Sketchbook
This might be the first time I’ve ever filled a sketchbook from cover to cover.
When I picked it up in 2018, I still felt the effects of past creative burnout. Drawing felt stressful, like all my past skills and knowledge were on the other side of a wall that I could only reach with a significant effort to focus.
But that began to change when I picked up a book on pen and ink drawing and started just making practice marks. I scribbled page after page of these lines until it all began to flow. After that, a book on landscape drawing encouraged me to go back to basics. I discovered that shading spheres was strangely relaxing, and now it's my go-to when I just want to play around on the page.
I've been finding that my music and visual art practices interact in interesting ways. Electronic music has helped me understand how much time I need to put into learning the tools I use. I always want to skip ahead to the full project, but every hour I spend on the basics makes the rest go faster. And when I play flute, I see a connection between the lightness needed to perform Baroque music (the Telemann Fantasias are my comfort food) and the rhythm of pen strokes.
I started a new sketchbook. I probably won't only draw lines and spheres in this one (then again, why not?) but I'm glad it helped me rediscover what I love about making art.
Audrey