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I've been trapped indoors for a solid week now, and we're hoping for relief tomorrow. I took a quick walk with a mask on and snapped a photo of the orange sun, but it was too awful to stay outside and sketch. The bottom smokey view is from my indoor work table window, though, and the blueberries are from life, done sitting at the kitchen table. I really love the berry stands out here. Such joy.
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I've mostly been ignoring my smaller sketchbook lately and working in the "Quarantine Journal" sized one instead, but here are a couple of recent(ish) sketches from my daily walking path. I'm catching up on my scanning this week as I also finish the images for the book.
In big news yesterday, I bought a batch of ISBN numbers and registered the first one for P is for Possum. When I was working on the Mr. Darcy book(s), I really wanted the legitimacy and reach of a professional publisher, but my writing chops weren't strong enough, and that's a hard world to break into. For this book, which is so very local in scope, very specific to Memphis's Old Forest, it made sense to me to do this like my calendar and have it printed to sell locally. I also have no shows at all this year (though some lovely folks have sent commissions my way), thanks to the pandemic, and I really wanted something ready for the holiday season.
The other upside is being able to control the printings as I need or want, instead of that decision being in the hands of someone else. It's a lot like the legitimacy of a gallery giving you extra exposure, but you also lose control and autonomy by buying into that system. I may try for both publishing and commercial galleries again at some point when they make sense for my career, but I have to say that registering my own book yesterday felt both exciting and powerful. It's fun to give birth to something you've created purely on your own terms. I'll be registering with the Library of Congress as well, which will allow it to be bought by libraries, and I'm considering other platforms after the print version comes out in November. There's a big learning curve, but it's also exciting for a lifelong book nerd like me to be a small part of all this.
In big news yesterday, I bought a batch of ISBN numbers and registered the first one for P is for Possum. When I was working on the Mr. Darcy book(s), I really wanted the legitimacy and reach of a professional publisher, but my writing chops weren't strong enough, and that's a hard world to break into. For this book, which is so very local in scope, very specific to Memphis's Old Forest, it made sense to me to do this like my calendar and have it printed to sell locally. I also have no shows at all this year (though some lovely folks have sent commissions my way), thanks to the pandemic, and I really wanted something ready for the holiday season.
The other upside is being able to control the printings as I need or want, instead of that decision being in the hands of someone else. It's a lot like the legitimacy of a gallery giving you extra exposure, but you also lose control and autonomy by buying into that system. I may try for both publishing and commercial galleries again at some point when they make sense for my career, but I have to say that registering my own book yesterday felt both exciting and powerful. It's fun to give birth to something you've created purely on your own terms. I'll be registering with the Library of Congress as well, which will allow it to be bought by libraries, and I'm considering other platforms after the print version comes out in November. There's a big learning curve, but it's also exciting for a lifelong book nerd like me to be a small part of all this.
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I had a lovely, quiet morning at Rockport State Park. I’ve been doing a lot of online work and canine caretaking lately, and I haven’t been out to my favorite parks as much as I usually am when I’m out west. It was lovely to get a morning to take off with my sketchbook, do several favorite short trails, sit and watch the river a little a bit, and do a couple of sketches. It was my reward for doing ISBN and Library of Congress research after breakfast.
I’m learning all kinds of things about self publishing, which is good, since I’ll be doing it quite soon. My inner book nerd was happy when I found one source that said ISBN numbers were begun by British bookseller W.H.Smith (a favorite from my university days). They needed a cataloging system for their books and hired a former WWII code breaker to create one. It was later adopted widely.
Books need a different ISBN for each edition - hardcover, softcover, ebook, etc. You can buy them in bundles of 10 if you’re self publishing, or you can just get one. Once you have an ISBN number you can apply for free for a Library of Congress number, which is cool and also necessary if any libraries might want to carry your book. I’m going to get more serious about applications soon, but the hike first was very welcome.
