Benefits of the Process

The start of a hand stitching sampler inspired from The Intentional Thread by Susan Brandeis.

Recently I realized that I have been leaning into the process of making and creating. This has been at first unconsciously done and now is mindfully deliberate. After I saw what I was doing, I started thinking about the process and what kinds of things happen there that are so attractive. Here’s a small list to start with:

• Playing with a shiny, new idea

• Researching as needed

• Working with my hands

• Using the right tools and supplies for my craft(s)

• Practicing new techniques

• Getting more skilled with familiar techniques

• Being in the zone

• Having time where my mind can drift off and think about other things

• Finding pleasure and satisfaction in small details

• Making a project come together

• Knowing it’s not necessary to have an actual project in mind

These are just some of the things that I enjoy about being in the process. What have you found that you like when you are creating?

Write it Down!

Recently added projects to my want to-do list

Have you ever had a great idea and thought it was so wonderful that there was no way you’d forget it? Do you have projects you know you want to do but somehow never actually get to them?

Write those ideas down and put them in a place you will look at later. I know it’s often given advice. I recently had a moment of being inordinately pleased with myself for having taken this very advice.

I have an organizational system that involves writing long-term projects and to-do’s on slips of paper and folding them up and putting them into a gelato jar. Everyday I select one or two from my jar as projects to try to spend a bit of time with that day. I don’t get to select a new one until I finish what I’ve already pulled out.

The system is great and works for me to make progress on a variety of different projects. I have over 50 things currently in process. I don’t need to remember them because I know they’re all written down and kept in one place.

I realized a month ago that I hadn’t gotten around to some of the things that I’ve wanted to do. I decided the only way I was going to get them done was to be reminded of them. I wrote the ideas down along with several others as new projects and added them to my jar.

Today I pulled out a couple of those items I added last month and was reminded how glad I am I finally wrote them down as projects. I’m so pleased to see them and be reminded about these things I wanted to do but had never found the time for.

Whatever your system is for keeping track of the things you want to do, write them down and put them in a place that you look at regularly. Our lives are often so busy and full of distractions that it’s easy to forget those great ideas when something else new and shiny appears.

How do you keep track of your ideas and thoughts? Leave your strategy in the comments.

The Process of Drawing a Picture

I’ve been making a lot of sourdough bread recently and learning a little bit each time which goes towards making the next loaf a little bit better too. One of my loaves came out of the oven last week and was so pretty that I had to draw it.

A recent loaf of sesame topped sourdough bread that I made.

I’ve been wanting to do some more pen and ink drawing work and the details in this loaf of bread were calling to me. I roughly sketched the placement of the bread on my sketchbook page and then started inking with a favorite fine tipped pen, a Platinum Carbon fountain pen.

It’s always interesting seeing paintings and drawings in process because there’s always a stage of not really being sure that the thing is going in the direction one was hoping for. Then steps are taken to work out the issues and usually it turns out well in the end. It’s a bit like life, isn’t it? 

Sourdough Bread Process

This is the end of the first session’s drawing of about an hour or so.

Sourdough Bread Process

Most of the loaf is now drawn and the paper it’s sitting on has been included.

Sourdough Bread Process

The bread is complete. I wanted to include the paper and only make darks and lights using my one pen. It started looking like a mistake.

Sourdough Bread Process

This is the finished drawing. I decided to use a watercolor pencil to color the paper the bread is sitting on. It looks good in the end.

A Sketchbook Flip-Through

I finished a sketchbook! It only took 6 years! (lol!)

A Sketchbook Flip-Through of Notes and Practice from Two Workshops, 2014-2020

I took a couple of art workshops in 2014 and 2015 and put my notes and drawings into a sketchbook. One workshop was online with urban sketcher Liz Steel and her Foundations class which I highly recommend. The other was a sketching nature workshop with Charlene Freeman held locally.

When I take workshops, I like to copy notes from the class into my sketchbooks and I try to draw every image (except photographs) that may be in the handouts as well as try to do all the suggested exercises from class. Most of the drawings are ink and watercolor. Some are graphite only. I finished the Foundations class in 2015 but the nature workshop had images that I left to finish later. Much later. I have drawings in here dated from 2016, 2017 and then 2020. So this sketchbook was mostly but not all done for years. I’m glad that I finally have finished it!

Here’s a link to see a flip-through of the sketchbook:

A Sketchbook Flip-Through of Notes and Practice from Two Workshops, 2014-2020

The music in the video is Saturday Coffee by William Claeson.

