Hello December!
Art
100 figure drawings in 30 days was ambitious… I think I got a third of the way through, but that included a lot of small scribbly pose ideas that weren’t really gesture drawings or very helpful. I quickly realized this was a quality over quantity issue, needing better structured practice, like hand studies, and expression practice, so that ultimately I can draw complete and detailed characters. I’ve definitely improved, being too embarrassed to share the early work. But its getting better! I think I’m getting better at the technical side of drawing characters. Now I struggle a lot with ideas, creating interesting poses and branching out from drawing everyone in sweats or flannel… But I’m working on it! Still practicing, and so looking forward to feeling comfortable creating interesting characters for my future illustrations!
As always, its hard to find balance and structure in my routine, between comics, illustrations, and sketchbook practice. Making sure I have time for it all. But the good part is that I enjoy all of it and I’ve got the time! I think…
Not Art
I started playing Animal Crossing again in November. (Suddenly it is no longer a mystery why getting my to do list done each week was a lot harder than normal… Oops!) I finally burned out again around Thanksgiving, when I proceeded to play Skyrim nonstop. I played so much, I was grateful to go back to work that Monday after. But honestly, it was so fun to play again after years!
Books
I finally got to new chapters in The Wheel of Time! We started watching the show, and I knew just enough to be very confused. So that gave me all the motivation I needed to read more of Eye of the World finally. I don’t love the show, admittedly. I get why they are making a lot of their creative decisions, but I just don’t agree with them. Mostly the way they handled the beginning (since I know it sooo well) and character motivations. But I can’t even be like “the book is better” because I don’t love it either and certainly haven’t finished reading it. But I do love fantasy, so I’m intrigued enough to stick with both.
I also read Magpie Murders last month. I think after rewatching Knives Out I was like, I need more mysteries in my life. So I tried Anthony Horowitz, having read some Alex Rider books growing up. And it was very like, cinematic, in the way he writes (I believe he writes for TV too). So it was a lot of fun and I’m super excited to read more mysteries now! Yay!
Thanks for joining me in The Shallow End!
Summer Child Designs 