Dear Sarah - 008
Art supplies!
Hi Nikki - January 8, 2025
I tried sketching from a photograph today--and yes, the sweatshirt was oversize!! I bought a watercolour set from the dollar store to see whether I wanted/needed colour. My conclusion? At this point, no. I want to concentrate on things like proportion, perspective, shading, line, shape, texture, space etc. So it's pencils (and pens) for me for a while. My biggest challenge right now is to silence the inner critic, whose judgement is quick to arrive and tends to linger, like a dinner party guest who comes early to "help," drinks too much (of the good stuff) and stays until you actually have to say, "I'm going to bed now. Please show yourself out." Then you get up the next day, and he's snoring on the couch.
Imposter syndrome seems to be part of the job description for most creators, but I think I can safely say that, at this stage of my drawing journey, I'm happy to just get a drawing on the page every day. No one (least of all me) would label me as an artist, and there's a great deal of freedom in that.
Today I did some work on The Thriller (and yes, I too experience imposter syndrome when I write), but I'm having fun with it and I love our characters, who are collectively getting up to no good. That said, I'll be glad when you are only one time zone ahead and we can chat on Zoom about the threatening emails...
Dear Sarah - January 8, 2025
We have managed to do a week!! That’s an accomplishment worth celebrating!
I LOVE art supplies. Whether they come from the dollar store or the art supply emporium just down the road from our AirBNB. When my father visited Japan a few years ago my brother took him to the same art supply store in Shibuya he took me to the other day. It was very strange to be in the store, captivated by the shelves and shelves of powdered pigment, the lovely papers, the pens, brushes, and whatnots that make shops like that places where I can lose hours…
I found these alcohol-based ink pens and when I got back to the BNB did a quick sketch of one of the cranes that decorate our window screen. I’m taking the pens with us today as we are headed to an onsen (hot spring) for an overnight expedition to some sort of resort/spa close to a park where capybaras bathe in warm, mineral-infused waters.
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