New Beginnings... Well, Almost!

I didn’t realise how long it had been since I had written a post on here. It has been two years, bear with me, my writing is going to be super rusty. My last post was about my Arts Council Funding, I was feeling so motivated and creative on the back of my year long project, and as the project ended, I was already halfway through my EFT training, which was also really exciting and inspiring, but looking back, I realise I was also a bit knackered from throwing myself into new things, I also caught Covid for the first time, around the same time. I then still needed to work through my 30 hours of EFT practice throughout the following year. 30 hours doesn’t sound like much, but it is one heck of a learning curve. I did quite a lot of practice hours as swaps with other training practitioners, which meant an hour as a practitioner and an hour as a client, so as well as learning a lot, I was simultaneously processing all my own baggage at the same time, which could be quite intense… it was quite the ride, not regrets though, I now have a tool and a skill that can really help to support others as well as myself, and I’ve met some wonderful people.

It has now been a year since I became accredited as an EFT practitioner, and that year has also flown by, I started 2024 by taking another EFT course – PTT (Picture Tapping Technique), which as you can imagine, really appealed to me, it was a lot of fun, but my focus also shifted to selling the house. It was already on the market but at the end of 2023 we decided to change estate agents (if you ever think that isn’t worth doing because they are ‘all the same’, maybe reconsider, it made a huge difference for us).

2024 has seen me: trying to fit in a few trips to the theatre or to see bands with my friend before I moved away, find a buyer for the house, travelling up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed to look at houses, having an offer accepted on a house in Berwick, losing a buyer, finding a new buyer, spending far too much time rifling through boxes of nostalgia, selling the house, saying goodbye and leaving Conford for the last time after 9 years, and now waiting for my purchase to go through, while I stay with family in Norfolk.

There has been a lot of excitement, a lot of stress, a lot of emails, a lot of phone calls, a lot of waiting, and a lot of living with boxes. I have continued trying to create in between the viewings and the packing, and the planning and organising, but it has been tricky, and now all my art supplies are in a storage unit somewhere. I am choosing to believe that everything happens when it is supposed to, but boy, has that been challenging at times. I’m trying to relax and enjoy the time I have right now, because before I know it, it will be moving vans and boxes all over again, but in reverse, emptying everything, and a new chapter will begin. Part of me doesn’t dare think about Berwick, not until I am actually there and moved in, it has been a long, long, road to get to this point, I often thought it wasn’t going to happen, it was like everyone else was living at a normal speed, and I was frozen in the space I was in. Even now it feels so near, yet so far.

I have a list of things I want to work on once I have paper, paint and desk space again. The website needs a serious overhaul, it is so out of date now. not quite abandoned but close enough. The last two years has seen me play and try various things out, I’ve found myself drawn to bright colours and patterns, but there is definitely more work to do before I can get the site up to scratch. I believe everything is happening as and when it should, and that is okay, it is not up to me to question it, it is just my job to start creating at full speed again, and hopefully I’m on my way to doing just that, soon-ish.

August 2022 - Gish 2022

It is a good job that I finally posted that Gish 2021 round-up in February, because I haven’t posted a blog since, and last week marked Gish 2022 (The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt). It was all a bit different this year, I knew I was having house guests, and that I’d be busy, so rather than approaching the week in the manner of an over-excited, rabid, tasmanian devil, and turning the house upside down, I approached it… well, like an adult. I didn’t get dehydrated, I didn’t put too much pressure on myself, and I didn’t make a mess, (not much mess anyway).

I chose three items from the hunt list on the Saturday, all of which I completed by the time my guests arrived on the Tuesday.

The first task involved taking two short poems, from two different genres, and using all the words (you were allowed to add and take away conjunctions and articles) to make a new poem. I chose “Now We Are Six” by A. A. Milne, and Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep – originally Immortality by Clare Harner. It was tricky because both poems have a repetition of words, so, there was quite a lot of “I”s and ‘now”s. The result is a little abstract, and I’m sure some people would read it and say something like, “Shouldn’t that say ‘were’ instead of ‘was’?” – well, no, because the word ‘were’ wasn’t available. So, try to leave everything you have ever learned about grammar to one side, and just go with it. I called it “Death is Born”, which sounds a little glum, but I like to think that it is about a spirit who is transitioning between passing on from a human life and becoming a reaper. Everything is new, but also old, they are a bit confused, and trying to make sense of the remains of human memories they have mixed up with their new role.

