Moose + Drizzle, A Painting I Forgot to Share, & Thoughts About Social Media

 This past week's creation was a digital illustration based off of two separate 'tober art challenge prompts (moose and drizzle). The challenge prompt part is not really of any consequence because I haven't kept up with any of them. But it did result in an illustration I am rather pleased with.

Also, I realized I forgot to share this painting I did of my cat, Abed, either here or on Instagram or anywhere. 

Again, quite pleased with it, but I also look at it and think, ehhhh, I could have done better. The tail, though! I love the way the tail turned out. 

At some point during the week I had the brilliant idea to look through some older work of mine and it was a largely positive experience. Having some distance from one's work (via the passage of time) almost always (for me, anyway) results in a kinder eye toward it. I found myself saying, "hey, that's pretty good" over and over in looking at it and it also resulted in a fresh jolt of inspiration to keep it up.

Now, to return to the topic of social media again: some of what I don't like about social media (specifically in terms of using it the way I've been trying to use it, as an art-sharing/marketing account) is the feeling of obligation surrounding it. It became increasingly obvious to me over the years that social media companies were very extractive and demanding (though that part of it is not obvious). I have never been interested in following trends and I've never felt great about making sure I was being "consistent" with my posting (and no matter what anyone says, to me it feels like consistent=prolific). I have been thinking about this blog and how it feels more like a place of my own, subject to my own needs and guidelines, and so I want to develop it more and devote more of my energy to it, as opposed to Instagram, which is where all my art-sharing energy used to go. If the internet is a river, my blog is like a calm little inlet while Instagram is right in the thick of the main flow. But, being right in the thick of that flow, it can be useful in directing people toward my little inlet (hopefully, the type of people who would enjoy being here!). So, I don't want to abandon it completely. 

The thought of writing a weekly blog post and coming up with however many posts or reels per week feels overwhelming and the biggest internal response I get to that idea is UGH. But, it just occurred to me (like, today) that I could make Friday my posting day for not only this blog, but also Instagram. That there's no law that says I have to have different content for both places. Once a week is something which is more than the nothing I've been doing there. And putting it on the same day makes it less overwhelming. It gives me a way to keep my toes dipped into the social media way of sharing my art, while still giving me the space to explore other avenues to see how well they fit and how beneficial they are. So, I'll be doing that, probably, but like I said, I just thought of it today, so I reserve the right to abandon this system.

Here's my Ordinary Beauty photo for the week:

what does the tree see?

Watercolor Attempt

 I am not too pleased with my creation for this week. It's an attempt at a watercolor landscape, but once again, I am foiled by my tendency to jump into things without knowing what I am doing and without having a clear plan. It's fine. I can reconcile it by being cognizant of the fact that things were learned.

This is from before I took the tape off, which really did create a nice, clean white border, so at least there was that.

This week we took a little day trip to the mountains and it is from there that I took my two Ordinary Beauty photos (an additional one for the week prior, which I missed). 

Bark Patterns

Mallow

At the beginning of this month, I decided I was going to try to post every day to social media. I lasted three days and then had to give it up. It's somewhat difficult to analyze. All I really know is that I get a very distinct feeling of repulsion and distaste lately when I think about posting to Instagram or Threads. It is frustrating because there is a persistent voice in my head that says, you need to do this if you want to build an art business. But, then again, I am in a pulling-back, hibernatory-like, learning phase right now, so it doesn't matter much anyway. For now, I will keep to here, my little space on the internet, to share my artistic journey, though I am sure I will dip my toes into those other places occasionally.

Getting Caught Up With All My 52 for 52s

 Over the past several weeks I have made a lot of progress in catching up with all of my various 52 for 52 challenges. So much so that last week I discovered that I was actually ahead with my blogging challenge and was able to take a week (Fri-Thurs) off. Now I can return to a once-a-week schedule, which I prefer to do on Fridays, so see me here then, assuming I can manage the consistency.

This past week I also got caught up on my 52 creations challenge. I finished a page in my sketchbook, which came out... okay. I do not love the butterflies and I had intended for a far more abstract look.

I also put together this piece from my Alice Tea Shoppe miniature set and that brings the total number of pieces completed to two. Pretty sure I've had it for more than two years now. I swear I will finish this thing some day.

