2020 – 6 months and counting

I haven’t written a blog in a long time … and yes, it’s been quite a while. A lot has happened since that last post at the end of the year. I’ve been quite active posting on Instagram (which now you can access from my website by clicking on the icon at the top right) but it’s time for me to get back to blogging.

2020 has been quite the year so far .. Mike passed away in February, Covid-19 hit the world and I lost my job. Quite the year, right? … but I’m coping. And I have to say that the “stay at home” directive has worked for me so far. It’s allowed me the time needed to drive, reflect, come to terms with circumstances out of my control. As an introvert, and someone who loves her home, I’ve been quite content to stay home and create – when the mood strikes. Creativity has kept me engaged, focused for periods of time (although there’s been a lot of squirrelling – it still ongoing, the squirrelling I mean) and sane in times of such turmoil and uncertainty. Did someone say unprecedented? … the world has been turned and churned and spit out again. And hopefully, when all is said and done, and we get to the new “normal”, whatever the “new normal” might be, we’ll be better for it. We would have listened, and learned, and changed. For my part, I’ve got to take it one day at a time and hope that time lessens the impact of all this on my personal life. But, in the meantime … I keep creating.

One of the things I did was to join a couple of challenges; I have to tell you that I have quite enjoyed them. One of them is the 100 day challenge where you make something of your choice, one per day for 100 days. I chose to work on a sketchbook because it’s not something I normally do, and it seemed like a good time to start a new routine. Here are some of the results. If you know anything about me, you know I loooove circles. So I’ve been working with them and exploring different ideas.

I’m using a fantastic sketchbook by Bee Creative. It’s 8″ x 8″. This particular one is what they call a “Heavyweight Draw” – 160 lbs. paper acid free. It takes wet media amazingly well. The paper doesn’t distort or fall apart. I love it. Unfortunately, it seems the company has been purchased by someone else. I managed to find some of the 140 lbs. watercolour sketchbooks, so I purchased quite a few.

Im using India Ink and Posca pens and markers. I’ve also been using watercolours – some of those pages will be shown on a separate post. I’ve been asked what I use to draw the circles: mostly, a compass – using a compass makes me happy. I also have a few stencils with circles that I use and anything really that’ll give me the circle the size I want.

I leave you with a few more:

Send me a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading. Keep creating,

Ana