Snip, Sliver, Slice

This week I’ve been playing with fiddly bits of paper. I thought the digital color-card-swatch-chart-palette thingy I’ve been working on needed a redesign—fewer darks, more grays, another column, and a better numbering system—so I’ve been auditioning paper samples to get a better idea for how they’ll look and feel in real life.

I’ve also gotten motivated to start a Daily Drawing practice like my lovely friend and accountabilibuddy, Monica, at lalalamonique. She turns her drawings into joyous designs for fabric and furnishings. They’re wonderfully bright and whimsical, and she has a gazillion of them because she’s so diligent in her practice. Very inspiring!

I’m not sure if mine will turn into anything, but for right now, just doing it is the important thing. I’ve gotten very rusty, so to ease back into the habit, I’ve been cutting out snippets and bobs from magazines with the intention of gluing them into my planner and doing side-by-side sketches.

In his latest book, Keep Going, Austin Kleon writes, “Because drawing is really an exercise in seeing, you can suck at it and still get a ton out of it.” I love his approach. It takes all the pressure off.