Still trying to settle into a posting rhythm here, and I see this will be my third Sunday in a row. I’m planning to shake that pattern up though by posting “What I Read in November” in the next few days, and then who knows? Minor distraction ahead of a colonoscopy this week, starting the liquid fast and then the, um, purging from tomorrow morning. I’m not looking forward to the process (my first one, and I hope it will be the last!), but one of my siblings was diagnosed with colon cancer before 60, so this seems a good idea . . .
I’m trying to balance blogging with my desire and commitment to sketch more, especially after having created space for that commitment throughout our time away in October and early November. My sketch journal entries have been sporadic and the efforts uneven in terms of how much they pleased me, but I’m giving myself credit for keeping them going at a busy time.
I’ll post them here with no additional captioning, but feel free to ask me questions for clarification or more information. . .
And I’ve set myself a few challenges — For example, I went back to a “little book of faces” I started back in March and then abandoned in May. I’ve added four pages there, each a sketch from a photograph I took of Paul and I in Rome and shared on Instagram weeks ago.
I also responded to a fun challenge regularly set on Instagram by a Paris Sketchbook classmate. Each week on Sunday, @housecatillustration posts a photo, invites her 108K followers to take an hour; create an illustration using any materials; then share it using the appropriate hashtag; and finally, feel good about challenging ourselves. . .
When I first looked at her account, I wasted some time feeling some retrospective intimidation (She’s SO good!) about the level of other participants in that weeklong workshop. And then I spent a few weeks looking through her inspiring subject photos and the wide ranges of responses to them. Then, two or three weeks ago, I went to my default scrap paper (somehow I always find this loosens me up, gives me permission) and I challenged myself to illustrate her chosen photo — an attractive young couple holding hands, wearing goofy Christmas sweaters — in my illustration, the couple is Paul and I, although I ran out of space to give myself legs.
So now, I’ve answered @housecatillustration’s invitation in everything except sharing my version on the Instagram page she’s set up for that purpose. And I might just feel up to doing that today. . . (if I do, I’ll link back to that later).
I think it might be fun to do an improved version of this (surer lines, a bit of colour) and turn it into a Christmas card . . . maybe next year?
Another challenge I set myself, just the other day was at this month’s Creative Mornings breakfast talk in Vancouver; the internationally set theme for the month was Pain (and its intersection with Creativity). I’ve been consciously tucking a small sketchbook and a pen into my bag lately, and as I listened to the live musicians who preceded the main speaker (such a good talk by a lawyer, a mediator, someone who works in conflict resolution, often using creative means to interrupt obstructive patterns), I realized the musicians offered a good opportunity for sketching . . .
if only I didn’t feel so self-conscious (shy, awkward, embarrassed, take your pick!) about sketching in a roomful of creative people. Surely every one, in this inner narrative, was more skilled than I, and by extension would be scornful of any marks I made on my page (What a poser! Who does she think she is?!). But there was another voice made stronger by that Paris week . . . a voice which sensibly pointed out that the 2 or 3 hundred eyes in the room were focused on the musicians rather than on the notebook in my lap. And that most of the creative people I know have applauded my efforts every step of the way — not necessarily the results of those efforts, but the fact that I make them.
So partway through the last song of their set, I pulled my pen and little book out of my bag onto my lap in my aisle seat in the second row from the front, and tried to ignore anything but the music and my eyes and my hand. . .
My final challenge, sketching-wise, lately has been (finally) working to finish my Paris Sketchbook so that I can share it, perhaps in a little video. Someone from our class posted hers the other day (just for those of us who participated) and I was impressed and inspired. Also a bit intimidated by how polished hers is — and lively and gorgeous! But that’s a boring and non-productive path to spend any time on, right? So I corrected course setting, and decided to follow her example as it suited me. Turns out it’s been much fun, very satisfying, and just a delightful way to revisit memories from the cosy perspective of home.
I hope you’ve enjoyed another peek through my sketchbooks. I seem to be working my way towards a way of expressing myself in a combination of words and photos and sketches, and I’m happy to have you keeping me company as I do.
Next post, as I mentioned above, will be a Books post, my November Reading.
until then,
xo,
f
(as always, comments below, much appreciated!)
My favourite one of you two is the ‘much harder with brush pen’ one. I love the confident brush strokes and I think you’ve captured an essence in it.
I also really like the goofy Christmas jumpers one!
You’ve reminded me of how many barriers I put up…and it’s time to start getting over them! Thanks for sharing your art 🧡
Author
Thanks for giving me a different perspective on that brush pen sketch, Genevieve!
And yes, we put up these barriers for a variety of reasons, and some of them have outgrown their usefulness.
You’re very welcome!
Good luck re colonoscopy. I had one and tbh better than dental appt for a crown…the purging is not as bad as it sounds, if a little intense, so find something to read. Put it this way: I know more than most about 17th century English Civil War defences than most.
Author
Ha! I’m choosing much lighter reading than that! 😉
I agree with Genevieve , that particular drawing of you together really captures you both . Also the last drawing , the one of the singers , is clever . So few brush strokes , yet so real . Not easy to do that . Your persistence is definitely paying off .
Author
Thanks, Wendy! I’m really pleased with what my quick lines caught in that last drawing — and I’m hoping that it will remind me to overcome my reticence and follow the urge to sketch in public when it hits.
My goodness Frances, you are setting yourself loads of challenges, to say nothing of a medical procedure. It’s very interesting as a reader how different the reading experience is between reading just text, and reading unmediated-by-technology handwriting accompanied by sketches. Much more immediate in the latter and a real sense of the person behind the words and images.
