What makes your heart sing?
Have you worked out what makes your heart sing yet? I actually think this is something that is probably continually evolving for most of us. It’s certainly changed throughout my life, but even changes a bit from day to day or different times of the day.
I think people who find this out early on and stick with the same thing through multiple decades are probably quite rare. (No empirical evidence of this, though; it’s purely based on my own ponderings, experience and chats with friends, so would love to know whether others agree!)
Some things have always called to me, though, and never stopped. Books and drawing of some kind or another are probably my forever things. I’d also probably say languages and travel, but I don’t think they’ve fully stuck throughout my life.
Most of my life, my career has been in books (though encompassing digital publishing of various kinds as time went on) and I love that my more recent illustration career has overlapped with the publishing world, because I don’t think I would ever want to leave books behind completely (though, obviously, I’m never going to stop reading them).
(SIDE NOTE to any art directors in the book publishing world – I think I’m about ready for another chunky book illustration project, so give me a shout if my style fits your requirements.)
Anyway, there’s a little Sunday introspection for you. I’d love to hear what you think. Do you have some forever things that have always called out to you? Do your passions change with the seasons or the decades? Have you been able to find a career in some aspect of what makes your heart sing?
PS You may have noticed there are three versions of this hand-drawn type piece. I’m making a point, now and then (not for EVERY illustration, as that could be a bit time-consuming), of rejigging an illustration into different formats, or planning out different formats from the start. I think this is something that’s quite useful for commercial illustration – for example, different formats for social media, a thumbnail format and a full-page format. So, if you’re commissioning me and this sounds helpful, do ask about getting an illustration in different formats.
Word for 2018 | Listen
Rather than New Year’s Resolutions, which always (in my experience, at least) tend to fall over within a week or two, I’ve spent a few years picking a word for the year (along with a gazillion other people – it’s not something I came up with all by myself). Last year’s word was ‘Inspire’, 2016’s was probably ‘Mindfulness’ or possibly ‘Serenity’, though I don’t seem to have written out down anywhere, 2015’s was ‘Success’ and, according to Facebook’s ‘On this day’ thingy, 2014’s was ‘Serenity’.
I’m never quite sure how well this word of the year thing works, but it feels more positive and motivational than a big lists of things to give up, so I still like doing it. Along with getting a gazillion (yes, I like that word, what?) diaries and journals, usually only one of which gets used beyond January (the day to a page one that sits on my desk and gets my daily/weekly (mostly work) planning written in). Maybe this year will be different, because I also bought myself a fountain pen so I can write beautifully in the beautiful diaries I bought. Hmm…
I’ve been finishing off the year working, which isn’t what I’d choose to do, really, though I’m reminding myself that I had a leisurely couple of months at the start of the academic year, including two trips abroad, which makes doing a bit of work in the holidays really quite bearable. But we also have family visiting and so will be seeing in the New Year this evening with a lovely meal and family games and/or films and children trying to stay awake until midnight, which will be wonderful and a perfect way to celebrate.
I have a few plans for this year, but they will stay in my head (or journals), so that I don’t jinx them.
My word for 2018 is going to be ‘Listen’ (which you probably guessed from the picture up there). This, I feel encompasses a whole lot of different kinds of listening, both physical, emotional and metaphorical, but it is definitely inspired by a desire to do a lot better at listening to my children and family. Part of this will involve putting the phone away more (I have a new phone and have lapsed back into bad social-media-checking habits since my refreshing detox in November) so that I can concentrate on people in the room, as opposed to people all round the world. But I also need to remember (or learn – maybe I’ve never done it) how to store the things that I listen to so that they are still there the next day or the next week, or the next year. I tend to store away things that I see (colours and images the most, I think, these days, at least) or read much more easily than things I hear. Which leads to me forgetting what people say to me.
So I will aim, this coming year, to:
- listen to my family
- listen to my friends
- listen to music
- listen to birds
- listen to silence
- listen to curiosity
- listen to inspiration
- listen to characters
- listen to ideas
- listen to beliefs
- listen to opinions
- listen to evidence
- listen to possibilities
- listen to water
- listen to breath.
And just listen in general.
I’d love to hear about your Word for the Year, or resolutions, plans or intentions if you do that kind of thing.
Self-portraits and daily practice
After Inktober I felt the need to keep up some kind of more focused daily practice. I do pretty much always draw or paint something every day, whether just doodles or rough sketches, or fully realised pieces for my portfolio or for a client. But the focus and impetus to stick to a daily practice that comes with Inktober is something I always enjoy but rarely seem to stick to at other times of the year.
So, in November I started doing some self-portraits in gouache in a new sketchbook my sister gave me for my birthday at the end of October. They’re extremely stylised and mostly focus (so far, at least) on aspects of my personality or things I enjoy doing. I’m struggling with working out how to include family and friends without taking away from the idea that these are SELF-portraits. I did manage to squeeze the dog in, so I can probably have them in as an element, but not the focus.
This was the first one, which I didn’t finish, but am actually quite happy with in the end. It should have had lots of pattern on the dress, and probably been surrounded in flowers or something.
