Getting it together

I’m leaving tomorrow on vacation for 10 days. No, I don’t need a vacation. I live in “Vacation Land” and I’m retired. But my neighbor really wanted to go to Mexico with us, to a place we’ve been before, but she has not. She goes to Mexico every year and speaks Spanish fluently, which will be different for us. So we let ourselves be convinced.

So today is about packing and trying to tie up some loose ends. I didn’t want to lose sight of my sketch journal efforts, so I think I’ll transcribe my notes here. I’m uneasy about it because I feel like I’ll fail to follow through. (Why is follow-through so important in my life anyway?)

Pros

• Experimental
• Flexible
• Lots of challenge, and information gained by using different colors of paper
• Fulfilled my commitment – a place to show up
• Exercised willingness to practice

Cons

• Too small
• Too chunky
• I felt flighty, like I couldn’t settle on an approach
• The paper didn’t work well for watercolor or collage
• Felt a pressure to complete my pages, which was not so pleasant
• Could have had more of a sense of play / softness

Discoveries

• Gouache against a tan background – a favorite
• The thumbnail templates are fun and useful
• Some drawings seemed to lend themselves to stitch projects. Helped me realize that I want a sketchbook to be useful to inform my stitching projects.
• The struggle to find a white line that I like continues
• Copying other artists was very enjoyable, both well known and not-so
• I can draw pretty realistically, but it doesn’t interest me and feels like an effort.
• Background and layered effects caught my interest
• I take joy in soft colors blurred around an outline
• Call-response format is intriguing – put something on the page I can come back later and respond to.

Approach for 2024

• Make several sketchbooks using different papers
• Use a larger format. I like square, but it doesn’t have to be.
• Prepare pages at the beginning of the year; bind what I have at the end of the year.
• Focus on the idea of series, building off existing pages.
• Create one general drawing sketchbook that’s smaller for travel, plant sketches, thumbnail fun.

Intriguing Themes

• Collage with limitations
• Calligraphy / words
• Gelli plate backgrounds, then draw on top
• Ink blots – then respond on top
• Monotypes and trace monotypes
• Watercolor shapes with ink or pencil lines
• General drawing – copying other artists, drawing plants, using thumbnail templates

In preparation, I cut and folded a lot of papers into pages, hopefully to become books. I’m not doing a daily thing in 2024, we’ll see what happens. So far, I’ve made a few beginnings of collage and a page of ink blots. (The dark shapes at the top are shadows from objects on the windowsill.)

Meanwhile, I’m working on the crewel heart project. Here’s my second one, with applique using some things I learned from Jude’s skitch-skatch method. I’m going to stitch with some crewel yarn on it. But first, going on vacation!