I had a very productive illustration day today because I thought I'd "test" out time-blocking again. What I mean by that is, I mapped out time constraints for each project I considered "urgent" or that required my attention this week.
Since I came back from Canada, I have been keeping a notebook on my current long-term goals, but most particularly my mid to short-term goals. I used to be very anti "goal-setting" because I thought it would turn me into some kind of robot, and that the goals would "loom over" me or make me feel imprisoned. It is true that when I write my monthly goals, I become accountable to myself, and when I revisit the monthly list and realise I've accomplished little, I feel like shit! But I guess that is "good" guilt.
Breaking down my lists a bit further, I now keep monthly "Eisenhower Quadrants" (a habit I picked up from watching a productivity YouTuber), where I write my IMPORTANT / URGENT tasks in one quadrant, and my IMPORTANT / NOT URGENT in another (I don't worry about the bottom two quadrants, since I don't think they matter?!).
For the month of December, I set out two specific goals which I worked on today. They were:
This is what my day looked like:
10:30 - 11:30am - Finish penciling "Eat Poo"
11:30 - 11:50am - Tea break
11:50 - 12:50pm - Pen Microserfs drawing
12:50 - 1:50pm - Lunch break
1:50 - 2:50pm - Read/plan zine (diagrams/ideas)
2:50 - 3:10pm - Tea break
3:15 - 4:15pm - A3 desert drawing for Mum (Xmas present)
4:15 - 5:15pm - Document/blog (reflect on time-blocking: what worked/didn't)
This hour-by-hour breakdown was immensely helpful, and made me feel really good about my day.
I finished adding background details to "Eat Poo" (one of the prints I want to sell), but haven't yet started colouring it because I really want to do it in gouache paint). Here is a work in progress shot:
Next, I worked on my Microserfs illustration idea (which was started weeks ago). I had that as my first BIG ILLO idea as part of my newly-institutionalized goal-setting ways, and never progressed. I thought I would ink it in a separate layer/paper, and then add colour in another layer/paper by using a lightbox, but the whole process seems so piece-y and stupid, to be honest. I also really like the vibe of the original sketch, and on the advice of htmlflowers (who was doing a live insta story today), I decided to pen on top of pencil. Here is a work in progress:
Next, I did some reading. Currently reading The Lies That Bind Us by Kwame Anthony Appiah, gift of my "father-in-law" who said I should keep it since it applies more to me than him. lol! I don't usually like reading non-fiction but Kwame is very good with his prose.
Instead of planning the zine (another project I want to tackle), I ended up planning my 100-day drawing project which I will be conducting on my Instagram sooooooon. I love love love the approach Mary Kate McDevitt had for her 100-day project of tying up hand-lettering, names and actions to each of her drawings in 2016:
In that vein, I jotted down my main theme idea for my own 100-day project:
In short, I want to do something similar to McDevitt but give it a personal twist, since these are all books I have at home. It's a way of tying my physical day-to-day existence with the project (something I feel very deeply about, I suppose). I also jotted down some zine ideas, but I'll leave that for another day since the 100-day idea just materialized itself so strongly in my mind today!
Finally, after another tea break (with no milk :^( ) and many conflicting podcasts, I started on my Mum's A3 present. I am basing it on a tiny, tiny marker doodle I made a while ago for fun, and that had such a popping colour scheme! However, I went a bit crazy and decided I would do it in mixed media, not just markers, and ended up with these nice watercolour blobs:
Strange, I know. They will be the alien mounds of my alien desert, so bare with me - this is a process post!
A complimentary shot of my INSANELY well set-up studio:
Since I came back from Canada, I have been keeping a notebook on my current long-term goals, but most particularly my mid to short-term goals. I used to be very anti "goal-setting" because I thought it would turn me into some kind of robot, and that the goals would "loom over" me or make me feel imprisoned. It is true that when I write my monthly goals, I become accountable to myself, and when I revisit the monthly list and realise I've accomplished little, I feel like shit! But I guess that is "good" guilt.
Breaking down my lists a bit further, I now keep monthly "Eisenhower Quadrants" (a habit I picked up from watching a productivity YouTuber), where I write my IMPORTANT / URGENT tasks in one quadrant, and my IMPORTANT / NOT URGENT in another (I don't worry about the bottom two quadrants, since I don't think they matter?!).
For the month of December, I set out two specific goals which I worked on today. They were:
- Develop three prints to sell: can be a pattern, something simple, comic style...
- Pick/brainstorm several 100-day project themes: no need to start, but lay out theme options.
This is what my day looked like:
10:30 - 11:30am - Finish penciling "Eat Poo"
11:30 - 11:50am - Tea break
11:50 - 12:50pm - Pen Microserfs drawing
12:50 - 1:50pm - Lunch break
1:50 - 2:50pm - Read/plan zine (diagrams/ideas)
2:50 - 3:10pm - Tea break
3:15 - 4:15pm - A3 desert drawing for Mum (Xmas present)
4:15 - 5:15pm - Document/blog (reflect on time-blocking: what worked/didn't)
This hour-by-hour breakdown was immensely helpful, and made me feel really good about my day.
I finished adding background details to "Eat Poo" (one of the prints I want to sell), but haven't yet started colouring it because I really want to do it in gouache paint). Here is a work in progress shot:
Next, I worked on my Microserfs illustration idea (which was started weeks ago). I had that as my first BIG ILLO idea as part of my newly-institutionalized goal-setting ways, and never progressed. I thought I would ink it in a separate layer/paper, and then add colour in another layer/paper by using a lightbox, but the whole process seems so piece-y and stupid, to be honest. I also really like the vibe of the original sketch, and on the advice of htmlflowers (who was doing a live insta story today), I decided to pen on top of pencil. Here is a work in progress:
Next, I did some reading. Currently reading The Lies That Bind Us by Kwame Anthony Appiah, gift of my "father-in-law" who said I should keep it since it applies more to me than him. lol! I don't usually like reading non-fiction but Kwame is very good with his prose.
Instead of planning the zine (another project I want to tackle), I ended up planning my 100-day drawing project which I will be conducting on my Instagram sooooooon. I love love love the approach Mary Kate McDevitt had for her 100-day project of tying up hand-lettering, names and actions to each of her drawings in 2016:
In that vein, I jotted down my main theme idea for my own 100-day project:
In short, I want to do something similar to McDevitt but give it a personal twist, since these are all books I have at home. It's a way of tying my physical day-to-day existence with the project (something I feel very deeply about, I suppose). I also jotted down some zine ideas, but I'll leave that for another day since the 100-day idea just materialized itself so strongly in my mind today!
Finally, after another tea break (with no milk :^( ) and many conflicting podcasts, I started on my Mum's A3 present. I am basing it on a tiny, tiny marker doodle I made a while ago for fun, and that had such a popping colour scheme! However, I went a bit crazy and decided I would do it in mixed media, not just markers, and ended up with these nice watercolour blobs:
Strange, I know. They will be the alien mounds of my alien desert, so bare with me - this is a process post!
A complimentary shot of my INSANELY well set-up studio:
 |
| tiny table! |
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