A Quick Sketchbook Peek + News
Four years to paint like Raphael, a lifetime to paint like a child
Hey friends,
Just a quick check-in to share some recent creative sparks and what’s been happening in the studio and in life.
Downshifting to Deeper Personal Focus (Art)
Time for creative work outside of my day-to-day responsibilities has been limited lately, but that constraint has actually necessitated focus. With everything going on (Springboard’s job guarantee program, learning new digital tools, and prepping for an upcoming internship), I’ve had to get serious about what really matters to me in art in order to stay consistent.
In classic ADHD fashion, I’ve gone through at least 3000 iterations of a “Daily Drawing Schedule” since I set out to build on my drawing/designing skills in January. These have explored gesture, figure, fundamentals, composition, color, anatomy, narrative storytelling, drawing from imagination, shapes, line quality… you name it. But being pressed for time has forced clarity. What’s most important to me, I’ve realized, is surprisingly simple:
Enjoying my process: If I don’t look forward to it, I won’t return to it. But if I love it, I’ll repeat it often - and consistency leads to improvement. If there was one piece of advice I could give any beginning artist, it is this: Find a process you enjoy, and do it every day.
Staying aligned with the techniques and skills that support the kind of artist I’m becoming: I’ve noticed a shift in the kinds of qualities in an artwork that truly speak to me. For me, this means I value drawing with presence, with sensitivity, and with a sense of atmosphere, not necessarily technical prowess.
There’s been a quiet but steady shift in my heart when it comes to art. Where I once focused heavily on highly rendered realism, I now feel drawn to something more poetic. Works that are more liminal, more open, more emotional. Not every line needs to explain. Some can just hold a feeling.
Right now, that means centering my practice around two main anchors: observational drawing from life (often in pen) and gesture drawing focused on expressive form and energy. Both are compact, sustainable, and allow me to keep showing up without burning out.
Zooming out, I’ve also gotten clearer on the kind of work I want to build toward: quiet, mood-rich drawings of people in space- “figures in air.” The kind of art that lives somewhere between story and stillness. Influences like Eyvind Earle, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, and Cyril Pedrosa continue to light that path - artists who create space not just for a subject, but for a feeling.
In other words: drawing with intention, but without pressure. This season is reminding me that less can be more. If it’s honest, if it’s true.
Career Transition Efforts (news about the Day Job)
I’ve been offered a Product Design Internship with PAPER, the company I’ve been tutoring and essay reviewing with for 3.5 years. The internship will be short and sweet (10 weeks), but I’m excited to gain the experience - and finally to be on the other end of the software platform, which I know the ins and outs of like the back of my hand as a teacher and tutor. I’ll be involved in helping to design some ridiculously cute avatars, badges, and a dashboard for our kids’ new GROW program. I’m really excited for this, but these burblings in my career-life feel like a signaling that things are about to get quite busy! (Hence, the above stuff).
I’m in final round interviews with a startup for an equity-based position with an AI-powered music learning platform that is currently un-funded, but may lead to opportunity down the road. The platform utilizes AI to enhance real-life student-teacher relationships and practice sessions. Pretty excited about this one as it relates so closely to my background and current experience, but we’ll soon see!
📚 Currently Inspired By
Reading: The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
Listening: 08/16/2024 (Secret Set), Mondegreen - The Woodlands, Dover, DE by Phish
(I fell back in love with my favorite childhood band recently and have been experiencing a crazy little thing called joy in my music listening, maybe for the first time in many years). Phish is not for everyone, but they changed my life at 15, and again at 45. I don’t think any other band will ever mean as much to me.Looking: The artwork of @boingbl on Instagram, as well as the gouache and watercolor painting demos by James Gurney on YouTube.
Thanks for following along. Feel free to reply with your thoughts or just to say hi. More to come soon!
Kevin