Reframing a Limitation into an Opportunity

A quick sketch of my hand (Graphite, 2021)

As many of you know, I have been involved with a daily drawing project that I’ve been calling my Drawing Amsterdam Dailies. I started with the goal of 100 days. Since that has been met, I’ve been curious to see how long I can keep the streak going. So far, so good.

The project has been quite satisfying on many fronts. I get to draw beautiful Amsterdam, relive memories, make a travel journal from it and maybe a book. I am learning new skills and techniques as I work primarily with black ink on grey toned paper. I get to draw everything I’m interested in, like buildings, canals, boats, food, people, bicycles, lettering, nature, windmills, and more.

I’ve realized though that by spending time every day on detailed and intricate drawings, I don’t have much energy or time left to spend on other creative pursuits or to work on other drawings.

I had an epiphany of sorts over the last week. As I’ve begun to feel that my Amsterdam Dailies may take over my life if I let them, I can still get in sketches of other things if I lower the bar of expectation. By limiting myself to only quick sketches of 5-10 minutes, I can take advantage of inspiration as it comes, and also practice a looser style with different art supplies during these quick play sessions.

I did a drawing of my hand in class last week and I really enjoyed it. It took just a few minutes. Parts of it are off, but a lot of it works. It felt like play because I took the pressure off myself to draw “well.” I started drawing without over-thinking things and enjoyed the process. It didn’t take long and had fun. I got in some practice and a picture of my hand out of it.

I think this will be a win-win strategy for me. I get to continue on with a creative project that is long term, daily and fairly detailed, and combine it with various short (time-wise), loose, playful experiments. More creating gets to happen!

Have you been able to reframe a challenge into an opportunity?

100 Days of Drawing Daily

Day 100. Progress on drawing Westerkerk in Amsterdam.

Today is the 100th day I’ve been working on my Drawing Amsterdam Dailies! I’m very pleased with myself to have done this. To celebrate, I’ve made a video with all 100 days of progress:

https://youtu.be/ItOoUG-008E

There’s a lot that can be accomplished by repeatedly showing up, day by day, little by little.

I challenged myself to draw for at least 30 minutes a day using photographs I took on a trip to Amsterdam last year with the additional goal to try to use something from every photo. I’ve been mostly successful with using every picture, but some have been more challenging to figure out how to include. Those few I’ve skipped over I’m keeping in the back of my mind to perhaps use later.

I plan to keep on showing up daily with this but if I miss a day, it won’t be the end of the world. I’ve really been enjoying this and seeing the drawings and spreads develop. I’ve spent a lot of time drawing but haven’t gotten very far geographically from where I started. The last drawing at Westerkerk is about a 20 minute walk from Amsterdam’s Central Station where I started from on Day 1. I like to look at details. :-)

Have you ever worked on a series or creative project and deliberately showed up daily for it? What kind of project was it?

Music in the video is Gypsy Caravan by Vendla.

Little by little

October seems so long ago, doesn’t it? I thought I’d share with you how my monthly project of drawing Amsterdam went and what can happen drip by drip, day by day. Consistently showing up adds up to a lot of progress. I have no immediate plans with what I’ll do with my travel journal aside from enjoying it. It might be something to try on-demand publishing with. I do know, however, that I will offer a workshop on drawing architecture in the spring as part of my monthly Sketchbook Sampler series.

1st spread from #inktober2020, Days 1-6. These are mainly train station pictures with a fare card and a random person I spotted headed in the right direction.

2nd spread for #inktober2020, Days 7-15. I love all the detail and deliberate ornamentation on all these things. Fun to look at and fun to draw.

3rd spread for #inktober2020, Days 16-25. This was my first glimpse of a canal as well as some of the narrow houses that Amsterdam is known for.

Start of the 4th spread for #inktober2020, Days 26-31. I’ve always loved doors and windows and bits of art that I come across. Signs with cats on them also capture my interest!

I really enjoyed this daily dive into drawing Amsterdam, so for the immediate future I plan to continue drawing it daily. I am enjoying all these complicated, fiddle-y buildings as well as the challenge as to what to draw from each picture.

Related to showing up daily, check out the newly published book, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin. The book is about having and keeping a creative practice as professionals. A certain part of the material comes from observations from the first running of The Creative’s Workshop, February – July this past year. I was part of that group of 400 plus self-described creatives. We were a talkative and productive bunch. The organizers said we created over 50,000 posts during that time! There have been books written and published, record deals made, podcasts recorded, blogs started, communities started and grown. I highly recommend the workshop and think the book will be quite interesting.

If you get the book, let me know if you spot me in the inside cover.  

What do you work on bit by bit? Are you able to do it daily?

Reuse and Create Anew

I quilt a lot and have been quilting consistantly over 25 years. If you count the quilted pillow I did in high school - with calicos - the only quilting fabric available, and the quilt I started in college, it’s been about 40 years. That’s a lot of time playing with color and fabric! I love playing with new fabrics to see how I can use them with different patterns but I also enjoy extending the life and use of scraps and repurposing fabrics in new ways.

