March Month of Studies

I’m slowly gathering equipment for my new studio. I can see it piecing together, but the space is frustratingly not useable just quite yet. (As ever, I need patience). In the meantime, I want to start working on my upcoming projects as best as I can. Since I’m working with my chosen medium in a way I am less familiar with (watercolour for illustrations, where I have only used it for sketching in the past) and a technique I haven’t practised much yet, I have decided that March will be my month of studies.

I’ve set five study challenges for myself per week, turning over each Thursday. The upcoming set starts with:

• Embroidery
• Woven Textiles
• Mark-making for hair
• Calm and melancholy expressions
• Water patterns

My goal for these studies is to find a way to suggest using pencil and watercolour, with a minimum of lines and details drawn out. I’ve always been captivated by textures, layers and patterns in textiles, and it’s something I want to bring into my work.

I have spent a lot of time drawing whatever took my fancy, with no real narrative driving me. This year, I want to be intentional in what I create, and most of all, I want to enjoy the creative process without focusing too hard on the final product.

So that will be a big part of this blog – detailing my creative process, and the decisions I make. I’ll write about my inspirations, especially those moments in my travels last year that clarified my thoughts beautifully, and those moments that sent me down pathways I’d not considered before.

And at the end of each month, I’ll be sending out an ‘In The Studio’ newsletter. This was a project I’d hoped to begin back when I had a patreon running, but I never felt anything I did was interesting enough. The resurrected idea will now be to include some extra information about my current projects, a small tidbit about an artist, painting or book that I love, and links to any interesting or enjoyable resources I stumbled across that month. You can find the sign up on my sidebar on the homepage.

So I suppose this was my offical welcome back to my blog post, after my long silence last year. I’ll be using this space to chart my course through my creative pursuits. My goal is to cultivate. Put time, focus and resources into the things I value and enjoy, and invest in them. It’s terrifying and it’s great.

Have you participated in any drawing challenges? Or perhaps you have an artist that fills you with inspiration? Please feel free to comment, as I’d love to hear about them.