Sunday Update - 11/01/26

I’ve been trying to claw back a little confidence with observational drawing this week. Which has slowed down some of my larger plans for the month, but there’s always a catch-up phase after the festivities have ended. It’s scary how quickly information and technique leak out without some considered practice to plug the holes.

Croquis Cafe and Pinterest have supplied me with my main source of reference/inspiration. For as handy both sites are (CC especially), I have started to miss the personal approach that I started reaching for in 2024. I’ll likely attempt to tip the balance back to using references I can create or source myself as the month goes on. It just feels better to draw who/what I can connect with in some way.

I’ve also been attempting to use colour more - be that in a painterly way or as a way to create some noise and texture. Focusing on line for so long has meant my understanding and experience with colour is very limited, so I’d like to change that. I adore colour, but my creative output rarely tells that story.

Slowly but surely I’m finding my footing with watercolour. If nothing else it’s teaching me to take my time with projects. And since feeling more comfortable, I’ve also begun to experiment more with using it alongside other mediums - adding different inks and pencils at different stages of the process. That said, my main goal is to get better using watercolour as its own thing, so that’s where most of my practice takes me.

Anyway, despite still feeling a touch rusty with a pen in my hand I aim to step away from the relative comfort of figure drawing next week. For a long time I’ve wanted to do more scene and notan studies, so they’re pretty high on the list alongside making good on the plans I cungered up at the turn of the new year.

As far as everything else goes, this month’s artbook is already looking pretty hefty. I also have a small mountain of musical ideas weighing down my phone from last the last ten days. Too many to polish up before the end of the month, so I’m going to start focusing more on rerecording what ideas I have instead of coming up with more. As stated before, I’ll share everything I come up with (art/music/poems/comics), but it’d be nice to have a couple simple finished pieces to accompany the artbook (regardless of what medium or form they take).

Right, I’ll leave it there. I will hopefully get around to recording some videos next week, but if not I’ll at least see you here again next week.

All the best,

Alex