Author
Thanks for that feedback, Linda! I’m increasingly wanting to do more with hand and pen on paper — it will never be as fast nor as legible as writing on my laptop, but it’s such a different process physically and mentally and perhaps even spiritually or emotionally. . .
Hello, That first sketch of you and Paul, faces up close, at what you call an odd angle made me say, “That’s Paul”!
All the creativity, Frances, you just persist and effort begets more effort. It seems you have developed a creativity “practice”, the way one might do with a yoga practce. it doesn’t have to be a heroic effort, it seems to me, just a gentle, rolling, practice. I so admire your efforts. The bits of collage, as I have mentioned to you before, take me back to my teenage self who rip, rip, ripped pages from magazines and the Boston Sunday Globe, then created collages with words cut from the same pages…of course plastering my bedroom walls with them. Such fun to look back on all your pages I would imagine.
I remember reading 20 years ago that Carly Simon took one Polaroid photo a day, then entered it in a scrapbook with a short caption. The ideas so enchanted me that I thought of it for years. Recently I realized that, essentially, I have created that for myself with my near daily photos with my excellent phone camera, letting the photo speak for itself as have not figured out a way to quickly caption it.
A.in London
Author
Thanks for this thoughtful response, April. I think you’re right, and I like the way you contrast a “heroic effort” with a “gentle, rolling, practice.”
And yes, it’s so much fun to look back through older pages.
I hadn’t heard about Carly Simon’s practice, but wouldn’t it be fun to find out she’d published her scrapbooks or shared them somewhere so that we could have a peek. Have you heard about the phone app 1 Second Everyday? Here’s a link. I don’t use it myself, but I love seeing the 30-second month’s worth that some post — Here’s an example from the Yarn Harlot
Author
Whoops, that last link didn’t work. Here it is
re colonoscopy, my most recent one convinced me that the technology has improved vastly – much less uncomfortable than the earlier ones! Probably too late to be helpful, but I was also advised when I made the appointment to eat more lightly in the days prior to the liquid fast and that may have helped.
Your sketches are fun and I love the holiday card idea!
Ceci
Author
Thanks for the c-scopy reassurance. I did have dietary restrictions for the week before the process, so we’ll see how it goes. Honestly, I think I’ll just be glad to tuck into a big meal afterward!
Love, love the musicians!
Re: the colonoscopy, I’m with Annie, the prep is more inconvenient than anything…you’re not ill…you’re just, well, engaged. Yes, reading material a must. And the process itself is a breeze. Plan something nice to eat for afterward. (And repeat as directed, and ask all loved ones to do the same.)
Author
Yes, VERY engaged! I had imagined being able to do a few tasks, get out for a walk, etc. How foolish that latter would have been!
And yes! I’ve given some pretty clear instructions for dinner tonight!
Thank you for sharing your work . You are an inspiration as ever. Wishing you a good outcome with the colonoscopy. Mt own experience and also for my friends who have had the test is the the preparation is worse than the actual procedure.
Author
You’re very welcome, Darby! And I’m feeling much less apprehensive about the procedure after so many have said what you do. And I’m so glad to have drunk the last of that preparation, UGH!
I continue to be inspired by your artistic process! Yesterday, as I sat on an airplane on my way home to Arizona from Minnesota, I tried to sketch the snowfall I had seen from my sister-in-law’s window the day before—the bare trees, with some patches of brown leaves still clinging here and there, against all the white and grey…. This contrasted nicely with the drawing I did the day before, when there was still green grass to be seen. Drawing on the plane did make me a wee self-conscious too, but the people around me were mostly dozing, so I proceeded!
I hope all is going well with the annoyance of the colonoscopy. It is a necessary evil.
Author
It seems to be that you’re developing your own creative practice, Linda! Brava!
And the colonoscopy will be a necessary evil of the past by later this afternoon, and I’ll be celebrating that with a good dinner 😉
Love the drawings of you and Paul. The brush pen may have been harder but the results are really worth it!
Hope the colonoscopy goes without a hitch and that this is your last. My father had colon cancer in his late 70’s, so I have been on a 3 year repeat for years. I must be use to them now because aside from a couple of days out of commission, the procedure is not too bad. Always glad for a clean bill of health at the end and I wish you the same.
Author
Thank you! I do find the brush pen tricky, but a few of my classmates and one of our instructors were deliberately using theirs so that they would get past the challenges — and then getting some great results — so I’m trying to do the same with mine.
I have a friend (a retired nurse) who is also on the 3-year schedule and she tells me the same. It’s good to hear — and I’m also glad to hear that you have “a couple of days out of commission.” I hadn’t anticipated this and have been a bit surprised at how thoroughly it’s pushed everything on my list/schedule out of the way. I’ll know better next time, if there has to be another. . .
I would love to see more of your sketches. I took a 6 week course several years ago in drawing and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Since then I’ve watched watercolor videos on line and have made several small watercolor painting for family and friends as gifts. Thank you so much for sharing your sketches, travels and book recommendations with us!
Author
You’re very welcome, Roberta, and thanks for letting me know you enjoy the posts (and that you also enjoy drawing and painting — there are so many great videos available on line, aren’t there?!)
Your blog is like a hit of oxygen! I should take my own advice and draw 10 minutes a day! Thanks for a glimpse into your sketching life. In the end, for me, it’s all about paying attention, stopping time for a few minutes and really observing….
Author
Aw, thanks! And yes, it’s that careful observation, taking that time in a busy, busy world!