This blog is always about a month (or more) behind "real time." It takes time for me to finish a piece of artwork, photograph it, upload those photos to my computer, add watermarks, upload them to this blog, and write about them. I also tend to schedule posts a couple to a few weeks in advance, so I always know that there's something going up on the blog soon. All of this is to say - though this post is going live in mid-November, I wrote and edited this content in late October, and created the drawing itself even earlier.
September and October were slow art months for me this year. I had grand plans to create several 5"x7" sized drawings with holiday themes, which I would then scan, resize, and print on notecards in time to give to my local community art center (Paint Creek in Rochester, MI) for their 2018 holiday market. Items for the holiday market are due by late October; my art schedule then had these drawings planned for completion in September. But then I got pregnant. And had a miscarriage. And I'll be honest - for several weeks in August, September, and October, I was not in the mood to work on anything creative, let alone festive holiday-themed drawings that were looking forward to the future.
Some people find art therapeutic, but I'm not usually one of those people. (Instead, I often use writing as my therapy-of-choice.) To me, creating art is more a point of pride, a way to produce nice things for other people, and a way to try to make some extra money. I would love to allow myself to experiment more and also create art just for myself, or just for fun - but my time is limited and more often than not I focus on art that I can share, market, and sell. The standards are high, then - it can't just be a hot mess, it has to be well-executed. And when I am depressed, when I'm grieving, when I'm lacking self-confidence, it's really hard to believe I should or can create good artwork. I had the time, but I procrastinated. I had no motivation.
I finally produced one small, simple colored pencil drawing - one of the several designs I had originally planned. I started it sometime in September and finished it in early October. I didn't particularly like the way it turned out (no surprise, really, as my heart wasn't in making it), and I didn't move forward with my plans to make any others. Maybe next year will finally be the year I make a "variety pack" set of holiday notecards; in any case, it is not going to be 2018.
The 5"x7" drawing features two glass mugs of apple cider, complete with cinnamon sticks and apple slices, surrounded by a few red berries, apple slices, and a twine-wrapped bundle of more cinnamon sticks in a make-believe still life arrangement. The atmosphere is undefined, with no clear tabletop or any perspective lines and a few bokeh-style circles in the upper right reminiscent of holiday lights or glitter. I used Prismacolor pencils on toned tan Strathmore paper.
I did at least make holiday cards out of my "White Poinsettia" drawing from a couple years ago - so if you're looking for holiday cards, don't worry, I still got you covered. :) They're available now in packs of ten at the aforementioned PCCA holiday market in downtown Rochester, MI, and will also be featured in my next blog post.
September and October were slow art months for me this year. I had grand plans to create several 5"x7" sized drawings with holiday themes, which I would then scan, resize, and print on notecards in time to give to my local community art center (Paint Creek in Rochester, MI) for their 2018 holiday market. Items for the holiday market are due by late October; my art schedule then had these drawings planned for completion in September. But then I got pregnant. And had a miscarriage. And I'll be honest - for several weeks in August, September, and October, I was not in the mood to work on anything creative, let alone festive holiday-themed drawings that were looking forward to the future.
Some people find art therapeutic, but I'm not usually one of those people. (Instead, I often use writing as my therapy-of-choice.) To me, creating art is more a point of pride, a way to produce nice things for other people, and a way to try to make some extra money. I would love to allow myself to experiment more and also create art just for myself, or just for fun - but my time is limited and more often than not I focus on art that I can share, market, and sell. The standards are high, then - it can't just be a hot mess, it has to be well-executed. And when I am depressed, when I'm grieving, when I'm lacking self-confidence, it's really hard to believe I should or can create good artwork. I had the time, but I procrastinated. I had no motivation.
I finally produced one small, simple colored pencil drawing - one of the several designs I had originally planned. I started it sometime in September and finished it in early October. I didn't particularly like the way it turned out (no surprise, really, as my heart wasn't in making it), and I didn't move forward with my plans to make any others. Maybe next year will finally be the year I make a "variety pack" set of holiday notecards; in any case, it is not going to be 2018.
The 5"x7" drawing features two glass mugs of apple cider, complete with cinnamon sticks and apple slices, surrounded by a few red berries, apple slices, and a twine-wrapped bundle of more cinnamon sticks in a make-believe still life arrangement. The atmosphere is undefined, with no clear tabletop or any perspective lines and a few bokeh-style circles in the upper right reminiscent of holiday lights or glitter. I used Prismacolor pencils on toned tan Strathmore paper.
I did at least make holiday cards out of my "White Poinsettia" drawing from a couple years ago - so if you're looking for holiday cards, don't worry, I still got you covered. :) They're available now in packs of ten at the aforementioned PCCA holiday market in downtown Rochester, MI, and will also be featured in my next blog post.
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