Resolove

A scratchboard illustration with lettering (except the initial R) and colour added in Photoshop. The original is about 6.5×6.5cm.

Last year I resolved not to be embarrassed. This did not correlate to not doing embarassing things – indeed, the week after making that resolution I fell down the cinema stairs in front of the rest of the audience. Nevertheless, I believe it to have been character building and just yesterday I laughed off almost walking into the men’s room (I’ve changed offices and am used to automatically taking the second door).

This year I have resolved to make work for myself. This is not at all the same thing as making life hard for myself at which I justly consider myself quite accomplished. But while I do not consider myself lazy, I am extremely energy efficient, and will avoid e.g. patting the dog on the basis that I will eventually have to wash my hands, or cooking because that will mean I am then in some degree responsible for the state of the kitchen. I blame my father for this attitude, if not the degree to which I have taken it, as he raised me on such principles as “time spent in procrastination is seldom wasted”, ”never do today what you can put off till tomorrow” and “avoid double handling”. So: this is the Year of Making Work for Myself.

Here is the progress of the picture. I am considering making a picture of the process from sketch to final on a future illustration.

Resolve, variations

Oh, and I did three illustrations for an anthology over the long weekend, and the editor seems to like them! Illustration Friday has been very good for drawing to topics set by someone else, but there is a different thought process that goes on when illustrating someone else’s story, and it is something I hope to continue to practice.

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