daily-ish notes…

  • for supplies on hand.

    I work in the office downtown at least two days per week. I work from home the other three.

    At home I have lots of art supplies, including dozens of paint brushes, a half dozen paint sets, a small stack of art books, pens, erasers, rulers, masking fluid, markers, palettes, sponges, tape, easels, and a dedicated space to keep it all.

    At the office I have whatever I can squeeze into my backpack alongside my computer, notebook, mouse, coffee thermos, and other random work supplies.

    I usually try to squeeze in something, not because I expect to paint at the office when I should be working, but sometimes on a lunch break or between peaks in the waves requiring my attention, or after a particularly stressful meeting, the mind often needs a break and sketching is often the answer to that.

    I could fill that backpack with all the supplies I want and still leave things behind, but I really only have a bit of room, so learning to pack efficiently to be able to have what I need has become a well-practiced skill.

  • on half march.

    Getting to the half way point in any goal is something to be celebrated.

    As of today I’m about half way done my daily sketching goal for the month. I’ve got a lot more work to do to finalize that effort, but half way is a kind of symbolic milestone that it is possible to make it through multiple days across multiple weeks of doing something daily, in my case finding time and energy to sketch something, anything.

    Never trivialize a pat on the back for a job well done, even if that job consists of a whole month worth of mini-jobs that have been completed fifteen times in a row with success.

  • on pi comics.

    I used to draw a web comic more and paint a lot less.

    I note that fact today because the premise of my comic was centered around the notion of dad jokes, and the patron saint holiday of dad jokes is, obviously, pi day.

    My parenting humour aside, my efforts have paid off and my daughter spent yesterday afternoon (a day off school for other reasons) baking a celebratory pie.

    No joking about that.

  • on maintenance days.

    Some days you need to just put aside time to do maintenance.

    On your tools. On your supplies. On yourself.

    As a guy who runs multiple websites, I need to set aside time once per month or so to do routine upgrades on the software, clean up log files, and make sure all these systems are running soundly and securely.

    The same habits apply to my art supplies. Once in a while I need to tidy up, clean my brushes and plates, test the collection of pens, and get rid of the various wrappers, tissues, and bits of trash that have accumulated around and in my kits.

    It’s not a day that lacks productivity. It’s a different kind of productivity that is necessary to stay productive.

  • about the details.

    I’m not a details person.

    In my head I think I’d like to be, but it takes a special sort of mood for me to focus on the little things.

    So, when I’m in that mood and that mood corresponds to a point in time when I happen to have a paint brush in my hand, I can make interesting things happen.

    It turns out I can paint fine details when I want to.

    It turns out that I need to find the right mental space to actually want to.

    It turns out that when I want to those fine detail paintings actually turn out pretty good.

    How do you create space for optimal creative output?