Finding Creativity in Art – Not Blogging

So, I have no idea how many people actually still read Pomomusings.

Are there actually readers out there?

I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t read any more. Other than sermons (and reviews for products I’ve received), I haven’t been doing a lot of interesting stuff. Perhaps not much at all recently.

Blogging used to be an outlet for my thinking and creativity, and I loved spending hours fiddling with the design and customizing it. But in the past year, and specifically in the past 6 months or so, I’ve been finding a more old-school outlet for my creativity. And it involves paper. And pens (fountain pens, even!). And watercolors. Colored pencils. Markers. And more!

Ever since being inspired by Mike Rohde and his sketchnoting and continually being amazed at the work of Paul Soupiset, I’ve been inspired to get back into art.

That inspiration led me to apply for a self-care/wellness grant from the Presbytery of Chicago. I was given a large chunk of change to invest in art supplies and art classes – this has opened me up to a whole new world and it’s been really exciting for me. It’s even more amazing that our presbytery has this kind of a program, and I’ve been inspired in some very cool ways that are now allowing me to find ways to use art in my ministry.

One of the online classes that I’m taking (Sketchbook Skool) has introduced me to some really amazing artists, including Tommy Kane, Danny Gregory, Koosje Koene and Mattias Adolfsson (I’d HIGHLY encourage you to take a look at their sites – especially Mattias’s site). And I’ve been inspired to try all sorts of new styles of art, drawing, portraits, reportage and more. I also stumbled into the world of “zentangles” and have done a few of those that I really like.

I still think about Pomomusings often – and usually I feel awful that I don’t blog more. For so long, “blogger” has been a part of my identity, and I feel like I’m skirting some type of responsibility to readers by not blogging. Anyway – those are my issues, and I’ll have to figure out how to deal with them. Until then – I thought I’d leave you with a small gallery of some of my favorite zentangles and drawings from the past couple months.

And if anyone is interested in the supplies I’ve been using, here is a photo with a description below.

1. Watercolor sketchbooks. My favorite is the Moleskine Watercolor, but I also have a Pentalic Watercolor book.
2. Smaller Moleskine Watercolor pocket book – really like this size.
3. I have a few of these – a “Travelogue” book by handbook. I’m really not much of a fan of these books – the binding isn’t great on them at all. (I should say all of these are sitting on a piece of hardboard – which is great for holding the books while sketching).
4. Some really nice watercolor paper (both hot press and cold press), in multiple sizes. It’s really nice because it’s bound on both sides, so paper doesn’t curl when doing watercolor on it. I really like this paper.
5. Canson Mix Media paper – a good size and good quality – was pretty cheap at Blick.
6. A Rough Edge pencil holder – a good size and I like the look and material.
7. Prismacolor Colored Pencils – the 72 color set.
8. Copic markers – I really haven’t gotten into these too much, mainly because it’s hard to find a paper that works well and doesn’t bleed through. I did buy some Copic paper, but just haven’t done much with them.
9. Erasers. The Staedtler ones are good, but the kneaded eraser is a little better when trying to erase pencil from under ink – the other ones tend to fade the ink a bit.
10. Faber-Castell Artist Pens…a nice set that comes with 3 different widths and a brush pen. I got a black set and a sepia set.
11. Derwent Watercolor Pencils (24 colors). Again, I haven’t used these much but hope to as I start playing with watercolors more.
12. Micron Pigma pens…lots of them. I go back and forth between whether I like these better than the Staedtler pigment liners…
13. Noodler’s Bulletproof Black ink – in my experience, it’s not REALLY waterproof – so didn’t work well for watercolor washes.
14. My Lamy Safari Fountain pen.
15. Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens – it’s really good for a disposable one.
16. A Retro 51 Tornado pen.
17. Tombow brush pens – these are really nice. If you’re only going to get one, get the N75, which is awesome for just adding some shading and depth to your B&W pen/ink drawings.
18. Staedtler pencil set.
19. Watercolor brushes. I got a variety of brushes – a few water brushes but mainly Princeton watercolor brushes.
20. An Alvin Basic-Bow, for drawing circles.
21. Pencil sharpener.
22. Staedtler Pigment Liners – really like these – they were the first pens I used like this for sketching and drawing.
23. Sakura Koi watercolor field sketch set. These have worked really well for me.
24. A small Winsor-Newton travel watercolor set – haven’t gotten into it yet.
25. Sighting tool – for trying to get proportions and perspective right when sketching on site.
26. A few pens and nibs to use as dipping fountain pens.
27. Higgin’s Black Magic waterproof ink.
28. Masking tape.
29. A 5-mixing color set of gouache. Haven’t used it yet.
30. Watercolor mixing plate.
31. Travel cup for watercolor (it’s my mother-in-law’s – I stole it).