This is one of my favourites and I spent a lot of time on it (oh, and it has blue dippen in the background, which might help as I do love my dippens!). I like the grey bits in my hair, I’m holding a cup of tea (or maybe it’s coffee) in a pretty mug, wearing one of my red flowery dresses and beaded necklaces and bracelets, and am sitting in front of my art shelves, which I love and sit beside my desk – they are full of art books and my favourite magazines and some houseplants and art supplies and Giffords Circus programmes and other little pretty bits and bobs. I love just sitting and staring at the shelves sometimes. (Should really make the rest of the house feel like that, too!)
This is me doing a cartwheel. Used to do them all the time when I was younger and then I hurt my wrist one winter after slipping on some ice and couldn’t manage them for years (my wrist would just give way every time I tried that are a handstand) and then I had two years of dizzy spells and numbness. And then I started doing yoga (hmm – haven’t done that for ages and really should!) and my dizzy spells have gone (there’s a post that explains the dizzy spell thing more) and in the summer I had a go at doing cartwheels in the park with Eleanor and a friend and actually managed it. I was sooooooo happy!
This is one of my favourite passtimes – cooking with loud music on and dancing around (and, yes, I do often have a glass of Prosecco at the same time, but it turns out I can also do it with a cup of tea). I have a go-to playlist on Spotify for this, which has a lot of dancy oldies, but also some more recent stuff, though will sometimes just pick a singer or band and put them on shuffle play. I can even enjoy cleaning the kitchen if I put loud music on and dance around while doing it!
This one pretty much speaks for itself. I am political and not at all embarrassed to be so. I am generally pretty vocal about my opinions and particularly about the importance of voting and how integral politics is to our lives. To be fair, I don’t go out marching very much anymore, so this more of a representational illustration. My political engagement seems to fluctuate a fair bit – and I definitely need breaks where I just talk or write about politics, rather than go out canvassing and to meetings constantly. I need to find the right level of engagement for me personally, but it is always there and important to me.
Reading. This was unfinished, as well, though I kind of like how it ended up. I was going to give the books titles and/or flowery spines. And I think the book I’m reading was going to be Anne of Green Gables. And the kokeshi dolls on the shelves were going to have faces and patterns. I love reading and getting lost in a book. I struggle to find the time to fit everything I enjoy doing in and think I tend to have phases where I do loads of reading and cut back on something else (I think at the moment I’m probably swapping reading for a lot of going to meetings or going out with friends – sorry). I don’t really have a specific type of book I read. At the moment I’m reading a light contemporary romance, which is page-turny but also makes me feel guilty for its lack of seriousness (which I know is wrong – it’s fine and healthy to get some escapism) and just finished a Joanna Trollope book (used to read loads of her books when I was at uni – her and Mary Wesley – but haven’t for a long time; it was kind of fun and comforting, but also a little discombobulating mostly for class reasons, I think). I recently finished A Place Called Perfect, which was great and thought-provoking and Rosemary’s now reading it and, I hope, enjoying it. I really enjoyed When the Floods Came recently, which I found on the ‘Quick Choice’ shelves at the library. Before that (I think) was Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, which was brilliant and also very very thought-provoking. I feel like I’m missing some recent reads out – should get back to noting down what I’ve read so I don’t forget!
The last one (so far) is dog walking at night. By the light of the moon. Absolutely love my evening dog walk – it clears the cobwebs away and is good chance for mulling over and digesting what’s happened during the day – or I’ll take the opportunity to phone someone (usually my mum), which can have a similar effect of going over the day.
These are really fun to create, and I’m managing to adjust the time I give to them, according to the time I have available – some days, I might be able to spend a couple of hours and add lots of detail, and others it’s half an hour max and needs to be very quick and loose (that’s harder, somehow, but fun to practice). I’m fascinated at how my hair is changing in the pictures – it’s currently dark brown with wisps of grey and a bit of red brown showing at the ends. Some I’ve drawn with a pencil sketch on the page, some from a pencil sketch in my sketchbook and some just straight on the page. I’m looking forward to continuing these until that particular sketchbook is full.
However, I’ve already struggled with doing them every single day, so bought another sketchbook, in which I’m doing two-page spreads in whatever media I have to hand (and so far, in a limited palette) with a floral on one side and a geometric on the other side. I’m sure I’ve seen a couple of people do this recently, though can’t remember who – sorry! Anyway, it’s a fun idea and let’s me keep drawing florals which are most definitely my ‘go to’ while doing some more geometrics which I enjoy but rarely seem to do. And gives me a doodley and ‘go with the flow’ practice, which I feel I need. I’m picking one or the other at the moment when I come to do my daily art practice. And I’m not minding too much when I miss a day or two – just picking up again and continuing – it’s not a failure, but a little break!
You can follow both my daily practices on Instagram – I’m currently having a Facebook break, which is very refreshing and I think there’s a decent chance I’ll keep that up for longer than my planned two weeks, or at least go back to it with a very different attitude. I might well write a separate introspective post about my Facebook break.
Do you have a daily art practice? Have you tried creating self-portraits and putting your ‘essence’ into them? (I think making one that includes all the important things in your life would be an interesting challenge.) What are your favourite things to do? What are you reading at the moment?