Remember those old credit card commercials that would list out the cost of different things and then in the end there was the one thing that was “priceless”?
A while back we took a trip to SF with the fam and a series of debacles made it seem like we were never going to get on the plane. When we finally did get on I did this drawing to commemorate the moment.
This is my husband MC-ing the annual staff awards ceremony at work. (Yes we work at the same place.) He was so cute and charming that I had to do a sketch to commemorate the moment.
The fellow in the background is dressed up like the sun. He was the one actually handing out the awards. But in this picture he sort of looks like a happy bodyguard.
Wow, has it really been almost 2 years since I have updated this blog?
Yes. Yes it has.
Yikes. I really dropped the ball here. And while I am inclined to berate myself over this, I have started to come to understand that maybe this is just part of who I am and how I work. I have a ton of interests, all of which I am passionate about. And I have ADD.
As it turns out, my interests have peaks seasons. The fall is for running and writing plays. The winter is for freaking out that whatever play I am working on sucks, writing more intensely, and then producing the play. The spring is for hiking and recovering from the writing/producing of said play. The summer is for drawing and indoor climbing. And somewhere between there’s improv, and zumba, and podcasts, and reading, and projects with friends.
There are also periods of time peppered throughout the year where I just watch a lot of Netflix, indulge in things more than I should, and try not to hate myself.
I used to get really frustrated with myself for not doing X hobby everyday. I mean, that’s the first piece of advice you give to anyone aspiring to do anything. If you want to write, write every day. If you want to be an artist, draw every day. If you want to be successful at anything, do it everyday.
Then I read an article about how Steve Nash works out in the off season. It said he plays lots of soccer and tennis, spends a lot of time in the weight room, does a lot of skateboarding, but not much basketball. I was so surprised. I would have assumed that a professional basketball player does it for several hours a day, even in the off season.
Now I think I get it. Staying creative and physically active is important to me. If I go too long without doing either of these things I get really bummed out. But like any human, I have a hard time getting motivated, even when it’s stuff I love to do and that I know is good for me. And I get bored easily (probably cuz of the ADD) so if I do the same type of stuff all year I will eventually lose interest and stop, and then things go south. Changing it up every few months keeps everything exciting and new, and helps me stay motivated.
Anyhow, all of this is to say that the reason I haven’t been here for a while is because I’ve been doing other stuff, most of it good, and I guess it just wasn’t sketchblog season.
The only bummer is that some exciting (for me) stuff has happened with my drawings the past couple years and I wish I’d been documenting those discoveries as they unfolded. But I’m going to try and do that now. I’m going to start posting my work from the past couple years and write about what I learned while I did them.
For now, here’s a picture of some of the sketchbooks I’ve been working in lately. I like to make my own covers for my sketchbooks using postcards, magazine pics, brochure pics, or whatever else I can find. I usually do this after the book is full, or close to full.
When possible I like to put something on the cover that in some way represents what’s inside the book. The one with the Stranger Things cover is full of stuff I did for a Halloween-themed drawing challenge I did last year. The one with the painting of the renaissance-looking guy is full of these weird caricatures I’ve been doing of old master portraits. I’ll be posting about those projects in more detail later.
Stay tuned.
sketchbookfactory 