The Start of New Things Isn't Always Pretty

I had an idea for a new project last week. I was very excited about it. I’ve been trying to figure out what I could do with some narrow strips of leftover jeans fabric. They're big enough to use some how but not big enough to use pieced together (the material is too thick to have too many seams close together). I thought that maybe I can piece the jeans material with flannel since the weight of the two fabrics is closer than quilting cotton would be with the jeans.

I had the brilliant idea and for a few days happily treated that as enough. I planned to start doing something with my great idea but instead procrastinated by cleaning off my sewing area and worked on other projects while “cleaning.” I did that for four or five days because I didn’t know how I was actually going to do what was in my head. I was procrastinating because I didn’t want to be disappointed.

Today, I finally touched my jeans strips. I found some leftover flannel strips that seem like they’ll work with the jeans. I made a rough sketch of a pillow front that I’m thinking of and tried very hard to get in the mindset of just playing and seeing what would happen when I started sewing jeans and flannel together. Unfortunately, I’m so NOT impressed with what has come together so far.

The creative process isn’t always smooth and doesn’t always work. I won’t get better ideas based on experience unless I actually start working with my materials. I have an idea of what to do next which makes me happy. I’ll know more whether I like how the project’s going after this next step. If the idea of using jeans and flannel this way doesn’t work, it’s not a big deal. Both are scrap fabrics that I’m trying to repurpose rather than toss. Experimenting with a new idea with them is a good thing to try.

Have you ever had a great idea and then worked through the challenges to make it come to life?

When Two Worlds Intersect

Recently I’ve been thinking that my drawing skills would benefit from a more deliberate study by working my way through a book that has caught my interest. The book I want to use is Alphonso Dunn’s Pen & Ink Drawing. I started making marks and doing line work in my sketchbook but then saw he also has a workbook, Pen & Ink Drawing Workbook. It is set up in a way that I like so I will continue my pen & ink practice work there. I have my pens. I have my book. I have my interest. Now to start.

But wait! I just learned about another book this past week which has also captivated me. It’s The Intentional Thread. A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch by Susan Brandeis. I now have a copy and it is lovely! I just want to pet it. What especially appeals to me in the book is the deliberate approach of practicing “drawing” with thread. She puts a lot of emphasis on how to translate marks on paper or textures in the outside world to make “marks” in thread on fabric. It turns out this book is very similar in approach to Pen & Ink Drawing but with needle and thread.

I am so happy to have two books that focus on different interests of mine but which work so well together. I look forward to seeing what I create and what ideas germinate and develop from my practice with these two books!

Have you come across any books recently that have made you so happy?

Creative Inspiration from Reading

One thing I’ve been muling over recently is the delight in reading books and the serendipitous ideas which emerge. Yes, it’s a well known thing that to learn, one often reads (and talks, debates and thinks).

What I’ve been enjoying recently is the fun of seeing what creative ideas I get when reading. It’s been happening so frequently that I’m almost making a game out of it for myself. Some of the books are art and creativity related so getting ideas from there is not such a surprise. I’ve started inking out words from the pages of a book to see if I can create interesting random sentences. Austin Kleon, author of books, Steal Like an Artist and Keep Going, does this with newspapers. I’m using an old copy of Pride and Prejudice to see what I can find. So far I find it’s hard!

I’ve been reading A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor. Much of the book is rather dry and my mind drifts off when I’m reading it (I’ve been told the BBC podcast of it is really, really good however). Many of the objects don’t inspire me much, but every now and then, there is a piece that I want to and have drawn.

Novels are also a great place for art ideas to come from. Yesterday, in one of my sketchbooks, I was working on an animal from a list I made from animals mentioned in Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I thought I knew a lot about animals before I started reading the book, but I encountered species after species that I didn’t know much about or what they looked like. I decided that drawing them would be a good exercise. I certainly didn’t start the book with an idea that I was going to be drawing from it (in both senses!)

Start of an ink drawing of a bison in my sketchbook (photo on wikipedia by Jack Dykinga)

Three books together are making me think of starting a workshop/group to go through one of the books together, Making Art a Practice by Cat Bennett. The other two books which are adding to the conversation are The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker and Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad. Raising awareness of systemic inequality is not the issue for creating this workshop, but the organization of the book with journaling from prompts, and then talking about exploring together through a shared circle can be used in the format of the class. I love how things related and interconnect so often.

And the list of inspiration goes on…

What books have you been inspired to create from?