#hopefully with the new update my brain can get a clearer picture

[the1trueanon]

part 5 of my doodle dump! lordyyyyy 😅 I have. so many doodles. of Welcome Home XD this is probably gonna take 2 posts aflksdjfslfsdjf so this one will probably be dedicated to the concept doodles I did for Sage when I very first found out about Welcome Home (which feels weird to say, cause it hasn't been that long -- maybe 2 months? 3? -- but so much has happened since then, and Sage and Rosemary's story has changed so much!)

these are the first two groups of doodles I ever did for Sage when coming up with her design! Originally I wanted Sage to be a mouse, but then I came up with a rabbit design and wound up unable to choose between the two 😅 But you guys helped me out and now we have our lovely lil rabbit gardener!!

these are really old, from when I first was thinking of Sage's story. neither of them are true to her story now (except for the "waltism" one XD), but really was just me messing around with Wally and what would be happening with him :D

These ones, however, are much more relevant to their story now! (though not necessarily true word for word 😅) These are my concepts for Rosemary, along with her and Wally's relationship and how they interacted before Rosemary became Sage! It's a lil spoilery tbh, mostly with those last two, but generally with this part of their story I'm exploring Wally's abilities, as well as the idea of relationships (of any kind!) and support across like...spaces? existence? dimensions? i'm not entirely sure what Home/the Neighborhood is in relation to reality/Outside yet. I think I'm waiting for more information on it all from Clown before elaborating -w-

[elstonsblog]

2019

In my last yearly round-up, the goals for the end of 2019 were to have done:

365 drawings (1 a day of place and thought)

52 what I saws

12 reflective writing pieces

12 reasons to be cheerful

12 photographs of tattooed fruit

6 posters

6 punks

6 tattooed people

6 painted objects

6 zines

4 pieces of clothing

A piece of work printed/made

Learn stick and poke

Stall at an art fair

It’s obvious to say, that I didn’t complete all of my resolutions. There were tasks that I started and then fell through – like the 52 what I saw’s, then there were other tasked that changed throughout the year. Looking at these goals again I think my approach for the coming year will be slightly different. Fewer goals, bigger goals with more actions that can be divided throughout the year. Hopefully, after writing this I’ll have a clearer idea of what they’ll be so I’ll come back that at the end. 

The work I’ve created this year feels a lot more together than the 2018’s body of work. I’ve found comfort in the barrel pen and the application of a colour palette which helps give the work a sense of togetherness. While in 2020 I hope to expand my processes a bit more this year has been good to build confidence and find the fun in what I’m doing again. The goal of making my work and Instagram page look more varied (as previously it was lumps of the same work) I think has been successful. It has been achieved through daily drawings of whatever pops into my head at lunchtime to then be drawn up and coloured at the weekends. This way of working has suited me well as it gives me something to do at lunch and thinking of 1 thing a day is manageable into my routine... the downfall of it would be that it doesn’t give much room for larger ideas or projects – knowing this now, I hope to set some time aside on weekends to plan those out and then I could use the lunchtimes to progress them.

My way of working is still fairly analogue as all the lines are drawn by hand, scanned and then will be digitally coloured. If I were to get an iPad the processing time would go down but I don’t feel there is a need for that yet as everything I’m doing it on my own time and it’s a process I’m comfortable with that ensures my hand stays in the game. 

In 2018 I was focussed much more on observational drawing, this year I have come away from that and started to play around with things a bit more. Using ideas and objects and trying to focus on fun. There have been a few recurring pieces that I would like to continue in 2020, Reasons to be cheerful was started in 2019 and while the ones that have been created could do with a bit of freshening up I can redraw and update those while continuing it as eventually I’d like to make it into a book/poem of some kind so that it is in keeping with the original song. The half heads are also interesting to me to play with, stemming from this philosophy that the mind and body are separate yet connected – opening up the brain allows for better communication of what that person is feeling. I’m not sure what the half heads will lead to in terms of the outcome.. but it’s a nice outlet for me to communicate feelings.

The platform that I am using is starting to increase which is starting to give me a better understanding of who my audience is. Before my nephew was born I was reluctant to do child-focused things but my view on that has changed a lot seeing how he interacts with pictures and toys. For a few months in the latter part of the year, I was seeing my work as being in the soft middle of nothing as it isn’t too much one thing or much the other. With that in mind, I started to make things with soft middles. Felt soft toys that are just like physical drawings, making them takes longer than drawing does but it’s nice to have something physical at the end of it. It’s something that is still quite new to me so there’s an excitement there. Because of the material and general look of the bright coloured soft and squishy objects, they lend themselves to children. When drawing the ideas of what to make I made sure that it was things that interest me rather than trying to use the toys to make only baby stuff, this has also helped keep my interest. A goal for this year is to make stuff so that I can go to stalls – having a face on contact with people will give me a much better idea of who my audience is and meet other creative people.

I’d say that the most successful aspects of my work this year is the progression of my visual toolkit, I’ve found my eyes and my nose and my colours. Things that I’m able to apply to any drawing I do. This has been helpful and I’m hoping it will continue to progress and change as currently when I ditch the nose it looks quite kawaii which isn’t quite what I’d hoped for but with more practice, I’ll find an alternative. This year I need to focus some effort on creating body shapes as many of my drawings with people in are just headshots other than body’s that were observed. I think that’s because when drawing the half heads, I draw them naked. I can do full body monkeys and skeletons and, I’m sure, with the addition of clothes I’ll be able to do people – I just need to put some effort into making sure it happens. ­

On the flip side of that, my least successful aspect would be refinement and placement. Throughout the year I’ve just been drawing one thing then moving on to the next with no real thinking of what I could use this for, where could I put this.. how can I push it? I think 2020 will see some refining of existing work as now it’s been drawn and I’ve had time away from it I can think and see it differently. I’d like to make some of the things already created into gifs, prints etc. so that they’re not just stuck as they currently are.

Other than a handful of projects, most of my work didn’t involve research into an area or subject – which has led the pieces to be seen at face value, most of them aren’t trying to communicate anything deeper which when looking back over the body of work makes it feel a little light. Not by any means does this mean that my work suddenly has to become all serious or obvious – but I think I could benefit from taking more interest in the news, short stories etc. to attempt to convey messages, tales and ideas rather than just images.

Overall, I think this past year has been a good step in the right direction that I hope to continue taking forward. I’ve played around with stick + poke; made a group exhibition;  redesigned my website and opened up more social media channels; made work for other people; designed an alphabet and learnt to sew (to pick my favourite few). Through focusing on drawing happier things I have also held a happier state of mind – I think both things feed into each other. While I’m not where I want to be yet (and I don’t know what that is) I’m positive that by carrying on I’ll get somewhere. My confidence in the drawing is getting better but now I think I need to focus my efforts on application and ideas of the drawings. 

In 2020, my main aims are to work towards (and hopefully do) a stall in either Bristol or London along with creating a self-promotion pack to send out to possible prospective clients. I have loosely planned my year with the main recurring projects that I would like to achieve this year, it looks slightly barer than the previous year but having fewer objectives means I can spend more time on them to make it the best version possible. I will be continuing with creating image ideas at lunchtime and working towards a bigger goal in the evenings. There is a possibility of my full-time job ending mid-year so what I’ve set out to do may suffer during deciding whether to do an MA or looking for another job... but none the less, these are my goals for 2020:

Make 24 Felt toys

Make 12 Editorial response drawings

Make 12 Zines

Make 12 Reasons to be cheerful

Make 12 Cards

Read 12 comics

Take 10 Polaroids a month

Write 12 reflection pieces

Design and distribute the self-promo pack

Stall at an art fair