And then, I also did this Procreate illustration for one of the 'tober art challenges. Prompt: blackbird.

I like it quite a lot, but one of the things about me and Procreate is that I always use the same brushes, and the same techniques and the only reason for that is that I don't really know how to do otherwise. I think I should try out some tutorials because I'd really like to explore other ways of using the app.

So, here's what I've learned from all of my catching up with my challenges: first, that the absence of schoolwork really does make a difference in my ability to find creative time. Seems like the biggest "duh" of all time, but for some reason my brain really expected to be able to handle all of the assignments, studying, writing, reading, exams, and projects and still squeeze in all of these other things. Now that I'm done with school, I am miraculously able to catch up with all of my creative input and output goals. Who knew? 

The second thing I have been learning is that I really like having challenges like this. Lists, goals, plans, prompts, themes--I love it all. There's a little dark and cynical voice inside of me that wants to devalue this tendency, to call it "cringe," "meaningless," or "stupid," or to say "why bother when you'll never follow through?" I am learning to ignore that voice (in this and many other instances). My brain likes to organize things in this way. It feels like playing. It feels like curiosity. It's fun. The trick is to not take it too seriously. I need to be flexible. I need to know my own limitations. I need to be able to get up and try again a different way if I don't meet the mark the first time instead of giving up completely. Or change the rules. I love changing the rules. There's a lot of power in saying, "Actually, I don't like it that way, so I'm going to try it this way." 

Peach and Teal

 I have been laying down blobs of leftover paint into my sketchbook after each of my painting sessions because I feel bad wasting paint. The other day I took a black Posca marker to one of those pages and added some linework and doodles and ended up with these flowers that I really loved. They reminded me of my teenage obsession with the color combination of peach and turquoise or teal.

I decided to make a few recreations on watercolor paper and I think they turned out pretty good too.

Although, part of what I liked about the sketchbook version was the unfinished look of the peach-colored background, so maybe I'll try it again later.

Here is my Ordinary Beauty photo for the week.

Pink

A Couple of Finished Projects

 This week has felt pretty productive. I started and finished a painting. It's not amazing by any means, but it taught me a lot about using acrylics that you can't really learn without actually sitting down to paint. The more I try, the more I learn (sometimes just subconsciously) how to control the viscosity and color of the paint and how to get closer to having an end result that approaches what I imagined when I started setting paint to canvas. In other words, the more I do it, the more I know how to make the paint do what I want it to do.

This painting is very much inspired by the mini embroidery I also finished this week.

I wanted to finish two things this week and I figured the best way to do that would be to not overthink things. Plus I really liked the combination of colors on the swirl on this sun, so I wanted to use similar ones with paint.

Also, here are two Ordinary Beauty photos to catch me up in sharing them.

butterflies

KEA

I know the IKEA one is very corporate, but I enjoyed the colors and the framing.

A Slow Week

 I've had a lull in creativity since I last posted. It's important to me to work at being at peace with my creative rhythms, so I'm not going to get down on myself for it. I did finish the embellished embroidery mini that I showed in my last post and I got started on the next one. 

I'm going to just go ahead and cover the entire face on that sun because... I don't know, I just don't like it.

Back to Embroidery (but just for myself)

 A few years ago I made a little 3-inch embroidery that was just some pretty fabric that I embellished with stitching and beads. I made it for myself, not to sell. Now there's a space on my wall that needs... something, and I think three hoops of that size will fill it very well. So, I need two more. I didn't have any 3-inch hoops, so I deconstructed a couple of hoop art pieces I had made long, long ago (it's fine, they weren't very good), wrapped them in ribbon, and picked out a couple of pieces of fabric with interesting designs in the right size. 

The one on top is the one I made a few years ago. The raccoon is from a piece of fabric my oldest gifted me and has lots of other cute animals with flower crowns, but the raccoon is the only one that would fit neatly in a 3-inch hoop. Here's a couple closer-up progress photos.

Embroidery art through embellishment is very relaxing. A lot of the hardest decision-making is taken care of, because the image already exists. But there's still plenty to think about. Which stitch to use, whether to use the color that's been printed or choose something else, whether to cover the whole area or just part of it, deciding where a little bit of bead/sequin bling might look good.

My hiatus from making embroidery art for the purpose of selling it continues as these ones are for me.