Facebook seems to think it's National Tea Day. I mean, who knows. But it's a day I can totally get behind. Before I saw it I had done this post breakfast sketch. I've been working on careful illustration work for days now, and it felt like time to get out a big brush and be really wet and messy. Mission accomplished. I started with Kaweko Paradise Blue ink, one of my favorites. The stoneware is hand-painted thistle from Scotland. My mom graduated from the University of Edinburgh, and she loved all things Scottish. These are the dishes of my childhood, and I found a cup/saucer/creamer set a few years ago in an antique store and was delighted.

The honey was a gift last week from a friend. I'm so grateful for my Memphis community of people who lift me up when I'm struggling and celebrate with me when I have something good happen. I love living in the place I've grown up and in the house my grandparents bought in 1941. I'd been having a tough day, and the honey was just the sweetness I needed. It's sitting on my counter giving me periodic treats and shining a little sunshine all around it. Fun to paint.

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 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.

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.

Five in One kindly hosted the Memphis Urban Sketchers on Saturday. They're a cool art gift shop (my favorite stickers), print shop, and crafts camp for grown ups. I love what they do and was excited to sketch their cool space. I love their facade, and even though it was chilly I perched outside a while catching their awesome row of windows and bling. Nicely it was sunny and not at all windy and certainly warmer than the icy weather we had been having. I'd been wanting to do a big sketch again, and this is in my largest book. I used a charcoal grey Inktense pencil with watercolor on top.

Afterwards I moved inside to chat with people and did another tiny sketch in my smallest book with just a fountain pen and a W&N watercolor marker. It's fun to do those quick, free sketches after spending a bunch of time on an intricate one.

Memphis is sleeted in, but ohmygosh so much better than being iced in the way Nashville and Oxford and a whole belt of Mississippi are. We missed the damaging ice by about 7 miles, and I'm absurdly grateful and then a little guilty for being that grateful, but I'm here and warm and mostly home. I've been doing more print work than sketching lately, and I've got a house guest who had the bad luck to choose this stretch of time to visit, so I'm just doing less art than I might be anyway. But Monday I sat in my print shop and sketched the snow shadows outside the French doors, and then I sketched a super small/quick one from my kitchen island. I'm also posting, on the general theme of "home," a recent sketch of my stepmom in her wing chair. I love having my parents right in the neighborhood.

I also sketched in line at the grocery store before the snow hit. Fresh Market usually has little to no line, but leading up to the storm Memphis was stocking up. I had had a conversation with a new artist friend about reaching for a sketchbook instead of a phone, and I'm trying to do more of that. The constant struggle.

I had a conversation this week with a new artist friend about how sketching always makes me happier than looking mindlessly at my phone, and it renewed my focus on pulling out the tiny purse sketchbook I (almost) always have with me in those small spaces during the day. I did the top sketch during a stop by the Metal Museum to see their new show and pick up enamel tiles from a workshop I did last year. I love the old bridge that we're slated to lose at some point to something more modern, so I took a minute to sketch it with a simple fountain pen. I treated myself to a new not-too-fancy-but-fancier-than-my-Lamy Pelikan late last year, and I'm really enjoying using it. I grabbed it again waiting in line at Target the other day and added a little red Windsor & Newton watercolor marker (I love their juicy colors). Clearly I closed it a little fast as I got to the front of the line, but it was fun to do in that couple of minutes of waiting instead of reaching for my phone. Here's hoping I can keep going on this streak.

Shapeshifter Art School opens this week offering continuing education art classes to Memphis, filling a void that badly needed some help. I'm so excited about the quality of the teachers, the interesting range of classes, and the gorgeous building it's all housed in. Elizabeth Alley, who founded our Memphis Urban Sketchers chapter, is one of the five artists who also founded the art school. She got the urban sketchers in early to have our monthly meeting and sketch the school. I was completely bewitched by this funhouse mirror door frame. the reflections and light were fascinating, even if the sketch got busy trying to capture all that. And I always enjoy a chance to sneak in a self portrait, this time in brand new thrift store jeans with a great bootleg flare.

I was finished ahead of time, so as well as chatting with friends I pulled out my small purse sketchbook and did one tiny corner with a Nicole Ritchie sculpture by a window.

Afterwards Christina and I caught up over Farmburger at Crosstown. Their holiday lights are still up through the dark part of the winter, and I did a super fast sketch with my gamboge W&N watercolor marker (one of my favorite tools) and a little bit of fountain pen after. It was a great day out, and I've been enjoying being out of the house more this week. It's nice to mark the good days in my sketchbook to remember later.