August day by day

Things I did and thoughts I had in August

August is my favourite month. There is something about the weather and the withering plants that gets me and my creative brain excited. This year I wanted to document atleast one thing every day, so that I could look at my creative practice from a new perspective. Many things fit into one month: lots of plants, colour swatching, and struggles with gouache.

1) An idea for a tarot deck came to me. I've always thought "someday I'll make a deck of cards", but never actually had a good theme for one. I brainstormed, wrote all those ideas down, and made quick thumbnails for some of the Major Arcana, so maybe "someday I'll make a deck of cards".

2) I swatched some of my earth-toned watercolours, cut them into stone-shaped objects...

3) ...and arranged them like so.

4) I was not feeling well at all, still fighting the flu, but here's what I wrote in my notes before dozing off for a nap:

On arranging things

Sometimes it's like making music. 

Sometimes it's like making poems. 

Looking at and listening to the objects, 
how one relates to the other, and 
how they communicate with one another. 
And if you change one of them, how it 
changes the whole composition. 

I think making images, or music, or poems 
— it's all the same really, 
putting pieces together to create something that 
was not there before, and 
could not have been 
because all of the pieces had not come together just yet. 

And that is my role — collecting, making, uniting, experimenting, fitting, cutting, curating, arranging, presenting.

5) The flu is getting worse! But I needed to draw something (the reference photo was free from Pexels):

6) An amazing 13-year-old Finnish skateboarder came in 5th at the Olympics. Before getting ready to compete she was playing with Barbie dolls with her best friend, the 14-year-old who won the gold medal – just amazing. While watching these girls fly on their skateboards, I made an oxalis triangularis out of brown packing paper. The paper plant makes the most delightful rustling sound when arranged.

7) Two new Pith sketchbooks have been hanging out beside my desk for a couple weeks now, and finally I cracked the Lumia open! So far I've only tested watercolour graphite and Derwent Inktense pencil, and I'm quite happy with the paper not buckling too much. I particularly enjoy the sketchbook laying flat, the tone of the paper and the sharp (not rounded) corners.

8) Very rarely I enjoy any competitive reality show, but here I am watching The Great Pottery Throw Down. I love seeing the process of making pottery! And not only the process of a single potterer, but being able to compare multiple approaches at the same time has taught me so much more than doing it by myself. I don't understand how they are able to make such incredible things with the glazing – I find putting on the glaze super difficult.

9) Paintwise I prefer watercolour or watersoluble oil paint, and I'm not really sure if gouache is for me. I have been meaning to get into it for the longest time. Or back into it – my student set from 15 years ago is not really revivable, and the single Holbein Artists' Gouache tube in burnt umber looks quite lonely. So when I saw a cheapo 12-colour-set at the craft store I grabbed it, painted some weird plants with ladybug markings on the leaves, and didn't really like them. The paint was okay – didn't excite me but I didn't dislike it either. Still unsure if gouache is for me.

10) I might take that back, partially. I don't really enjoy the process, but I'm impressed by the result; I find that painting with gouache takes more planning than what I’m used to, but then again the finished piece does look more like a “finished piece” instead of a sketch.

11) Playing with gouache continues, but I’m not really liking anything I make. It feels almost like overworking to me. I tried layering pencil and other media on top, maybe there's something there.

12) Every few weeks I get the feeling that I've somehow lost the ability to draw. Everything I try to make ends up all wrong, almost as if I have forgotten how to look at a drawing. I think this time the struggle with gouache has been the cause of this. I find that looking is what I need to get out of this loop, which is why I started re-reading my favourite graphic novel, Geis by Alexis Deacon (or re-branded as The Curse of the Chosen). It’s just phenomenal.

13) I organized my pens and pencils.

14) Today I biked past this allotment and took this photo, which is my favourite thing I’ve done this whole week. Maybe I have to put gouache on pause for a few days. This is just... frustrating. Do you have a medium that's causing you grey hair?

15) I ditched gouache and sketched many things with watercolour graphite. And it feels so good, I like everything I made today! I am obsessed with this lady from a painting called Noblewoman (1590) by William Segar.

16) I was on a late night bike ride when a fox cut right in front of me. He kept running on the road while looking back at me like "Are you still following me??" I rewatched some Abstract: The Art of Design on Netflix, which has some truly remarkable creative people on it, 10/10 recommended.

17) I drew some faces.

18) Rest day. Watched watercolour videos on YouTube.

19) Everything I paint with watercolour tends to become a brown or a green blob at some point, so I think I need to practice some more colour mixing. I made some watercolour mixing charts, it was soothing.

20) Today I had the pleasure to attend two live drawing sessions on Patreon. At 11 am I drew allotments with Sarah Dyer, and at 9 pm Sarah was covering Frances Ives with Harriet and Lucy. I followed their example and made a zine filled with forest animals and hikers.

21) I got some art supplies in the mail today: Daniel Smith watercolour dot cards for sampling, and Holbein Artists' Gouache, the Irodori Autumn set. I was very excited and did some midnight swatching.

22) While doing some gouache mixing charts I ran into the Zorn Palette (you can read more about it on Jackson's website). I am very intrigued by this four-colour palette, so I did my own colour chart using Holbein's G826 Amber, G802 Safflower Red, G631 Zinc White, and some black gouache from a craft store.

23) I feel like I have some serious paper issues.

24) Finally. Finally something that I like, with gouache and coloured pencil.

25) More fox sketching.

26) I worked on this newsletter – taking photos of my drawings is always the most boring/challenging task for me!

27) I started the day with a Patreon live call replay by Frances Ives. I watched the “Busy in Bologna” from last April, took my time and did only one drawing, but it felt like such a luxury to relax and draw with a cup of coffee.

28) From the beginning of September I’ll be teaching a group of 3 and 4-year-olds, just a couple hours a week, so I’ve been planning work for the upcoming months…

29) …And making templates for some giant bugs. I’ll share more on that later!

30) Tonight’s film was The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Wes Anderson – ingenius as always. I also played with all the black and white materials I could find to see which ones would layer the best.

31) I started a bigger painting with ink that reminded me of the drawings I made 10-15 years ago, eventhough my style and skills have changed so so much since then. It felt so weird, like looking back at someone I used to be. And suddenly that sent me on a spiral: Is there such a thing as “core style”? Is our style "built in", is it already inside us? And if so, why do we spend so much time searching for it?

PS. I would just love to leave it here, but a few days later I got a pretty good answer from a near-namesake guest on Dinner Time Live with David Chang:

“See, I feel like –– you have to go far to come back. You have to have tried everything to know what works. –– You got to go to the edge so you can come back and decide what you like.” – Maya Rudolph

Thanks for reading to the end, what a month!

Maiju