The second item I chose from the hunt list was also related to poetry. It was to create a piece of animation to accompany a poem by Misha Collins, chosen from his book, “Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You”. I chose a poem called “Old Bones”, because I like its warmth, it feels simple but authentic. It was also pretty short, and as I knew I was going to do some kind of stop-motion animation, I wanted to make sure I didn’t bite off more than I could chew, because I didn’t have much time to complete it.

Finally, I chose to create a cover for a graphic novel edition of the podcast audio drama, Bridgewater. I know some of the covers by other teams are absolutely brilliant and feature some of the characters, but again, I decided to keep it simple and concentrate on shapes and the environmental elements. It is an eerie, supernatural story, based on lots of real folklore, and a lot of the action take place at night, so I stuck to black, greys and white. There are some tall swamp trees in the background that can vaguely be seen, then there is a big rock with a ledge, then we have a fire, lit by a cult at one of their meetings, and a cult member with a knife (for carving symbols into the rock). There are also three mysterious balls of light, and general leafy foliage. Intrigued? Bridgewater is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim & Mild, and you can read all about it here, and listen to it pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts.

It does feel a little strange to have only completed three items, to have remained completely calm the whole week, and not be faced with the aftermath… I didn’t even get post-Gish blues this year. I can’t promise the same will happen next year, old habits die hard. Should I end up feeling like I missed out I can always catch up on the Zoom webinars that I missed on YouTube when they become available. The webinars have guests invited to give a talk and share their expertise, and it can be be on any kind of subject, from adventuring to storytelling, to rejection (a few examples from last year). This year I only managed to catch Sam Maggs and Patrick Weekes talking all things writing and fanfic, but it was marvellous, and I look forward to seeing the others.

So after three items, I pulled back from Gish and instead, I tidied the house, went on walks, outside, and saw the sunshine – these things rarely happen in a normal non-Gish week. We even popped to Cowdray to raid the farm shop, look at the ruin and eat a spot of lunch.

I even got to have a little walk alongside the sea, and got a bit high on all the pastel, jewel colours in the evening light, how can anyone not love those colours!

That was my first week of August? How was yours? The second week is looking nowhere near as promising as my neighbour is on the roof repointing the chimney – it is noisy!

Until next time… Now where are my headphones…

A Late Round-Up: Gish – Saturday 31st July - 8th August 2021

I just can’t seem to get back into the habit of blogging, I have photos and videos on my phone that remain unshared, and various rough drafts sitting on devices, and I’m determined not to let them go to waste. The last year has been a bit difficult for me, and I have been very distracted, but I will keep trying to catch up the best I can. This catch-up is all about Gish 2021, I thought I had better get this one posted before Gish 2022 rolls around, it’s only 5 months away…

Oh Gish, how I love thee. For those who haven’t heard me babble on about Gish before, it is a yearly, week-long, global scavenger hunt. You pay to enter, and some of the proceeds of the fee go to charity. You find yourself a team, (it could be people you know, or anyone across the world), or you are automatically placed in a team, and then on the last Saturday of July/first Saturday of August, a list of tasks appear on the website or app. Tasks aim to be fun and weird, they might be artistic, such as creating portraits from spices, or infuriating, such as polishing a coconut. There are tasks that help those in need, or those in your community, such as taking supplies to food banks or dog shelters, or maybe sharing a local dog, that is up for adoption, on social media to help find them a home. There are tasks that raise awareness for groups of people, or world issues, such as LGBTQI+ or the climate emergency, and each year there is also a four day “Change a Life” fundraiser to help specific people or communities. In 2021 money was raised for the children’s ward at “EMERGENCY”, an NGO and charity hospital in Kabul. To be “Gishy”, is to be kind, be supportive, willing, and a bit weird, and it is the loveliest community. This was my fourth Gish, and I’ll be honest, I came very close to not signing up. Life was very much getting in the way, and I just didn’t feel like I had much left in the tank to contribute to my team. Thankfully, my wonderful team captain, Sonya, assured me, they’d rather have me ‘there’ doing nothing, than not be there at all. I am so glad that she convinced me, because it turns out that I had never needed Gish in my life, quite so much.

