Dear Letter Drop readers,
It's November!!! We've come a long way together. I've been writing regularly on Letter Drop for 6 months now, and I'm surprised I made it a habit. I'm definitely having a lot of fun working on it and seeing my drawing skills improve as each week continues.
It was honestly quite challenging since I'm not really good at keeping or sharing sketchbooks (I have 3+ sketchbooks I use every day; each has its own purpose, all very messy, and all have too many secret notes that I'm not ready to share with the public.)
Despite the satisfaction from completing what I planned and seeing the growing archive of sketchbook drawings, I started stressing about putting in too much work on sketchbooks like it's the only important task of the day. I worried about making it perfect and about sharing it every week.
My initial plan was to share my drawings and thoughts with less fear or pressure; I wanted to practice letting myself go in a safe space. However, it felt like my plan to destress myself started to stress myself. I know. It's the same struggle all the time, it's… annoying.
But I do love Letter Drop and connecting with people through Sunday Sketchbook. I need to figure out what else would work better, but for now, I decided to focus more on knowing and sharing what I did each day to improve my practice, not just the clean, full-colored, ready-to-share, final-final sketchbook pages.
Some days, I would get so caught up with the client work that I struggled to find time to work on my own things. Some days, I will end up spending the entire day doing a deep dive into text and revisions. Some days, I am busy finalizing a big project that I need more time or motivation to work on a sketchbook.
…. and some days, I'm making these little sculptures to use as a visual reference. I may be stuck in a particular scene where I must be so invested in problem-solving until the best solution comes to mind.
Okay, that’s it for justifying myself for feeling it’s tough to finish and post beautiful sketchbook drawings daily. Here are some demonstrations of what my actual sketchbook looks like and what I will be posting more often from now on:
Thank you for following and supporting my creative journey, as always. Every single day, I realize how tough it is to be an artist, especially a good one. But I also realize how fortunate I am to be able to continuously strive to become a better artist.
I will share what I did, my random, messy practices, and sketchbook pages in a more honest way. Hope you still find them fun and interesting, perhaps inspiring.
Have an amazing week, everyone!
Sincerely,
Cindy