Oh just found you on substack! Totally agree on challenges on making art everyday and finding things to draw.. and keeping up with the daily art challenge👍👍👍thats a big accomplishment!
I love seeing this and your sketches! Congrats on keeping it up ans combining it with your wedding. Now you have some extra special artworks to keep. I just started my 100-day art project so it’s inspiring to see post like this 🌻
Yes, I do. It's still lacking in essential features (clickable hashtags, plus I've been pushing for public & private user-curated LISTS, as I do every platform 😁) but it reminds me a LOT of early Twitter days. What's the biggest draw for me, though: the BIG influx of kidlit people (including educators & librarians, kidlit agents, editors, authors, illustrators). Only one art director so far (Brian LaRossa of Scholastic), though.
I've only recently gotten back into drawing, but I have yet to try a daily challenge. You have me thinking now. For my writing and knitting, I'm not trying to do daily, but I have been marking on my calendar with sharpies to remind myself of how productive I'm being. It's nice to see the calendar at the end of the month full of stars.
I’ve been on a good run for the past few months. Nothing special, just drawing my hand every morning, making rounds through the ASL manual alphabet. No secret on my end, I just happen to wake up before the family and it’s the first thing I do. I’m not sure how long it will keep going but I’ve been having fun with fountain pens and I hope it goes for a while.
I'm still in an exploratory phase so things are changing quickly and it's fun. I've been playing with shading so I've been a lot happier with these images than the simple outline drawings from earlier in the year.
As for my a pen of choice, I picked up the cheapest Fountain Pen Revolution pens with ultra-flex nibs and have been loving it. The pen bodies are cheap, but they are awesome and bendy where it counts. All that exploration was kicked off by Ashlyn's excellent letter on her pens here — https://ashlynanstee.substack.com/p/for-the-fun-of-it-fountain-pen-drawing-d26
I'm so impressed that you managed to keep up the challenge when in the middle of wedding month! Congratulations to both filling your sketchbook so beautifully and to getting married! The pics you shared in IG were stunning.
Carolyn! You've inspired me to start a #GoldStarChallenge over on Bluesky. I'm linking people to your post here on Substack. When/if you join Bluesky, you can see the thread here:
I *love* the idea of using old-school gold stars. I am so going to start doing this - thank you for the inspiration!
Oh just found you on substack! Totally agree on challenges on making art everyday and finding things to draw.. and keeping up with the daily art challenge👍👍👍thats a big accomplishment!
Hi Duahati, welcome and thank you so much!
Congrats on the wedding and keeping up your sketchbook habit! 💐😺 I love the kitties in the box. The tuxedo one in the back made my heart skip a beat!
Thank you so much Beth!! 😻 haha that one really made me wanna paint kittens more regularly 🥹
I love seeing this and your sketches! Congrats on keeping it up ans combining it with your wedding. Now you have some extra special artworks to keep. I just started my 100-day art project so it’s inspiring to see post like this 🌻
Thank you Susan! A 100 day project is quite a feat, kudos for getting started and look forward to seeing your journey!
It is but not sharing it on Instagram has made it less stressful than previous years. Thank you!
Thanks again for inspiring me, Carolyn! My GOLD STICKERS JUST ARRIVED, WOOHOO!!! I just shared your post over on Bluesky, btw. :-)
Aww thank you Debbie! I am not on Bluesky yet hehe maybe this will be the motivation to try it out :) Do you like the platform?
Yes, I do. It's still lacking in essential features (clickable hashtags, plus I've been pushing for public & private user-curated LISTS, as I do every platform 😁) but it reminds me a LOT of early Twitter days. What's the biggest draw for me, though: the BIG influx of kidlit people (including educators & librarians, kidlit agents, editors, authors, illustrators). Only one art director so far (Brian LaRossa of Scholastic), though.
These are wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
I absolutely love this idea!
I made art my June resolution (I do a new resolution every month to try it out) and I haven’t stopped since. Great piece
Isn't it great how once we get the ball rolling it's so much easier to keep things going? Thanks so much!
That is so true. It has now just become part of my day. Makes you question why you didn’t do it before 😎
I've only recently gotten back into drawing, but I have yet to try a daily challenge. You have me thinking now. For my writing and knitting, I'm not trying to do daily, but I have been marking on my calendar with sharpies to remind myself of how productive I'm being. It's nice to see the calendar at the end of the month full of stars.
Absolutely! Using different colors is fun too to keep track of different activities :)
I remember we used to have star stamps back in the day, I used to get them for being diligent when I was 5 years old. 🙌
This is so good, doing a to draw folder now. ❤️
Thank you! Hope the tip helps :)
I loved seeing peeks of your sketchbook all month!
Thanks so much Melissa <3 inspired by you always!
I’ve been on a good run for the past few months. Nothing special, just drawing my hand every morning, making rounds through the ASL manual alphabet. No secret on my end, I just happen to wake up before the family and it’s the first thing I do. I’m not sure how long it will keep going but I’ve been having fun with fountain pens and I hope it goes for a while.
That's great! Have you noticed an improvement in your renderings of hands? What's your fountain pen of choice?
I'm still in an exploratory phase so things are changing quickly and it's fun. I've been playing with shading so I've been a lot happier with these images than the simple outline drawings from earlier in the year.
As for my a pen of choice, I picked up the cheapest Fountain Pen Revolution pens with ultra-flex nibs and have been loving it. The pen bodies are cheap, but they are awesome and bendy where it counts. All that exploration was kicked off by Ashlyn's excellent letter on her pens here — https://ashlynanstee.substack.com/p/for-the-fun-of-it-fountain-pen-drawing-d26
Oh and congrats on the wedding!!! Hopefully you can relax now!
The only thing that can make me work consistently is to set appointments with myself at ungodly hours 2am and 4am are my favorites
Hahah that's a tactic! I love sleep too much :) It's nice that you are much less likely to overthink during those hours!
I'm so impressed that you managed to keep up the challenge when in the middle of wedding month! Congratulations to both filling your sketchbook so beautifully and to getting married! The pics you shared in IG were stunning.
Raj!! Thank you so much, it means a lot! More detailed wedding post to come ;)
Carolyn! You've inspired me to start a #GoldStarChallenge over on Bluesky. I'm linking people to your post here on Substack. When/if you join Bluesky, you can see the thread here:
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5amsebbtpuqieuxuqadmmvcv/post/3k6dghrxz7x23