Sunday, 6 March 2016

A peek inside my studio and a very quick sketch

I have been busy reorganising my studio/office over the past week
with a little help from my sons for the heavy jobs.

If you are anything like me,
you love seeing pics of other artists' studios
so I thought I'd share mine with you.


This is my computer desk area.
I painted that bald eagle many moons ago.
He was done with acrylic paints on canvas.


My storage baskets inside the built-in robe are all reorganised and labelled now
so I no longer have to pull out all the drawers to find something.
SO much easier!

On the opposite side of the room is my art desk (view from doorway)
which is actually two tables from IKEA side by side.
The set of three drawers consists of the following...
top drawer is filled with bits and pieces
such as favourite sketch pens/palettes, rulers, mechanical pencils, erasers, etc.
second drawer is filled with many ballpoint pens all sorted by colour
the bottom drawer is filled with many markers and ink pens.

When it comes to art supplies,
a girl just can't have too much, right?

More art/sketch-related storage in the built-in wardrobe
and a cosy bed for Cody to lie in while I'm working.


A different view of my art area
All those books are art/sketch-related organised by spine colour.
The framed print of the girl and butterflies was done by daughter, Michelle.
It makes me happy and I love it!

And that's about it for my in-house studio.
I do have other art supplies stored in the garage
which are more related to my acrylic painting.

It's still slow going with my recovery from carpal tunnel surgery.
I'm just past week four and
 the wound site is still very tight, lumpy, and tender.
A couple of little mishaps over the past few days have set me back a bit too.
One of them being where I inadvertently put some of my body weight on my hand
when I went to help myself up from the floor.
It only took a split second to realise what I was attempting
because the pain was massive.
My hand was so sore for the rest of the night
and I was getting shooting pains too.
Thankfully, it settled down within 24 hours.
Lesson learned!


I did manage a simple sketch today.
It's the first sketch I've done since my surgery.
It was a little shaky and slow-going
as I have to be careful how I hold my hand to avoid pain.
Writing is easier to manage whereas
I need more wrist/arm movement with sketching.
I can't lean on the wound area either....it hurts.
I'm using a brush case to rest my forearm on
so that my wrist and hand are not actually touching the desk.

Despite the awkwardness
it feels good to be sketching again.

I decided to sketch the tube of ointment I use for the wound site.
Papaya Fade by PURE Phytocare
100% vegan ingredients and not tested on animals.
It's supposed to be great for scars and stretch-marks.



Moleskine watercolour notebook - A5 size, landscape format 
Graphite, PITT pens and watercolours 

I'm hoping to get back into the habit of daily sketching
so stay tuned....