I didn’t complete as many tasks this year, and the ones I did complete were mostly not fulfilled to the greatest standard, but I did also try to complete a few that were not in my comfort zone. To be clear, my comfort zone is something creative that doesn’t need me in a video – this year I put myself in three videos. It still isn’t something I’m comfortable with, I’m the biggest introvert, so I’m only brave enough to share one of them here, (the other two will be left forgotten, in a folder somewhere on my computer, hopefully to never see the light of day again, unless one day, I really need to remind myself how brave I can be). I guess the point is, I wasn’t in a great place, but Gish still makes me feel safe enough to give things a shot.

So, the first item on the list that I completed was : Tokitae the orca was captured from the Puget Sound 50 years ago and has been imprisoned in a small tank at the Miami Sea Aquarium for years. Her mother and the rest of her pod are alive and living near Washington/Canada. The Lummi Nation has a sea pen ready for her and want to bring her home, where the Lummi people and her pod can care for her and prove that orcas will recognise and accept family even after 50 years, but the owner of the Miami Seaquarium won’t let her go. Write a haiku with a watercolour image of Tokitae about family belonging together.

This is very much within my comfort zone, as I created a haiku for an aye-aye in a previous year. I’m beginning to think that I could start a collection if there is another wildlife based illustration and haiku task in 2022.

The next item I completed was: Salt and pepper go so well together. They are a match made in heaven. Let’s use the magical symbiotic powers of salt and pepper to unite two feuding personalities in art. Take two legendary nemesis and unite them on a cutting board or plate, one depicted in salt and one in pepper.

So, I may have interpreted this one a little clumsily. I read it as “feuding personalities in art”, as in ‘the world of art’, so I chose Pollock and De Kooning (who didn’t feud so much, but were pitted against each other by art critics), but that is okay, Gish likes to be a little offbeat. I figure that at least it was an unorthodox choice compared to more obvious nemeses like Batman and the Joker :D.

Next up: Waffle House. No, no we mean a REAL Waffle House. Let’s see your best flapjack house. Your best Eggo edifice (thank goodness for Stranger Things or anyone outside of the U.S. would be flummoxed). Your best hotcake homestead. Your best crepe condominium. You get the idea.

I made so many waffles, and bought so many waffles and pancakes, but it was definitely worth it. I didn’t have a solid plan for this, and I woke up on the Monday morning feeling really low and sad, but do you know what? By the time I finished that waffle house at 2pm I was in the best mood, talk about therapy (or possibly the consumption of sugar). I highly recommend getting lost in a task that ultimately has no meaning, and can also be eaten – that vegetable patch was delicious. (I’ll also add that my sweet little waffle house made it into the Gish 2021 coffee table book, which can be quite the challenge, so I was very pleased, and I’m also proud of my team mate who made it in there too, it’s the first year we had two images in the book).

The fourth task was (and this is where I start getting a bit shy): Bees communicate through dance, and so do you. Make a beeline to TikTok and show us what the Beeline dance looks like  – and you must be dressed as our cat/bee mascot when you do it. (Every year Gish has a different animal hybrid mascot).

So, this one I don’t mind sharing because it made me laugh so much (which was a real tonic), and I was just so proud (I’m not sure that is necessarily the most accurate word) to do it, because I never put myself on the internet, I really just had to say “screw it, this terrifies me and I’m doing it anyway”. I also realise that it isn’t the most successful costume in the world, but I wanted to create it without spending money and with as little waste as possible (the tail which was made of a pair of tights stuffed with socks, is all back in a drawer ready to use as tights and socks again, and the painted, yellow, paper stripes are in a folder ready to use for collage).

The next two video tasks are just too painful to share, the first one was: Resting B**** Face The Musical! Write a song with happy uplifting lyrics, and perform the whole thing in a monotone, one chord/one-note fashion, with resting b**** face the whole time.

