I’ve settled into a few focused areas of art practice and I’m getting more comfortable with them. But I’m still leaving plenty of room for experimenting with new materials and approaches such as Colored Pencils.

The four main art areas are as follows: Travel Sketchbook, Game Journals, Botanical Journal and Block Experiments

1. Travel Sketchbook

At the start of our travels I was careful not to put too many expectations on the work in the sketchbook. I experimented freely and most often was dismayed at the results. That’s just how it goes, I think. But things got slightly better over time and I reached a point where I thought I was “ready” to begin chronicling our adventure. I started a new journal in January with that goal…and promptly felt pressure to produce a somewhat high-quality, finished work. Ugh.

Before long I went back to a more casual approach and while there’s a fair amount in the sketchbook that nobody would consider “good,” the artwork is still representative of our adventures and they’re dear to me if only because of that fact.

2. Game Journals

Since traveling, I’ve mostly played the Sundered Isles solo RPG from Shawn Tompkins. I’ve posted most of the artwork in from my journal on the Ironsworn Discord and received encouraging reactions. The game artwork has felt freeing because no part of it needs to look like anything in particular. If I draw or paint something a specific way, then that’s how it will be in the game. There doesn’t need to be a comparison or reference for the art to be “correct.”

I don’t usually have more than one game running at a time but I recently started a game of Koriko: A Magical Year by Mousehole Press, partly because it is a cozy journaling game (a pretty different style than Sundered Isles) and partly because it is a game that has a definitive ending time…when the character spends a year in the new city setting. So unlike Sundered Isles, it will stop before too long.

I’ve used the Koriko game to experiment with new art materials like Conté Crayons and Colored Pencils. While the “crayons” didn’t really work out for me, I’ve only just begin with the pencils and am looking forward to exploring them.

3. Perpetual Journal (Botanicals)

I had written about this journal earlier and I’ve continued to use it. It is probably the only art practice area that’s been largely unchanged since the start. I don’t paint in it every week, but I don’t feel in a hurry to fill it up, as its format is designed to capture multiple years. I’m looking forward to having it for a very, very long time.

4. Block Experiments

Our daughter is an art student and she recently signed up to sell some of her work at a local art fair. After the fair we discussed that it might be fun for me to join her some time & sell a few things as well. Given that I don’t really want to tear out pages from the journals noted above, I started a new type of practice…different from the others.

My Instagram feed is constantly filled with beautiful, flowing watercolor ideas. (“Easy” and “For Beginners” are featured keywords that grab my attention) Sometimes they results are very pretty and usually they’re extremely different from the type of art I usually make. So I purchased a 5×7 watercolor block and started experimenting with some of these designs. If they turn out OK, I remove them from the block and place them in 5×7 cellophane envelopes, potentially for future sale if/when my daughter & I team up on a booth.