Doodling

This is the time of year when, thanks to a generous gift card from my brother and sister-in-law, I generally end up with more art stuff. I say generally because last year I ended up buying beads and some other stuff and just a little bit of art stuff. Back to the art stuff again this year, though.

Are you tired of me typing "stuff" yet?

What you're seeing to the left in today's pointless photo(s) is mixed media paper, black 110 lb paper (I was going to buy an art pad of heavy-ish paper, and then it occurred to me that I could find it cheaper in the scrapbooking section. Turned out to be heavier paper, even.), a General's sketch set with charcoals, pastel pencils, and graphite (just to replace some of my stubs, really), a package of store brand coloured pencils in neons and metallics (for a change from my normal, usable colours?), and a set of Stabilo Point 88 Fineliners. That's nylon tip pens, good for writing or drawing. The picture to the right is me testing the pens to make sure none of them were dry. Oh, and I was drinking tea, obviously.

I went all art with my gift card this year partly to give myself a figurative kick in the butt. I've been lazy about art lately. It's been happening, but I slowed down a lot to give my stupid wrist a rest while it was being, well, stupid, this fall. It's an old injury that I periodically re-injure. Unfortunately, it also means that on my bad days I get a very shaky hand, because it's your wrist that controls most of your hand movements. If you're interested in anatomy, look up a picture of the human hand. There are surprisingly few muscles in the hand itself. Your wrist is the puppet master.

Anyway. Shaky wrist equalled shaky hand this fall -- still does, now and then -- so I backed off a bit to let things heal. The problem with that is that you get out of the habit. Oh, I've still been doodling (it's pretty hard to stop that) but I haven't produced much that's worth public viewing. In fact, I see that the last time I posted to my art blog it was August. I guess I should do something about that.

That's the plan. So, fineliners to convince myself that pen lines don't have to be perfect to be valid (shakes really show in fine pen, but that's okay... she tries to believe...) and pencils because I used to do a lot of pencil work and I should get back to it.

The other thing that usually helps is doing an inventory. I started one a few months ago, but got stalled. If you follow me on Instagram, then, don't be surprised if art supplies start showing up in my posts again. Photos remind me of what I have and how far I got, and if I've got the photos I may as well post them, right? That way it's not just me that knows the scale of years of buying.



Well, this turned into a post. Fancy that. Next time will probably be tea, you know. It wouldn't be the holiday season if I wasn't reviewing my tea presents.

You've been warned.