Week 1 of 2017
It's that time of year (that arbitrary calendar for syncronising our watches ;)) where I sometimes feel the urge to make resolutions. I have done it before, and often failed, because I set myself too ambitious a goal, and then felt it wasn't worth picking up again after I inevitably failed. Yet, I still can't help myself it seems, and it feels good to look ahead and imagine what I would like to prioritise my time and energy on.
So this year I'm going to set a goal of drawing/painting more, exercising more, and just generally treating myself well. More is not an easy quantifier to measure, and a year is a long time to look ahead, so I will start out by promising myself to do this for a month at least:
- A drawing/painting a week in a sketchbook I have dedicated to this purpose (and if I don't have any inspiration I will use this list of ideas for the 52 weeks of the year)
- Exercise! In any shape or form.
And I will try to do a weekly recap of things that I have done which made me happy.
So with no further ado: Recap of week 1 of 2017!
For drawing and painting it started well - I finished a small sketch inspired by a photo I stumbled over while procrastinating online:
And then the first prompt on the list I linked above was "A new beginning", which seemed fitting. ;) I was googling around for quotes and found several different New Year's wishes from Neil Gaiman, and thought that one of them would fit nicely to a first page in a new sketchbook: "Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before."
The painting was me testing out a lot of new watercolors, acrylic inks, mediums and other texture enhancers. It's a little too messy for me to call it a success, but there are definitely some things I liked, and will hopefully be able to use in other paintings:
The reaction between acrylic ink and watercolor granulation medium - I love this!
Spraying ink with water allows it to flow in unpredictable patterns, and the same happens when spraying first and then dropping watercolor into it. It also counters my tendency to over-control the process.
A fun week for painting! :)
I also got in two weightlifting workouts, and yesterday two trips to the hardware store on the cargo bike, to pick up firewood (140 kg in total brought home). This is excellent exercise!
Annoyed with my tendency to constantly play games on my phone while watching tv or trying to fall asleep, or cooking or whenever else, I have deleted all the games. I do not miss them!
And finally, for christmas we bought a nice bottle of Port, which came in an awesome box, that I have now converted into a small storage place for my watercolors, by cutting little shelves to fit into it:
So all in all a very good week!
So this year I'm going to set a goal of drawing/painting more, exercising more, and just generally treating myself well. More is not an easy quantifier to measure, and a year is a long time to look ahead, so I will start out by promising myself to do this for a month at least:
- A drawing/painting a week in a sketchbook I have dedicated to this purpose (and if I don't have any inspiration I will use this list of ideas for the 52 weeks of the year)
- Exercise! In any shape or form.
And I will try to do a weekly recap of things that I have done which made me happy.
So with no further ado: Recap of week 1 of 2017!
For drawing and painting it started well - I finished a small sketch inspired by a photo I stumbled over while procrastinating online:
And then the first prompt on the list I linked above was "A new beginning", which seemed fitting. ;) I was googling around for quotes and found several different New Year's wishes from Neil Gaiman, and thought that one of them would fit nicely to a first page in a new sketchbook: "Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before."
The painting was me testing out a lot of new watercolors, acrylic inks, mediums and other texture enhancers. It's a little too messy for me to call it a success, but there are definitely some things I liked, and will hopefully be able to use in other paintings:
The reaction between acrylic ink and watercolor granulation medium - I love this!
Spraying ink with water allows it to flow in unpredictable patterns, and the same happens when spraying first and then dropping watercolor into it. It also counters my tendency to over-control the process.
A fun week for painting! :)
I also got in two weightlifting workouts, and yesterday two trips to the hardware store on the cargo bike, to pick up firewood (140 kg in total brought home). This is excellent exercise!
Annoyed with my tendency to constantly play games on my phone while watching tv or trying to fall asleep, or cooking or whenever else, I have deleted all the games. I do not miss them!
And finally, for christmas we bought a nice bottle of Port, which came in an awesome box, that I have now converted into a small storage place for my watercolors, by cutting little shelves to fit into it:
So all in all a very good week!