I’m learning all kinds of things about self publishing, which is good, since I’ll be doing it quite soon. My inner book nerd was happy when I found one source that said ISBN numbers were begun by British bookseller W.H.Smith (a favorite from my university days). They needed a cataloging system for their books and hired a former WWII code breaker to create one. It was later adopted widely.
Books need a different ISBN for each edition - hardcover, softcover, ebook, etc. You can buy them in bundles of 10 if you’re self publishing, or you can just get one. Once you have an ISBN number you can apply for free for a Library of Congress number, which is cool and also necessary if any libraries might want to carry your book. I’m going to get more serious about applications soon, but the hike first was very welcome.
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I've been doing a lot of book work lately, as I wrote in my last post. It's satisfying to get it to a finished place, but I haven't been MAKING art lately nearly as much. I'm also taking much more time taking care of my muse and studio helper Mr. Darcy. He's doing well, but it's been a little up and down. So there have been days off and naps and things like that. But we had a lovely outdoor visit with friends over the holiday weekend, and the friends brought flowers. I try to always draw flowers that are gifts since then they give me joy for much longer. I love flipping a sketchbook open and seeing a small birthday bouquet or vase of tulips from art visitors. So today I just made time to draw these gorgeous dahlias. What a thoughtful gift.
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It's been so crazy this trip I hadn't gotten to my favorite spot once. I fixed that this week and took a sunny day to go with a picnic, my sketching things, and my book to a small stone beach at the confluence of two rivers. I sat in the shade and did two two-page spreads, I read a while, and then I just sat on a rock out in the river and drank in a little sunlight. It felt wonderful. I think I may get a print out of the vertical sketch too. I hadn't meant to do a second page, but when I looked up as I was packing away the sketching things, the clouds were amazing, so I kept going.
I'm taking a ton of photos of Mr. Darcy right now. He is both my muse and my heart, and I enjoyed taking some more that day. Below is my recent favorite (I'm also pondering a print), plus some other photos of the day. We took a short forest hike on the way home, and I found an encouraging message on a trail post. I'm grateful for the pull together spirit I find a lot of places these days.
I'm taking a ton of photos of Mr. Darcy right now. He is both my muse and my heart, and I enjoyed taking some more that day. Below is my recent favorite (I'm also pondering a print), plus some other photos of the day. We took a short forest hike on the way home, and I found an encouraging message on a trail post. I'm grateful for the pull together spirit I find a lot of places these days.
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I've done some sketching today, which felt really good. Mr. Darcy is doing well, and we went to the gorgeous forested state park nearby to walk before he starts his new round of chemo. I did the vertical spread as well as a tiny bit of truck (see bottom) to fill up the other day's bicycle page.
Then when I got home, the clouds were absolutely gorgeous, so I settled in the lawn to paint. I hadn't meant to do Alice at first, looking mostly at the clouds, but then, there she was, and I've enjoyed drawing her along the way this trip. So here we are at the far point of our trip, the destination, before heading back toward home.
I know I posted the barn yesterday, but I wanted to get the full page spread here as well. I had intended something more domestic, but this is what happened instead. Often it's just the next thing that catches my eye.
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I got on my bike seriously for the first time out here and did 13 miles on a gravel trail the other day. It felt good to get going again, and I took a break to paint this barn, which is one I always admire when I go past. I've painted it several times, never quite getting what I'd hoped. This one may be the closest I've managed. A horse came over to watch as I sketched. I keep meaning to finish that page and scan the whole thing, but other stuff keeps happening, so here it is for now. I’ll post the whole thing whenever I get it done.
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I’m doing some proofing today, away from my regular set up. I wanted to see how the rv and lettering were going on the Explore print, so I just proofed the bottom half or so. It’s a tall skinny print, and I haven’t gotten to the top part yet. There will also be a color block behind it, but my lining-things-up-and-keeping-them-straight stuff (“registration” is the technical printmaking term) is all back in Memphis, so I may just wait on that part till I get home. This one is also quite tall, 24”, so the press would be helpful as well.
