100 Things

 

If you haven't yet read this post by John Hendrix on finding your artistic voice, may I kindly suggest you do so immediately? After reading it last week, I sat down and made a list of 100 things that I like drawing. It's a terrific exercise and well-worth the time.

And I'll spare you the full set, but the abridged version includes:

1. Concertinas
2. Seaweed
3. Onion Domes
4. Creatures of indeterminate taxonomy
5. Mermaids
6. Mystery, but not mayhem
7. Plaited Hair
8. Vigilantes
9. Violins
10. Questionable sartorial choices
11. Apples
12. Striped Socks
13. Carrots
14. Fascinators
15. Dinosaurs
16. New England Wildflowers
17. Non-malevolent monsters
18. Birch Trees
19. Sleuths
20. Any and all fairy tales/folktales/stories-with-no-basis-in-reality-or-science

All of this begs the question, of course: what's on your list?

An Armistice of Sorts

Why beat around the bush: I am not a fan of January. It's long, cold and typically involves the one two punch of a chest cold and/or driving in snow. So no, first month of the year, we are not on friendly terms.

But (because there's always that margin of error with the things you detest), I'm learning to make peace with January. There's been some moderate successes. I finished sewing the Tova Shirt from Wiksten and am in love. Clearly written, full of wonderful details, it's a delightful pattern, one I'm planning to make again and again. There's a new season of Downton Abbey (Edith, you go girl). I'm also working up some embroidery ideas for a download in the future. And because driving to Québec in January just isn't feasible, I made Tarte au Sucre this weekend. Because until you've eaten a pie that's made up of two cups of brown sugar, you haven't lived.

Structurally Sound

I've been setting aside the first 15 minutes of my work day sketching plates from Anatomy for the Artist. As far as anatomy books go, it's a nice balance between art and science, a solid reference source. Sketching I keep thinking of sit ups: it might not be the most glamorous activity, but the end results are worth it. And I promise, I will never reference sit ups here again ever.

 

Hoping you all have delightful weekends. Me, I'm planning to go eat pizza, then watch dinosaurs terrorize the 21st century. A solid weekend, I say.

Illustration Friday - "Ocean"

 

 For this week's Illustration Friday theme, "Ocean."

Mark Your Place

 

Because everyone and their brother makes a New Year's resolution to read more (yours truly included), here's something to help you out: a bookmark tutorial.

 

You'll need cardboard (I used a leftover mailer), paint, a paintbrush, a pen and scissors.

   

Trace the template onto your cardboard (full size = about 1 3/4 by 4 inches). Cut out, then carefully make a slit for both arms, slightly rounding out the hands once free. After you've cut out the figure, fill in features with a pen and add accents with paint. Let dry.

To use, place arms over the page you want to mark, slipping the body a few pages behind. Happy Reading!

Seven

Hope your new year's are off to a delightful start. I've been busy this week and last, working on a round of revisions (hence the quiet). But...

Next week marks seven years of blogging here for me. In light of that and the new year, I retooled the design a bit and changed some other things. On the sidebar, you'll find an updated list of other places on the internet you can find me, a "subscribe by email" option and I'm slowly adding labels to old posts. I'm also brainstorming some new ideas for this space. My goal this year is to add more DIY projects with an illustrative bent and more process posts. I've also had a few questions about having an email list and I'm mulling that one over.

Now, some New Year's resolutions -- it's not too late for those, right?

* Finish a book dummy.

* Dust off my Spoonflower shop

* Get ink on my hands again (translation: more printmaking).

* Participate more regularly in Illustration Friday.

*And I might have started doodling something tentatively titled, The Continuing Misadventures of Moth Girl, so that's a thing.

And you?

"We'll take a cup of kindness yet..."

Right before Christmas a family emergency came up. Things are much better now, but it leaves you with the tangible realization that life really is a gift. Of course the cards went out late, I never washed the walls and a thousand other things went by the wayside. But having the ones you love around you trumps a freshly vacuumed house a thousand times over and for that, I'm grateful.

Yesterday after the storm finished I got to stomp around the woods for a bit. By the point I snapped those photos my ankles had gone numb and my boots were packed with snow. That said, there's nothing like walking through just-fallen snow, seeing the sun break through and realizing a fresh new year is on its way.