letting your self go
I grew up with adults who believed that we can and should control the size and aging of our bodies. (They also said I would never again look as good as I did at 16, so.)
They were worried about letting themselves go, they were worried about me growing up and letting myself go.
—
do you hear it? the promise in the curse?
—
growing up, and
letting your
self
go
—
at least they only warn us about things that are possible ✨
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The flowers are here
The flowers are here! So I will be out painting them, sneezing and alive.
Spring sun breaks are the perfect time to get outside and paint: they don't last long, and the light is magic. I've been continuing my project of using up my sketchbooks, and took two that each had just a few pages left outside with me this week to study the sprouts and blooms.
Even though this adventure was just in my backyard, I like to pack pretty light when I go to sketch outside. I find that once I'm out there, my kit seems to feel exponentially more complicated than it did inside, with pens and pastels rolling away, little cups of water tipping and paper towels taking off in the wind.
So this time I opted to use a water brush and paper towel, a handful of oil and wax pastels, colored pencils and markers, and a few acrylic gouache tubes with my cardboard + freezer paper palette. I'm okay with a really limited palette because I am not all that interested in matching color, but rather the creative puzzle of using the supplies I have on hand to somehow capture the bit of life I'm looking at.
Drawing both flowers is a version of drawing something twice. This allows me to experiment with switching up the roles of the different supplies (pastel outline in one, marker in the other), to play with how flexible our perception is: the flowers still seem like they're two versions of the same thing, instead of reading as a green flower next to an orange one.
I was delighted to notice a patch of half-open camas. My palette was leaning toward more electric spring colors, so I adapted again to make the sketches below. I began with making a simple contour of the camas shape, and then filled in the space with its friends: blades of grass in hot pink, dandelion in fairly true-to-life colors and some other leaf clusters.
This is an excerpt from Easy Does It, our online creativity community where I teach ways to make art-making a natural part of your life. Join us for access to two and a half years’ worth of inspiration & tips.
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Good change
We're in the process of updating the shop - raising some prices and taking down prints to make room for the new. If you want to check out the whole collection at current prices, now's the time!
And just for you, my beloved newsletter friends: use code GOODCHANGE20 for 20% off standard prints :)