I can confirm that monotone resting b**** face is not an attractive look, it encourages you to create your very best double chin :D, I’ve never looked so bad, but I am bloody good at it – who knew? A skill I never realised I had! I haven’t got a great singing voice, but it is really hard to try not to sing at all and remain monotone, and also not smile or animate your face. I thought my song was quite cheery, it had a little hearty tune, even if I couldn’t use it!  

The third video was me attempting to shout/sing/butcher Pearl Jam, and I won’t inflict that on your ears, it is quite the punishment. The item was: It is International lost in karaoke night & you’re up next! Choose an English language song and translate it into at least 3 different language via google translate, then back to English. Then sing the resulting lyrics.

I chose Evenflow by Pearl Jam, and I think I used Hawaiian and maybe Welsh, I can’t remember, I tried a lot of languages.

Both ‘singing’ tasks were particularly terrifying, and as a result the videos were a bit boring and could have been funnier if I had put more thought into them, but for where I was and how I was feeling at that time, the important thing for me was to just try, and not try to be the best, or do something quirky and outstanding, I literally just wanted to be brave enough to do it, brave enough to submit it, and then forget it ever happened. Who knows, maybe I’ll do a better job next time.

The final item that I completed alone was: Gotta catch ‘em all: rejections that is! You want be the very best (like no one ever was) and to do that you have to collect as many rejections as you can between now and the end of the Hunt! Create a Pokemon-style trading card set of 3 of the lovable “no” monsters you collected, detailing what you asked for, how powerful a “No” it was, and how the experience strengthened you in some way.

As I was very much completing tasks from home, most of the ‘nos’ I experienced came from me restricting myself, and I had to use my imagination a little bit, I didn’t have much negativity to play with, so it was a bit of a stretch, but I do love to draw any kind of character, so I just went with it.

The final task was part of the Gish closing ceremony the following Saturday night. It was a group record breaking attempt: In celebration of 10 years of Gish, we’re attempting to set our first GISH World Record: the most handwritten notes of kindness posted on Instagram in an hour! Encourage all your teammates as well as everyone you know to join this effort.

This was fun and emotional, in all the right ways! Lots of people were on Zoom, and everyone was posting their notes all at the same time, and I spent most of the hour looking at the #GISHnotes hashtag (which you can still look at if you need to read some good and kind words right now), and reading all the beautiful things people had written. Mine was directed at the whole of the GISH community because I was just so grateful (and emotional) to have taken part, it really made me appreciate all the wonderful things that this weird (not so) little game does.

So that was it for another year, or was it? There was a fun, free, participate if you feel like it, “Halloweird” in October (a task a day for 13 days), and I couldn’t resist completing one of the items, to illustrate the poem Black Cat by Misha Collins. I just got it into my head that I wanted to cut out some paper and layer it somehow, just like the waffle house, there was no particular plan, I just sat down and worked it out as I went along, and I think it turned out alright considering I winged it.

I’m pretty sure that is GISH done until summer ‘22 – for me at least – but you can never quite tell. I can’t wait to see what happens next. 

October 2021 - Hello Again & New Folksy & Society6 Products

It is hard to believe that is has almost been a year since my last blog post. My last post was full of Inktober 2020 illustrations, and, as I type this I’m around half way through my Inktober 2021 illustrations. In some ways it is like the last year didn’t happen, it has just simply vanished, and in other ways it has been a long, hard, slog. I think, as I reached the end of 2020, and we started the New Year under lots of COVID restrictions and going into another lockdown, I felt like everything was put on pause while we waited to get vaccinated. It felt long, and I simply didn’t feel like writing blog posts – I’m sure a lot of people felt the same way. Then, as we progressed further through the year I had to face some personal difficulties, and as I’m not someone who can act all cheery on the internet if I’m not actually feeling it, I didn’t say anything at all. Things still aren’t sorted for me personally, that’ll take some time, but regardless of how I’ve been feeling, one thing that hasn’t changed, is that I haven’t stopped drawing.