Many years ago, I saw an exhibit of the Quilts of Gee’s Bend and was inspired by some of them that had used cut-apart jeans and garments to create the quilt tops. They must have been incredibly heavy and hard on the hands to sew.

I collect worn and used jeans (cotton is the best), and cut them apart to get flat fabric again. I save the side seams and inseams too. Eventually I will make a coil rug with them when I have enough. I love the variation in shade of denim in a pair of jeans but also in my collection.

When I think I have enough variety in shade of blue, I come up with a pattern that I think will work for an all jeans quilt. The pieces and blocks are bigger than than what I use with quilting cottons. The seams are wider and the whole quilt is heavier too.

Progress of my current jeans quit

I spent some time on my current ongoing jeans quilt today. I have wide bands that I think of like bricks in a row that are separated by narrower bands of bricks set side by side with their narrow ends facing out. Most of the wide brick rows have been made. Now I have a lot of cutting of small squares ahead to make up the narrow rows.

I love this process of laying out fabric and auditioning and seeing if all the colors and shades are balanced. Working on the jeans quilt had me thinking about how much I enjoy the creative challenge of repurposing and reusing fabric that many would toss. It’s environmentally kind but it’s also satisfying to have, use and touch these fabrics which have had lives and experiences and group them together in pleasing ways for another adventure.

What do you like to reuse and repurpose?

Art as a Distraction

I spent too much time yesterday looking at the news which aside from the way it’s described to be to attract more attention and because of real events, was just generally and wholly dreadful and depressing.

What to do? I pulled out a pen and ink drawing I am working on. It’s an MRI of my left foot that was recently done. When I saw in the doctor’s office, I immediately thought what a great thing to try to draw! Yes, I like bits of medical illustration. I like learning the way the foot is put together. I’m curious too what the big black circle is on the picture too.

I’m not done with it, but I am enjoying getting caught up in the process. I also like the challenge of how to get darks and lights down using only a black pen. Lots of stippling.

I did my drawing. I was able to distract myself and get caught up in lines and marks to get myself out of the funk I had been in. No more news for a while.

MRI and ink drawing of my foot

New Sketchbook Subject Sampler Workshop Series Starts in August

Over the next year, I am offering a place to dive in deeper into topical studies with your sketchbooks. These workshops will encourage you to observe and draw while learning to be creative on a regular basis. Your drawings can be slow and meticulous or fast and prolific. It’s all meant to give you practice with keeping a creative practice as well as having a community to share with and learn from.

We will meet for the first three weeks of the month on Thursdays, 4:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time online via Zoom.

Starting August 6th, we will Play with Our Food. Anything related to food is fair game, but I will start off with drawing fruits and vegetables before moving to drawing meals, recipes, and scenes from markets or cafes.

Sign up for one month, all the months, or just the ones that appeal most to you!

I will be working primarily with graphite, ink (fountain pen and fine liners) and watercolor but I will add in different media as suits. You can start with the basics – a pencil and a sketchbook and add supplies as your interests evolve.

For more information and to register, visit www.anyatoomre.com/workshops

Take a Trip with Me to see Where I Get Ideas to Draw

Today I want to share a bit of how my mind wanders and gets inspiration from the things I come across. I took a mental trip to Asia.

Korean roof tile , 700-800 AD

This morning I was reading in A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor. Normally it’s a bit of a dry read. I’ve been trying to spend 10 minutes a day reading my way through it as it’s been a book that’s been sitting by my bed waiting for years to be read. The object I read about today was a Korean clay roof tile from 700-800 AD. That sounded rather ordinary, but then I turned the page and saw a lovely detailed and ornamental object that would have been stunning to see in multiples on roof tops. What a surprise! See link to the BBC episode. I immediately started thinking about how would I draw that. Lots of stippling - one of my favorite things - came to mind. So that tile from the past is now on my to-draw list.

Dancheong painted patterns in Korea

I then moved in time to slightly more recent Korea because another thing which is on my want-to-draw list are dancheong. These are decorative colorings in green, yellow, white, blue and red that I’ve seen on older wooden buildings and temples. I love patterns and these are repetitive but not exactly. I don’t know how to sit down and draw one so would like to spend some time with them to figure them out. If I spent long enough on it, I could eventually become a dancheongjang, an artisan who paints dancheong. It’s good to have goals!

My final mental destination today ended up in Japan on the islands of Okinawa. When my son went off to his first year in college this past fall, I came across a subscription service called Bokksu that sends snacks from Japan. Every month he would get a bright orange box filled with snacks designed with some particular theme.

Because of the coronavirus and the pandemic, when he came home early, I had the Bokksu subscription continued but mailed to my house. He was happy to share with me and I have been delighted! I lived in Japan for three years in the 1990’s and have lots of memories from that time. Japanese snacks are so interesting and sometimes so strange to Western tastes. I enjoy both trying them out, but also, and more importantly, I enjoy drawing the snacks and their packaging.

This month’s box was treats from Okinawa. I’ve had an empty package sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks, so that is what won out from my mental world inspirations. I spent about 30 minutes working on the inking of the box and one bag of rice crackers and then another 30 minutes adding some watercolor to it. There are lots more treats to add and taste!