to implement the plan (and after putting up the posters and postcards) I wrote down some ideas I had had while in London, in my Ideas notebook and added some more details to my picture book ideas. I think it is almost time to try to take one of the ideas and write a full rough draft.
And then I took a little piece to final. Well, semi-final, because I will look at all the ones I have tomorrow evening and may make some small tweaks to some or each to perhaps tie them together and definitely to elevate them a notch, before submitting them on Monday.
This was iPad drawing. And the kind of drawing I tend to do for final work. Not exploratory sketchbook work or painting. I feel it is a good step to have made sure to do some of that type of work in the studio. While I do want it to be a great space for creative exploration, and I really think it has already started being that, I also would really like it to be a space where I can do proper creative work. The kind that people will pay me to do.
Oh, I guess I could show you…
This was the one that I spent an hour and a half on the other night and then Fresco crashed on me.
And here’s another that I don’t think I showed you, though I think you may have seen various other iterations of her.
I like this one best, and I think that’s because it includes some pen and ink line, which just seems to make it look and feel livelier.
For the first one, I think I might change the colour a bit (I am especially unsure about the black and yellow cushion). I also might add some straggly bits to her hair, which looks a little too neat. For the second one, I think the eyes need to move down a bit. I don’t see anything else right now. There are probably some other things I will spot and want to change, too, though. And I have two or three more to work up over the weekend, depending on how much time I get.
I think the next step, studio-wise, might be to take the laptop and do some writing there. Although perhaps before that I need to do some notebook ideation, so I know what I will actually be writing.
I also want to finish reading Emma Gannon’s Table for One which I have been whizzing through (the previous book – Lost Love Songs by Ingrid Persaud – took me a full month to read, and this one is going to have been a few days). And I need to catch up, big time, on some class work. And I want to hoover, do some washing and clean the bathroom. I may well be treating the weekend like I do time away, expecting to be able to get a lot more done than is actually possible!
Thanks for joining me for a Saturday morning cuppa. See you tomorrow.
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Oooooh full rough draft exciting !!!. Absolutely adore the two girls you've drawn 😍