I’m one cover design away from my second ‘rough’ picture book dummy being finished (‘finished’ doesn’t mean full-colour spreads here – it is rough). It is a wordless story about a robot, aiming to encourage slightly older reluctant readers. I like the idea of a book being accessible to any (sighted in this case) person, even if they struggle to read. The structure of the narrative is slightly more complex than a traditional picture book, so it still feels like you are having to read and interpret the story - just without words. I wonder if I would be told it is too complex for younger readers? But, what I always find fascinating about little kids, is how often, when ‘they’ tell a story, there is very little structure, their stories jump around like dreams, and while I think structure in books is important, I’m wondering if kids would be as baffled by a more complex structure, with multiple characters, as adults would think, or would they just take it in their stride? I think it would be interesting in find out.

I’ve also recently reopened my Folksy shop and my Society 6 shop. My Folksy shop is currently only accessible to those in the UK (postage and tax to other countries has become pretty expensive for the time being) and it is selling some of my handmade polymer clay jewellery, (I’ve also made all the polymer clay beads used in the jewellery).

I am now also selling a small selection of greetings cards featuring 5 of my woodland animal illustrations. I can’t decide on my favourite – I love the squirrel’s tail, but the badger is so much fun and the mole looks so sweet! I’m really pleased with them all, so I’m planning on creating more illustrations using the same characters.

For anyone outside of the UK interested in my illustrations, there is a wider range of animal friends (10 characters) available in my Society 6 store on a variety of different products (if you click on a product, others products with the same design will show up at the bottom of that particular product page). People in the UK can purchase from Society 6 too, but watch out for postage and tax, I have no control over these things.

I hopefully won’t leave it another year before I post again, I plan to fill you in on a few things that happened in the year that wasn’t, and I’ll give you a rundown on Inktober 2021 once it is complete. 

Take care and I’ll be back soon. x

June - July 2020 – Intro to Children's Publishing Course and Buying all the Books!

So much for a monthly blog post! Here is a round-up of the last two months!

Lockdown may have eased a lot in the UK now but I’m still sticking pretty close to home, I find myself thinking that I’ll put something off for one or two weeks more just to see how things go. Maybe I’m being too cautious but I don’t feel trapped or like I’m missing out on anything yet, even though I’ve been staying in a lot. I think this is mostly down to taking part in an eight-week course during June and July, called “Intro to Children’s Publishing” hosted by editor Katy Flint. The course involved a weekly Zoom meeting and homework to continue with during the rest of the week. It was limited to ten participants, which made it feel friendly and intimate, rather than intimidating, and I felt that it was a really useful, informative and encouraging course, which helped to build my confidence.

I made many notes and sketches during the eight weeks!

The course is for both authors and illustrators and its main aim is to give you the knowledge and tools that you will need to approach agents or publishers with your children’s book pitch. In the first three weeks we looked at how a publishing house works, we were given guidance on what a pitch might look like, we looked at how words and pictures work together, and how we could spot trends and gaps in the market.

Playing with some character expressions.

The following fours weeks saw everybody start to develop their own ideas for books (fiction or non-fiction) so they could start working towards their pitch. In week five, six and seven the group then split in two, the authors in one group and the illustrators in the other, so we could discuss the progress of our book ideas in a smaller, more manageable group.

In the final week we discussed how pitching works and who you might pitch to, as well as what to do when facing rejection.

Throughout the course Katy gave a number of talks, but there were also three guest lectures with Q and As. The first was from an art director, the second was from an author and editor, and the final Q and A was with a campaigns manager. It was fantastic to hear from a range of people working in the publishing world, learning what their job role entails and being able to pick their brains.

This course included an abundance of useful information, but I think the reason why it felt so special was down to Katy herself. You can tell how passionate she is about children’s publishing, and how hard she works so she can share her knowledge and experience with those who are new to the industry. She is friendly, approachable and encouraging, allowing everyone space to grow and gain confidence, and has even offered individuals some of her time following on from the course for a month. I’ve never come across such personal dedication from someone running an online course before, she goes above and beyond, making this course a priceless opportunity for anyone interested in creating their own children’s book and pitching it to a publisher.

If you are interested you can find more information on Katy’s website here. I participated in the very first outing of this course, so it is likely to alter and develop slightly over time, but I have definitely found it to be great value for money.

Getting back into narrative drawing during the course has also motivated me to get a bit experimental with my images, so I’ve bought some Sennelier Soft Pastels. I haven’t used any kind of pastels since college because I’ve always hated the mess they make, but for some reason I’m now being drawn to them, so I’m hoping to overcome my creative nemesis!

