Week 1 of 2017

[hrymfaxe]

It's that time of year (that arbitrary calendar for syncronising our watches ;)) where I sometimes feel the urge to make resolutions. I have done it before, and often failed, because I set myself too ambitious a goal, and then felt it wasn't worth picking up again after I inevitably failed. Yet, I still can't help myself it seems, and it feels good to look ahead and imagine what I would like to prioritise my time and energy on.

So this year I'm going to set a goal of drawing/painting more, exercising more, and just generally treating myself well. More is not an easy quantifier to measure, and a year is a long time to look ahead, so I will start out by promising myself to do this for a month at least:
- A drawing/painting a week in a sketchbook I have dedicated to this purpose (and if I don't have any inspiration I will use this list of ideas for the 52 weeks of the year)
- Exercise! In any shape or form.

And I will try to do a weekly recap of things that I have done which made me happy.

So with no further ado: Recap of week 1 of 2017!

For drawing and painting it started well - I finished a small sketch inspired by a photo I stumbled over while procrastinating online:


And then the first prompt on the list I linked above was "A new beginning", which seemed fitting. ;) I was googling around for quotes and found several different New Year's wishes from Neil Gaiman, and thought that one of them would fit nicely to a first page in a new sketchbook: "Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before."



The painting was me testing out a lot of new watercolors, acrylic inks, mediums and other texture enhancers. It's a little too messy for me to call it a success, but there are definitely some things I liked, and will hopefully be able to use in other paintings:


The reaction between acrylic ink and watercolor granulation medium - I love this!


Spraying ink with water allows it to flow in unpredictable patterns, and the same happens when spraying first and then dropping watercolor into it. It also counters my tendency to over-control the process.

A fun week for painting! :)

I also got in two weightlifting workouts, and yesterday two trips to the hardware store on the cargo bike, to pick up firewood (140 kg in total brought home). This is excellent exercise!

Annoyed with my tendency to constantly play games on my phone while watching tv or trying to fall asleep, or cooking or whenever else, I have deleted all the games. I do not miss them!

And finally, for christmas we bought a nice bottle of Port, which came in an awesome box, that I have now converted into a small storage place for my watercolors, by cutting little shelves to fit into it:



So all in all a very good week!

Comments

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Being more creative is always good, a new year's resolution or not :) I have been cutting back more on fannish things (be it behind the scenes or community participation) in 2016 and have continued to do so this year. The less I see, the less inclined I feel to participate/help ect Ergo more time for other things! A week ago my daughter discovered that mommy has a nice set of colouring pencils.. I hardly touched those, but I secured them immediately :)

I do love your play with the watercolours, Jenny Dolfen is also great with them, but yours have a different vibe.

And that small sketch... wow!

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

Being more creative is always good, a new year's resolution or not :)

I agree! I'm trying to find the balance between completely unstructured creative time, which just leads to me not doing anything, and too ambitious a plan, which I will inevitably fail, and then be discouraged by. :)

Colouring pencils! I hope you will find time to do something fun with those. I know what you mean about having to prioritise your time in order to do the things that bring you joy.

Jenny Dolfen is a watercolour master! I do not have her patience for the fiddly little details though - so I'm glad you like how it looks when I am playing. :D

Thank you - the little fat winter birds are happy to hear you like them.

[independence1776]

Ooh, I like those artworks! I'm looking forward to seeing more. :)

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I am also looking forward to playing more. :D

[dawn_felagund]

I love both pieces but the second is my favorite. The colors particularly appeal to me, and the image kind of hiding behind the chaos of all that sprayed water! :D

Being a first-year teacher again, I have been struggling to get exercise as well because I'm so often busy and tired. I also belonged to a gym in Maryland and do not here, and it's often hard to motivate myself to snowshoe or x-country ski right after school.

(However, the fact that it's much harder to obtain junk food here means that I've not gained weight and think I've even slimmed down a little! :D But I don't want to lose the muscles and endurance I built over two years of regular gym attendance in Maryland.)

Maybe I'll try a similar goal with writing: Aim to do a little writing for my own interests (creative or nonfiction) each week. I've actually managed to do that so far this year too.

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

I bought watercolours from a new (to me at least) brand and they do seem to be very vibrant! I will be on the lookout for more of those for sure!

I will have to think of something clever this week, because all that water and color bled through the pages, even though it is a heavy paper book meant to take water. This is what makes it fun though!

Oh man, about the exercise, I can only imagine - you must be more or less on level with us now, so there aren't that many hours of daylight either. I only get as much done as I do, because we have a weightlifting rack in the apartment... No excuses! ;) It is my experience though, that once you have built it up, the muscle mass and strength is quick to return even after you take a break for whatever reason.

One week into this year, it does feel like a doable goal to just do a little something once a week. I will make an effort to report in regularly on my progress, though.

[binkaslibrary.livejournal.com]

Lovely portholder :) a watercolor box that is.

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

And it was a good port too! ;) Only quality stuff in that box. :D

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I love the watercolors--vibrant and rich is the kind of art I love. The very simple birds are just out of this world also.

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

The new colours I bought are really something when it comes to intensity. I love that they translate onto the page and in photos. :) Thanks.

I love that little bird in your icon too!