I'm trying not to "publish" my whole memoir here, but it's mostly what I'm working on these days, so I'm going to show bits and pieces. It's been fun to go through old photos and journals and ticket stubs and remember trips and people. I found a photo I didn't remember at all of my first dog Dougal lying on my lap while I played banjo. Henry gets across from me and glares and looks put upon. He is much less a music fan. Here are the photo and the version I did from it for the book.

You can also see the font I'm tinkering with. I keep going in and making minor adjustments. It's an app for my ipad, iFontMaker, that lets me draw my own letters. My first attempt looked scarily like Comic Sans (or a ransom note, as fellow illustrator Martha Park said of her own first attempt), but I tried again and came out with this, after numerous adjustments and probably more to come. If I'm going to do a whole book, it would be way easier to use a font (even drawing with an apple pencil requires me doing most words several times), and it's more legible. So I'm laying out with the font for now. Worst case scenario it's a good place holder for me to know what to write where if I decide I don't like the final look.

Three years ago I wrote about 19,000 words of a first draft of a memoir. What I learned is that prose isn't really my medium. But it was cathartic. I ended up writing a path out for my younger self from a bad place, and it was helpful. I also figured out that I had written way too broadly, and the story I'd like to tell is tighter and centers around a transformative summer in Greece I was lucky enough to spend there. I thought that maybe someday I would mine some of that outpouring for graphic storytelling.

This spring, as I am stuck in my house for most of the days thanks to a flare up of the POTS I've been trying to figure out how to live with, I'm toying with that project again. I don't currently have the physicality to do a lot of standing up work in my print shop, but sitting on the couch and noodling with small illustrations gives me joy. And going back to relive some of that travel when I'm feeling more closed in is also appealing.

I don't honestly know if I'll have the courage to put this very personal story out into the world, but I'm enjoying exploring it. There is nothing like the brain fizz of a new project to perk you up a little. So here's the first page. We'll see how much more makes it to the public sphere.

We had a deluge for a second first Saturday in a row with very little rain in between. Memphis Urban Sketchers (every first Saturday) were set to to to the Memphis Botanic Gardens. It felt a little wasteful to take a trip there and not have much scope for the gardens themselves, but there's a big main building with windows in multiple directions, a conservatory, and even some garden pavilions, so we went ahead. There was also a covered porch outside the main conservatory where I settled in. I'm a sucker for a good palm frond. But there was so much inside that I would also love to draw. I need to get back sooner rather than later.

The colors seemed to call for my Kaweko Paradise Blue ink, which I love, but which is not suited for everything. It was fun to pull that pen back out. I always seem to do a detailed, more time consuming sketch first one out of the gate (backwards of the recommended practice of a quick warm up or two, but there we are). Then I did a much quicker one of this crazy plant in a pot sitting out on the patio. It's very small, in my little 3.5x5" purse sketchbook.

After the first downpour I took advantage of the break to get back to the main building without being drenched, and it got a lot lighter. I pulled out my waterproof inflatable cushion (my key piece of non sketching equipment) and did another super fast but bigger one of this garden sculpture. I do love a spiral, and it stood out beautifully against a dark magnolia. I got lost in the spirals, and it's an under 10 minute sketch, so it's not too exact, but I ended up liking it best of the three. I probably SHOULD start with quicker warmups if I could get my brain to keep from diving in with both feet as I'm starting.

I've been doing a lot of illustration work lately, but not just sketching from life for personal happiness. Sunday was a gorgeous day, and the wildflowers are at their peak. Henry and I went early and walked up a small wash where we wouldn't hurt anything but also where we'd be a little off the path since it was a weekend. I wanted to settle in and sketch before chigger season, which bit me (literally) last year. I found a few bunches of bluebells that I didn't know grew in there.

I have a certain scale that makes the most sense to me visually as an artist. I don't usually sketch close ups of the landscape or huge panoramas. My brain (and probably my heart) do best with mid-sized landscape that's perfect for a person to walk into. But I love the wildflowers so much that I try to paint at least a few almost ever year, to greatly varying results. I wanted to mark the bluebells, and after butchering some trillium last year in a deep purplish ink, I reached for the Derwent Inktense pencils, which I have fortunately supplemented with a pink for the buds. I used paint on top but laid out the bluebells with a blue pencil. It's not amazing but it was fun to do, and I was happy with the colorful riot in my sketchbook as a celebration of spring. This is always my favorite season in the forest.

That evening I had kept my paints handy for illustration work but didn't have my sketchbook in reach. Going to get it would have disturbed Henry, who was looking cute in his favorite chair, so I did a small freestanding watercolor with no lines first, just drawing with the brush and a light grey to start with. He moved partway through (of course), but it was fun to get back to evening Henry sketching, and I'm going to try to remember to do it more.