I did try a double layer for this second print, much smaller, so it felt less hard to manage, but the make-shift set up I tried moved on me. You can see that the one on the left especially moved as I printed. It gave me some helpful information anyway, but I may wait till home to do much more work on this one. I’m trying to decide if I need two blocks for the two blues (and you can see that if I do, they need to be curved a bit at the join), or if one block rolled carefully will be just as easy. I want the round light to be larger in the final version, but it’s always easy to take more away, and you can’t put it back, so I started conservatively. It’s the dock light across the lake from me at my first camping stop in Missouri. It’s nice to take your muse on the road once in a while and get some new views. The RV print is our campsite in Idaho a few days later.
I did try a double layer for this second print, much smaller, so it felt less hard to manage, but the make-shift set up I tried moved on me. You can see that the one on the left especially moved as I printed. It gave me some helpful information anyway, but I may wait till home to do much more work on this one. I’m trying to decide if I need two blocks for the two blues (and you can see that if I do, they need to be curved a bit at the join), or if one block rolled carefully will be just as easy. I want the round light to be larger in the final version, but it’s always easy to take more away, and you can’t put it back, so I started conservatively. It’s the dock light across the lake from me at my first camping stop in Missouri. It’s nice to take your muse on the road once in a while and get some new views. The RV print is our campsite in Idaho a few days later.
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It’s been a hard couple of weeks. My beloved muse Mr. Darcy has lymphoma. I’ve been working a bit on the prints but mostly doing vet visits and taking extra care of him. I think we’ve figured out a treatment that should give him another year or two, which (since he’s a big dog and 10 years old) is all I had realistically hoped to get with him anyway. It’s not nearly as hard on dogs as on people, and if he can stay happy and feeling good, I’d love the extra time. We’ve had to figure out different hip medicine for his arthritis, and that’s been hard too. But he looked frisky and much like himself last night, so I think we’re on the right path. I’ve been picking up lots of heart shaped stones as I walk that feel like talismans somehow. I know it’s magical thinking, but I still find myself holding them as I walk. So this page is a pretty good encapsulation of my last couple of weeks.
In other news, I’ve been thinking about the forest ABC book again after taking a break when I got here. It’s good work I can do downstairs with Mr. Darcy, and I wrote out an author’s page yesterday. Now I’ll have to erase the pencil work, scan it, and clean it up nicely. I still need a title page, but otherwise it’s going to be cleaning up and adjusting scans and putting the images on exactly the right size page with a small extra margin for the gutter. It’s getting close.
In other news, I’ve been thinking about the forest ABC book again after taking a break when I got here. It’s good work I can do downstairs with Mr. Darcy, and I wrote out an author’s page yesterday. Now I’ll have to erase the pencil work, scan it, and clean it up nicely. I still need a title page, but otherwise it’s going to be cleaning up and adjusting scans and putting the images on exactly the right size page with a small extra margin for the gutter. It’s getting close.
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I’ve been doing a lot of slow print work lately with not so much to show yet, and I’ve been putting energy into that instead of sketching. Today I took my smaller sketchbook out on my walk with me, though, and it felt good to get reacquainted. I used two colors of ink (a dark gray brown and a green) plus watercolor.
Today I also got my “Explore” print fully drawn out and traced. Tomorrow I’ll transfer from the tracing paper to the two blocks, green and black. I’m slowly carving on the reflecting trees as well, and I should be ready to proof that one soon, though it’s quite large to be working just on a table top with a wooden spoon. I’ll have to see how far I get with that one away from my press.
Today I also got my “Explore” print fully drawn out and traced. Tomorrow I’ll transfer from the tracing paper to the two blocks, green and black. I’m slowly carving on the reflecting trees as well, and I should be ready to proof that one soon, though it’s quite large to be working just on a table top with a wooden spoon. I’ll have to see how far I get with that one away from my press.