One problem I’ve had with taking part in a course about children’s publishing has been the need to buy more books! Of course, when I say “need”, it was in no way mandatory to buy any books for the course, but I used it as a good excuse to go wild! A couple of the books in the image were mentioned during the course, but most were already on my wish list, I just decided that my wish list was a great opportunity for learning! :)

Moving on to other books, I’m finally reading “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo, (it really is taking me a while to work through my TBR pile), and I am absolutely loving it, there are so many different strong female characters and stories to explore. I admit it took me a couple of pages to get used to the lack of capital letters and full stops, and the odd line breaks, but I found I soon fell into a steady reading rhythm where none of those things seemed important anymore.

I’ve also added two more books to the TBR pile, the first is “Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge. After the death of George Floyd and the wave of energy through the Black Lives Matter movement, it seemed irresponsible and callous to not sit up and listen or try to do more. I have been taking in so much information, and learning so much from people generously sharing their knowledge on instagram, but I need to do more, I need to learn and understand more and unlearn even more, as I now realise how flawed the society I have grown up in, is.

The second book I bought was The Diet Myth by Professor Tim Spector. Tim is the leader of a microbiome project which has used genetic sequencing in twins to study gut bacteria, (fun fact, my mum and aunt - twins - took part in some of Tim’s twin studies years ago, and still sometimes fill out questionnaires, apparently, according to my mother, Professor Tim was quite the dish!), and as someone that definitely has a peculiar gut I’m interested in what he has to say. This book is a few years old now (published 2016), but Tim has a new book “Spoon-Fed” being published at the end of August so I thought I’d try and get this one in first before reading the next one.

My final book purchase was a birthday present to myself, A special edition of “Pens Ink and Places” by Quentin Blake. I’ve seen this edition online before but it is pretty expensive, but The Tate Shop were selling it in their summer sale with £45 off, so I took it as a sign from the universe that I should get it, and I’m so glad I did, it is beautiful.

My parcel from Mini Gallery Box finally arrived in June, I pre-ordered it months ago, but the lockdown in France (where it was being sent from) meant that even their post offices were shut down, so nothing could go out at all. This was my second Mini Gallery Box purchase, the first featured artist Leigh Ellexson. Each box features some prints, a mini magazine about the artist and a few other items such as pins, notebooks and pencils cases. The artist featured in this box was the Ellie Vs Bear, and it was well worth the wait as it is adorable! I just love those blues, pinks and purples.

Finally we move on to my Instagram impulse purchases! Firstly we have the sensible rather than impulsive purchase of face masks. I bought a couple of plain linen masks from Helen Round for when I feel like blending in, and then two gloriously patterned numbers from Esther Blessed on Etsy. The impulse purchase was the wonderful Esther Blessed wraparound skirt, just look at those colours and the pattern. Now, I don’t wear skirts, I gave up wearing them years ago when they were either too long, or would work their way up my chest as I walked and I had to keep pulling them down. However, a wraparound skirt seems to be the answer, it stays where I put it and will keep me that bit cooler this summer.

My next impulse purchase is this beautiful shades of Indigo rainbow by Natasha Newton. I’ve loved her paintings for years, and I’ve always wanted an original. I would, one day, still like to purchase a canvas of hers, but boy do you have to be quick if you want to buy any of her work from her online shop. I felt very lucky to be able to purchase one of her three rainbows this time around.

Only two more impulse purchases to go! I’m a big believer in supporting picture book illustrators and authors, so as soon as Dapo Adeola mentioned on instagram that his personal online shop was open again for a limited time, I jumped at the opportunity to buy this bundle, a signed copy of Look Up!, a print of Rocket and a pin of Rocket – they are awesome!

And, my final impulse purchase, which was actually prompted by a stock alert email (rather than Instagram), is my new mustard Glosters mug. Glosters mugs have also been flying off their website as soon as they put new stock up, and recently I’ve either not had the money to spare at the right moment, or I’ve been too slow, so I’m so pleased to have nabbed this beauty!

Finally I’ll leave you of a few images from my early morning walk the other day. We went to Black Down for the first time since lockdown, and it was glorious! It was also my first time in the car in ages… which weirdly didn’t feel like it had been that long! I am actually really bad at getting up early, it knocks me sideways for the following four days, but nothing beats early morning air!