I've been quiet here partly because I'm working on two illustration projects for Memphis Magazine that I can't show yet and partly because I was having some serious internet problems and couldn't share my scans. So I don't have a lot of new material I can share, but here are a couple of recent(ish) sketches that didn't make the blog. The first was an art lunch with friends, which is one of my favorite things to do, and I clearly had tea.

The second was a really neat lecture at Dixon a couple of weeks ago. I got to a number of those and usually sketch, so I'm trying to figure out different media and styles to vary the sketches from lecture to lecture. This was local artist Carl E. Moore, whose work I admire a lot, talking about his practice and his art. Instead of diving into paint I kept it just fountain pen and brush pen. I also used a higher vanishing line than I usually do. Often I'm drawing what's on the wall behind the speaker, but here I left more space for audience and kept his figure central to the sketch. I was pleased with how it turned out, which is not something I say a ton about my sketches. I love doing them, but they don't usually measure up to the image I had in my head before starting. This one was different than I meant it to be, but I was pleased with the result.

My birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so I joined my folks at the family farm on their regular day out there and took a couple of slices of cake from Muddy's Bake Shop. I picked narcissi and sat by the lake and drank in sunshine ahead of the coming cold snap. I loved sitting there and using my biggest sketchbook to do this dip pen sketch (Chopin ink by Diamine, a slightly purplish grey) and then paint on top. I was mostly pleased with the results, especially the left hand side.

That night I pulled out the Neocolor crayons and took a swing at the poppies I'd gotten from the farmers market that morning, since it was indeed my birthday. This was less successful, but it was fun to look so deeply at their beauty and try to record it. What a lovely day.

We had a stormy Saturday so Memphis Urban Sketchers met inside Crosstown Concourse, a huge old Sears distribution center that's been converted into apartments, offices, a high school, a YMCA, two theaters, a brewery, and (crucially) my favorite bread bakery Lucy J's. (As opposed to my favorite cake and cookie bakery.) That morning I went in for a ham and cheese pocket or something like that, but the cinnamon rolls smelled SO good that I got one. I got a tea to go with it and settled in to wait for the rain and for friends to show up. It's fun to sketch a treat because I take more time and enjoy it more in the process. It was delicious.

Later while talking to friends I did a quick, smaller sketch of the classic red stairwell in the art gallery section of the building.

I finished the morning having a chat with a different friend while I sketched inside the Memphis Listening Lab with their stunning collection of vinyl that you can have played for you. They have a great soundtrack running, needless to say.

I haven't been sketching much lately, so it felt great to go out and do several, especially while seeing friends at the same time. Urban sketchers is a big part of my social calendar and my absolute favorite group.

I'm chipping slowly away at a few new prints. Here's a small bird to go with my recent cat print. I'm going to print it in several different color variations and maybe a black and white edition too. I tested the green first to see if I liked the color behind the bird or if I wanted to carve that part out, and I decided on the bigger pop of the bird being distinct from the background. After that I tested the yellow/orange version and was happy enough to do some final prints. I'll get back to the green next and do a batch, and I'll finish by testing a blue/purple version, but I'll have to carve out the beak (which I've left yellow for this batch) because it won't look so good blue, so that's the last step on the color ones.

The Mid-South Cartoonists Association kindly arranged for the Memphis Urban Sketchers to join them at the Fontaine House, one of our old painted ladies which is now a museum. I've loved this house since I was a kid, and it's always a treat to go there. I sat outside with my big sketchbook to begin with and sketched the house full on. I started at the tower and cut off the very bottom but got more of it than I thought I might when I began. I used a big brush and tried not to get bogged down in all the gingerbread, just to get the impression of the place.

By that time I was cold, and I joined friends inside. I love this view in the top hall just below the tower stairs. I sketched it several years ago (below) and had another, quicker run at it yesterday. The light was glowing pink that I couldn't quite catch, but it was fun to try.

I do love the tower. Sometime I need to go back and sketch this view that I took a photo of out the round window. And Christina got a shot of me when I was still outside sketching the facade. Fun to see myself from a bird's eye view.

I'm doing the less fun thing of scanning in a bunch of family tax documents this month, and I realized I hadn't scanned in this recent9ish) forest sketch. I've been more in my print shop lately than sketching, and this is a nice reminder to get back to my sketchbook as well. Inktense pencil and watercolor. In related news, I also need to clean my black fountain pen in my sketching kit which wasn't working when I reached for it, but I'm happy with the pencil on this one.