Welcome to the Sketchbook Confessional for July 2020!
It’s the future and we live in the time of COVID-19, let’s live heroically, let’s live in style. #jewell2020
The last half of July was interesting for me on the personal side - I’m in the process of rethinking my studio location with COVID being so extant. More news on that side too, readers, just know that change is in the air for me! Just like it is for so many of us.
This month I made a few more animated gifs, like Mr. Blue Cat over to the right. I am learning more about making small drawings come to life in just a few frames.
Check out all of my gifs here on Giphy!
Other than a couple gifs, I did some sketches in Clip Studio Paint below, and the rest of July is in my June-and-a-Half update.
I’m putting a lot of content on Instagram IG TV of my processes in Clip Studio Paint on the iPad Pro. It’s been a fun way to connect with people from all over the world, and friends new and old, while staying at home for COVID measures.
There are a ton of great and amazing art video timelapses out there, where you can watch art come to life at a rapid pace.
What I aim to do in my Instagram art videos that is DIFFERENT from silent timelapses is to narrate my decisions and choices as I draw, so that my thoughts, not just my motor skills, are captured in the video.
I think that understanding artist thoughts, not just physical talents, is the ticket to developing art skills and becoming better artists overall. If we can investigate our thoughts, we can learn and grow in meaningful ways.
Instagram Video Directory:
Digital Collage - How I use photographs of abstract paintings and layer them into Clip Studio Paint to create textured, varied artwork.
Character Development - Drawing a couple character busts from scratch.
Animated Gif Process - How to make animated gifs in Procreate.
Smiley time on the IG!
IG TV is fun and it’s been a great way for me to get my work permanently into the world. I probably will go onto Youtube one of these days. For now, Instagram is where it’s at for livestreaming and art tips from me - plus you get to see my smiley face!
Life and Fitness:
I’m super pumped to say I’ve hired triathlete Alex Willis to be my running trainer. My goal is to eventually run a few long distance races, such as a marathon, and if I get there, a 50 miler.
At a certain point I realized that the longer I run, the better I feel about life. So at this point I am positively addicted to running in the purest sense of the phrase.
I’m two months free of alcohol at this point, however I’ve gone back on to caffiene. I could give up alcohol but not coffee!
COVID stay-at-home time was and is a perfect time for me personally to kick alcohol - otherwise it is just me in my backyard drinking Coronas, which is kind of, er, well it’s not very fun.
The good thing about kicking alcohol completely is that I am taking steps to solve problems in my life instead of just drowning them out. Things that I don’t like about life or myself, I am working to fix deeply, instead of bandaid. It’s been good so far.
To make life fun, I’ve gotten into treating myself by dying a strip of my hair various colors.
My hair changes just about every week. Right now I’m only using two colors from Manic Panic to get a range of pinks, purples, and blues.
Related blogs:
Sketchbook Confessional: June and a Half