All thoughts are my own, I’m not affiliated with anyone mentioned, all purchases were made with my own money and links take you to the sites I personally made purchases from. You may prefer purchasing books from independent retailers.

All images are my own ©Dawn Bevins-Johnson 2020

May 2020 – Keep On Keeping On

A lockdown sure makes writing a monthly blog post daunting, I am quite focused on living in the present and taking each day as it comes, but when I come to actually sit down and write a post, I’m very aware that another month has slipped by and not a lot has happened. Still, so far people I know seem to be safe and healthy, I hope anyone reading this is safe and healthy too. With all this in mind I have tried to cobble together anything that has happened during May.

Inktober 52 prompt - Elephant

Inktober 52 prompt - Bubble

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, I’m still drawing Little Mouse for Inktober 52, however I’m getting really bad at remembering to share on Instagram. I was in a nice routine where I posted every Sunday, but my routine has changed and Sunday has now turned into a lie-in day (after getting up super early on Saturday), where I make time to either read, or as has happened over the last three weeks, watch the current play being streamed by The National Theatre on YouTube, then I spend and hour or two having a video chat with my family.

The National Theatre plays have felt like a real treat. I missed the start of their showings, but I’ve managed to see Frankenstein, Barber Shop Chronicles and A Streetcar Named Desire. They have all been fantastic, I particularly loved Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature in Frankenstein, his physical acting before the creature begins to communicate with words, the use of light and sound, it was utterly mesmerising, I would highly recommend any future showings if you can catch them.

As a little distraction from mice, I also took part in a “Draw This In Your Style” contest, to celebrate The Bright Agency UK reaching 50,000 followers on Instagram. The challenge was to draw your own version of the grumpy crocodile from “Open Very Carefully” by Nicola O’Byrne. I didn’t win, I didn’t even make the shortlist, but as I’ve never had any inclination to draw a crocodile before it was something new to try (and something new is always nice when your days are blending into one), and it was good to draw something that wasn’t a mouse – for a bit – but I’ve been happy to return to the mouse…

…That was until last week, actually it had very little to do with the mouse, I just found that I was struggling to draw. I’m going to blame it on some kind of lockdown drudgery and fatigue, but whatever I touched turned out to be abysmal and it was incredibly frustrating. It was four days until I picked up a pencil to draw again, but in that time I did pick up a pen instead, and I actually jotted some stories down on paper, so maybe one creative block released another. I think it is nearly always best to just keep-on-keeping-on, create something, even if it isn’t what you were expecting.

This month we tried “mochi” for the first time. Curiosity insisted that I buy some after spotting it online, and I’m not sure what I was expecting, it was definitely more gelatinous than I thought it would be, although to be fair the description described it as “…a cross between marshmallow and bubblegum” and that is pretty accurate. I enjoyed the sesame with red bean paste filling, and the green tea with green tea paste filling was pleasant, but the shredded coconut with sesame paste filling had to be given to my husband to finish, I didn’t enjoy it at all, (although my husband preferred that one to the green tea). It was new, it was interesting, but I don’t think I’ll order more.

We also had our first two lockdown Zoom quizzes with our friends. It is so good to have a little catch up with everyone and a bit of fun. We have come last in the quiz both times so far, but maybe we will have more luck in June.

(Excuse the wrinkles, I’m not a big fan of ironing at the best of times, even more so when I’m not actually seeing anyone).

I’ve been trying not to make too many spontaneous purchases in May, I’ve successfully refrained from buying books, but I did buy two t-shirts which I have coveted for a while. They are from Rosie Johnson’s Teemill store, because I think we can all agree, we all love naps and Jessica Fletcher – what an icon! They are also made from organic cotton, and once they are old and worn out and you don’t want them anymore, they can be sent back to Teemill for recycling, amazing!

So there isn’t much else to report. Lockdown in the U.K. is currently starting to ease, although no one I know is in any great hurry to go back to how things were just yet, I think a lot of us are preparing to move forward with caution. Having said that, I think my June will be a little busier so hopefully I’ll be back in around four weeks to share anything of interest.

