A Portrait of Anna
+ current and recent Books read
Hello Newsletter family,
How are you all this fine Thursday? Is it just me, or are we getting a taste of the springtime coming? February can just about go crawl into the dark, dank hole from which it came. Yes, I hear a chickadee. 🐣🍦
As both an experiment in the efficacy of brevity and a personal reprieve from hefty workloads of late, today I’m keeping things short and sweet (this particular sentence notwithstanding). A bit of art, a bit of inspiration. Thanks for your support and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
What I’ve Been Doing Lately
In my art practice, I’m concentrated lately on learning new things, drawing in new ways, absorbing new philosophies, and re-examining my artistic identity. In UX, this we call this the “divergence” phase of a project - that is going wide, opening up to exploration, and gathering in as much unfiltered research as possible so as to gain a broad view of contexts. Being a sponge, basically. This comes, of course, before the “convergence” phase, where you can imagine that the sides of a parabola narrows toward the vertex (just learned that word, thanks) - which is to say the point of transition, or where the two sides meet as the scope decreases.
This is actually pretty scary to do when you already have a process that works, because in a lot of ways it feels like regression.
For example, I discovered that I’ve been anchoring my hand to the surface of my table like an ogre all my life when performing any type of writing or drafting tasks. This leads to movement limited to the wrist, which is fine for writing, but leads to short, scratchy lines in drawing. In academic drawing on a vertical surface, this wasn’t as much a problem, though I did have to train myself to hold the pencil loosely while anchoring my hand with a pinky (it’s as awkward looking as it sounds, but works).
Now that I’m back to drawing on tables and boards, I’m retraining myself once again to use my whole arm to draw, allowing for a much broader range of movement, and therefore longer, flowing lines. After a lifetime of engrained bad drawing habits, it can feel a lot like suddenly switching to your non-dominant hand to write. And the results will look regressed. As such, I’m not making a lot of finished, focused work at the moment, but rather a whole lot of sketching, studying, and adding up the mileage (just doing, not overthinking) needed to improve my hand-to-brain motor skills.
Of course, there is no wrong way to draw. I am a big believer in daily practice over technique, classes, or quick tips. But this is part of sorting through the divergence phase, for me. I’m taking a survey of what’s possible, what I can improve, and what I can add to my tool belt. More on this stuff in future newsletters. ✏️
On the Nightstand 📚
Just finished: A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles ⭑⭑⭑⭑
Such a whimsical novel that is really a celebration of life and the power of acceptance in making the most of where you’re at. It has a tone I would liken to the film ‘Amelie’, somewhat, occupying that space that is somehow both humorous, sad, and deeply beautiful at the same time. Really quite singular and lives up to the hype. Excited to read more from this author.
Currently reading: James - Percival Everett
+ Heartbreak Soup (Comics Omnibus): Gilbert Hernandez
+ Gesture Drawing: Dynamic Movement & Form - Michael Hampton
Until next time! Thanks for reading. 🤓 - K