NEW Artist Practice + Two NEW Illustrations
Originally Published on my Patreon Page…
June 10, 2024
Little by little, my inspiration is back! I was busy entertaining thoughts that were not invited, thoughts that begin with “you must,” “everyone,” “no one,” and “you should.” I managed to throw them out. But my thoughts can be stubborn, as I write this, I notice how possessive I am with these thoughts, by writing the word “my” is how I let these uninvited guests, stay on my mind longer than necessary. I learned long ago, thoughts are just thoughts and treating them as such, the thoughts leave as soon as they come. But I still entertain them long enough to distract me.
The hardest thought to escape from has been the one that says to me “this is just a hobby, something that I like to do, when I like to do it,” when in reality I’m in the process of building an illustration business, a new way to earn a living, daily. And that tiny last part of “earn a living” is scary. Maybe facing this scary part of the goal, led me to entertain these uninvited guests, as an escape. I can go on, and on, never getting to what I truly need to write for myself as a reminder to get out of these distraction traps faster and hopefully, at some point no longer falling for them.
So how did I replace these awful guests or how did I refocus this time?
I started by asking myself, what would be the thing that keeps me moving forward? what would be the thing that would motivate me enough every day to keep creating? The thing that if I did, would open the flow of more ideas and more illustrations. I’ve read that for some artists, it is keeping a sketchbook practice. I tried it, but it is not for me. Sketching for me is part of resolving or expanding on an idea and for practicing a specific skill. I’ve also read that for other artists, the thing is learning. I tried it. I love learning, but as I mentioned on another post, learning is all I did for many years and now it’s time to implement that learning. Of course, if there is something that I’m working on and I feel that taking a course will help me, for example more photoshop courses, I will sign up for that specific learning. But I was looking for forward movement, growth, and consistency. And I found the thing: Working on a group of illustrations as a practice. Working on a group of illustrations, at least 3, not more than 5 illustrations within the same time period, became my practice. This practice gave me gave me freedom by allowing me to switch among illustrations, keeping my process fluid and fresh and still moving forward.
I just finished adding to Society 6 and RedBubble the second of 3 illustrations within my first group of illustrations. The first, published in May was called “Love at First Sight,” and this recent one is called “Bloom.” I developed them last year but never finished. I had started them in gouache and I didn’t like how they looked, so I re-created them in color pencils. Color pencils are my medium of choice for the time being. I love how soothing and meditative it is to slowly build layer after layer.
While working on the “Love at First Sight” illustration, additional steps to my process became clear. The illustration was inspired by photos of my niece Eli when she discovered a telephone. She was born in the smart phone era. Initially, I wasn’t too happy with the realistic drawing versions of the photo. I decided to disassemble the image to then put it back together using different shapes to make an illustrated Eli. This decision or choice led me to not leave anything to chance or to how my hand would draw it. It led me to purposefully or intentionally draw and draw until each detail fit the final drawing composition that would resemble my Eli and her theatrical poses.
The second illustration, “Bloom,” took me much longer. Both were ready almost at the same time, but photoshop has a strange effect on my mood. So I took a long break between the photoshop clean-up phases. In the end, it worked, the gap allowed me to think about adding extra steps to my process, steps after publication, I started asking myself, “how do I get these illustrations noticed?” It allowed me to see that each illustration is its own package. I don’t have a satisfying answer yet, but for now, it is alright.
There is a lot of advice out there on how to advertise, how to market, etc, to grow your illustration business; yet, that hustle is a reminder of the side of business I’m moving away from. No explanation needed. I decided to treat the whole process organically because when I get caught up in the craziness that is social media, I see that I will not be creating art, but ads. I choose to create from within, to express from within, and maybe my audience is yet to come, maybe my audience is also just moving away from the hustle. It takes so much restrain to post only when I have an illustration to share and when that illustration is meaningful to me, an expression of me. And I heard that if you just want to create for yourself, then why go into business? Simple, I also heard that when I look at another, it is like looking at myself in a mirror. In essence, creating for myself, is creating for others.
And the last piece, I want to record for my future self: the Pantone Color of the Year 2024 is Peach Fuzz and I saw how artists are incorporating the color into their art, it looks fun! On the pantone website I found pallets that combine Peach Fuzz with other colors, just looking at the palettes brings so many ideas to mind. And that was my goal, for one thing to lead to another. I used the “Pantone Peach Plethora” pallet for my “Love at First Sight” illustration and the “Pantone Pairings” pallet for my “Bloom” illustration. Until this discovery, I did not realize color pencils could be mixed (in layers) to attain new colors. I believe I was able to come close to the Pantone colors or at least achieve a cohesive look to my illustrations. I did a comparison to my older illustrations and choosing a color pallet before hand is the way to go especially since I’m not very good at color theory (not yet!).
Until next time!