Sunday Update - 25/01/26

There’s been a shift from my standard study practices to something more playful and personal this week. I’m still keen to improve my draftsmanship, but I’m also longing to warp, juxtapose and layer what ends up on the page. To have the studies say and do more than just simple exercises or observations. I’ve chased the idea of having two or three contrasting subjects occupy the same space before, but medium and colour has never really factored into it. And now that the month is drawing to a close, I’m going through January’s pages and seeing what extra paint and ink could be added. It’s messy and new for me, but will hopefully lead to some different avenues to begin walking down next month. Plus the thought of a page having multiple histories feels really romantic and inspiring to me.

As far as thumbnailing ideas from my tangential writing goes - it’s ultimately felt a little fruitless and laboured. It’s not how I typically work, and for as much as I’m willing to continue practicing that craft this concept may have to adapt to the loose/improvisational way I tend to approach things. Taking a phase or line and simply drawing out, seeing where it goes and exploring in realtime, instead of drawing out these small "finished" compositions and feeling trapped by them. Regardless of how I continue to approach these ideas, I’m aiming to get a couple things ready by the end of next week.

And like I said, my sketches are once again getting more personal and reflective as I not only return to using my own references but also start to doodle from imagination again. It’s been a while since I did either, but it feels like coming home. I’ll still continue to use online sources and whatever is kindly donated to me, but my broader inspiration is definitely getting more introspective.

When it comes to music - I did attempt to re-record a couple of the new ideas into something more complete. One of them is okay, but I’m feeling pulled in a different direction now, one that is more about creating a library of musical ideas and samples to weave into something else.

For a while I ran a collaborative side-project called The Audio Bin - in which I ask other musicians/producers to donate their outtakes/demos to me so that I could reimagine and mold them into something new. The resulting two albums are some of the most fun and rewarding I’ve made to this point (despite how lo-fi and poor the mixes sound to me now). 

I think I’d like to get back to something like that, but draw from my own pool of ideas and offcuts. So for the next couple of months I’ll focus more on gathering my ideas and finding new sounds to pull from. I’ll still share everything I record, but they’ll just be solo guitar/bass parts for now. It won’t make for the most interesting listen, but it’ll be a fun way to document how this new music will develop over time. And I’m happy to have these parts and samples be open-source for anyone else to use as they see fit.

Right, I’ll leave it there. I’ve a new YouTube drawing video if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts and practices. Regardless, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week (all being well).

All the best, 

Alex