Hiya,
How was your May? Did it fly by like mine? I can't believe we're almost half way through 2021. Thats scary isn't it.
Now that I've given you that (possibly quite depressing) reminder, here's an update of what I got up to last month…
(quicklinks are at the end as usual)
Making art
Honestly May has not been the most productive time for me, but instead of beating myself up about my lack of creativity, I decided to embrace not knowing what to make and just doodle in my sketchbook instead. I've been enjoying sitting down in the evenings binging New Girl and doodling anything I feel like from Pinterest in black biro. I've been posting a few of these pages on my IG, which you'll find in my highlights reel, but if you really want to take a look inside my sketchbook, I'll be doing a tour video on Patreon this month.
Which leads nicely into….
Patreon
May's Patreon tutorials covered chrysanthemums and oleander. I made videos and step-by step guide to drawing each flower, and a full design video including both flowers. I also made a video about editing sketchbook drawings in procreate, and made a mini drawing challenge of different flower centres. But the biggest thing that I finally launched (with some exclusive Patreon chats) was….
Discord!!
Yes, I finally made a discord ‘Drawing Club’. If you read my last newsletter you may have already taken a look, but if not check it out HERE.
Basically I wanted to find a nice space on the Internet where I could chat art stuff with like-minded people, and figured if I can't find it I might as well try making my own. So feel free to pop over and say hi, everyone is welcome, whether you draw or not!
Wedding invitations & Bottle engraving
I had some lovely wedding invitations and save the dates to make for one of my favourite tattoo clients. I’ve been tattooing her for years now, and I’m so excited for her and her husband-to-be. And I had a couple of bottles to engrave, which is always fun.
Learning
And finally, I've been taking a course on composition (in art, not music) at the Toronto School of Art via zoom, which I’ve been really enjoying. It turns out I love zoom lessons, and the accountability of having a class and teacher that is expecting you to send in homework is sooo great for me. I can’t count how many skillshare course I’ve watched but not actually done the work set. It was only a 6 week course, and I'm sad now it's over.
I've been reading…
Such a fun age - Kiley Reid
This is a brilliant fiction read. It follows a black woman in her mid-twenties navigating working for a privileged white woman. I'm terrible at synopsis that don't spoil anything, but you should read it. I listened to the audio book and the narrator is excellent.
The not so big house - Susan Susanka
This is an older book about architecture and home design. I don't talk about it much, but I studied architecture for a couple years before dropping out to become a tattooer, and I'm still very interested in how space can be manipulated and designed to make humans feel a particular way. Susan's work is very heavily influenced by A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander, which I also enjoyed. Both are dated, and Northern America centric.
I watched…
New girl - all seven seasons (maybe this is why I didn't make much art in May… now it's making sense).
Between worlds - the worst Nic Cage movie I've ever witnessed.
But then I watched - Colour in to Space - and boy was I wrong, this is the worst Nic Cage movie.
Johnny Mnemonic - Keanu Reeves, 1995, dystopian future set in 2021, 19% on rotten tomatoes, there is a cybernetic dolphin, how had I never watched this before
I've been listening to…
Arlo Parks - Collapsed in sunbeams
Quick links….
- I've been spending a lot of time watching free diving and (wild) whale encounter videos.
- I bought Max Packs paper backgrounds, which are super useful, and only $5.
- This Arlo parks cover of Ivy (Frank Ocean) is wonderful.
- I'm a bit late to the game, but I started using Canva, which is way more an amazing programme than I realized, and I'm only using the free version.
- Machino Donuts are the best, and every time I go there the people are soooo nice.
- Who doesn't love guinea pigs?
- And lastly, I've been posting on Pinterest more! It's nice to post my work somewhere with less feeling attached to it, if that makes any sense. IG feels like I'm on show and Pinterest doesn't. Plus it doesn't punish you for adding watermarks to your work ,and you can directly link each post back you your website, which is pretty fucking useful. You can follow me on there if you like :)
Thank you for being interested in what I do!
If you liked this post you might like my Tips & Tricks newsletter! Sign up HERE