April 2020 – Another month gone ... but where?!?

You would think that lockdown would result in the days dragging, but April seems to have gone by in a blur of sameness, so it was a bit of a surprise when I realised that it was the last day of the month and it hadn’t occurred to me to start a blog post.

The Guardian

So what has happened in April? Well I finished the week-long instagram illustration challenge “Dream Week”, you can find all of the illustrations posted on my instagram grid. It was good fun, I’d been desperate to include one of my Caran D’ache fluorescent dry highlighters in a palette, and the colours I chose for these drawings were such fun and a bit of a change for me. I do tend to choose bright colours, but there is still usually something quite traditional about the colours I select as a whole. Dream Week saw me using lots of pinks, reds and purples, with some neon yellow thrown in. The highlighter pencil obviously wasn’t ideal for illustration, its a little too waxy, but I’m a big believer in using any medium you have at hand to make art.

‘Little Mouse’ work-in-progress

I’m also continuing to create ‘Little Mouse’ illustrations for the Inktober52 art prompt challenge. I lost a little inspiration this month, and actually considered missing a week, as all the prompts were colours. Colour prompts are great if you are a traditional Inktober participant using black ink, as a pop of colour can be really effective, but if you are already using colour the prompt feels a bit vague. However, I’ve managed to create three illustrations prompted by a colour (well, almost - I should be finishing one now), and I think there will be a final colour prompt later today, so I’m feeling pretty pleased that I didn’t let myself get too despondent or give up.

A hand washing haiku

The other thing that happened in April was mini-Gish. I’ve mentioned Gish in this blog before, it is a week long, global scavenger hunt that takes place every summer. However, since lots of people are stuck at home, the organisers thought it would be fun to create a 24 hour version, to help raise money for charity and to give people something fun to look forward to. It was a lot of fun and it also taught me that the things I create really don’t have to be perfect. I tell myself this every time I play Gish, but I always find myself trying my very best, and sometimes restarting projects, and giving myself several attempts to ‘get it right’. If you have the luxury of a week, you can do that, but I found in 24 hours the first thing I created stuck, it didn’t matter if it was wonky, imperfect or laughable, because ultimately it didn’t matter, it was just a bit of fun, (I always tell myself this, but this was the first time I truly practised it)

Tim MInchin (supposedly) in pencil shavings

I completed 5 tasks – in the last week-long hunt I achieved 9 tasks – so it just goes to show how my approach to tasks has altered, it has left me wondering just how many I can finish in the summer hunt.

Briana Buckmaster and Kim Rhodes in toothpaste, on a bathroom mirror.

For those wondering I created:
• A haiku about hand washing to be put above the sink.

• A portrait of a favourite famous person created using some kind of household waste (I chose Tim Minchin in pencil shavings, he is pretty wonky but it was 3 am).

• A miniature portrait of someone famous who makes you smile, on a mirror, in toothpaste. I chose Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster.

• A representation of your dream couch carved from a potato.

• A sun hat made from weeds.

I’ve also been trying not to spend too much money this month, I have mostly been putting it towards food parcels. I had two sent to my parents and was fortunate to be on a video chat when one of them arrived. It was really nice to see them get excited about the things they were pulling out of the box. I’m also quite weak-willed when it comes to making spontaneous Instagram purchases, I’ve really tried to resist, but my willpower failed me twice (almost three times, as I almost made another purchase yesterday but you had to pay by card and I couldn’t be bothered to go and fish it out).

I bought a Sofie Hagen ‘Self-Isolation Care Package’ bundle, which included her signed book, access to two of her shows online and a handwritten card. I love Sofie, she is smart, warm and funny, but also doesn’t take any crap! Obviously I haven’t read her book just yet, it has been added to my massive to-be-read pile.

I also bought a beautiful John Bloor print entitled ‘Thrift and Rocks’. John was having a sale on instagram so it seemed rude not to make a purchase. I’ve bought a print from him previously but it was for a gift, so it was really nice to buy a print I could keep for myself this time. You can find this print here.

That was all the excitement I experienced during April 2020, which considering how restricted we are, hasn’t been so bad. I definitely still feel very lucky. I’ll hopefully be back at the end of May for another update!