This corner table in my living room has become my haven of peace and sanity. When I sit down with my pens and pencils and rulers, no matter what’s going on in the outside world, a golden pool of quiet opens around me, and I dive in.
I sketch new ideas in pencil, erase a lot, then ink when I’m in a different mood–firm and ready to commit. I use Micron waterproof ink pens, though some of my markers seem to make the black lines bleed.
Color comes next, but not necessarily right away. I use Faber Castell watercolor pencils, fine-tip pens, and a cheap set of brushtip pens that I found at Barnes & Noble.
At each stage, I sit with the drawing to make sure it’s expressing as much as possible what I’m feeling and thinking. Because I have a ferocious fear of messing up, as I get ready to ink I remind myself that if I totally blow it I can always draw it again. Think of all the artists who’ve worked and reworked the same images and themes. I can do that too. It’s not my only shot.
These drawings are all made in my Bullet Journal. The first one was red, a Moleskine dot-grid, which I feel so at home with. Next up is a Leuchtturm (???) in turquoise. I suspect I will fall passionately in love with each one, just as I did with the speckled composition books I used as journals when I was young.
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