What are you undervaluing?

There it was — the question.  Unexpected.  Finishing up my quarterly review (how I’m doing with all my “stuff,” including art-illustration), I was scanning the closing prompts. The questions are meant to surface any final insights and things to do for the approaching quarter.

What do I love, what do I dread, what am I undervaluing, what should I keep doing, what should I do more of, what should I stop doing, what should I put on hold, what would be the best use of my time in the next quarter, what would be the worst use of my time in the next quarter, what am I looking forward to, and anything else? 

I returned to the third one. What am I undervaluing?  — Treat them right! It may be an idea or work flow that you need to put in play.  Always take advantage of the stuff you’re undervaluing — make it more useful to you.

At this stage in the review, I’d already dived deep into my art-illustration work: My immersion in all things pastel innovations — working with different media combinations and techniques to make a picture.  Clear that it’s just about the pictures I want to make and the compositions that interest me.  Only myself to please.  Later I’ll figure out where these pictures belong.  For now, let's see what there's to discover and make. 

So at the review’s closing prompts, the answers were rolling off my fingers.  What in my orbit am I undervaluing — for advancing my art/illustration?  And the answer was there — a simple idea and a related workflow.

I took note.  Hardly earth shattering, but here’s how it went down.

The idea — to separate out pure media exploration from picture-making.  While the latter involves media play, it also includes designing.  I was conflating the two in one sitting in the studio. This led (often) to postponing media play in order to first come up with a worthy composition.  No more!

Back to the tried-and-trues for media exploration:  chose one subject (crows!), one size paper (18 x 24, on the easel) and one hour (max).  The related workflow?  Attach it to my morning routine of espresso-and-a-drawing, now turned media exploration.  This week, more brayer, paint, pan pastels, charcoal plus erasers and texture-making tools.

As for the picture making — that’s the focus in the follow-on studio time.  Again, the tried-and-trues:  chose subject matter (animals, people, and their relationships, variety of settings), compositions (design simply), size (18 x 24 for now, but smaller thumbnail drawings also welcome) and materials (the same as the media exploration).

I can report — 3 media explorations with my espresso this morning.

Noticing things from the mark making —

This one’s just kind of lovely.  More robin than crow.

Detail of the second — this one’s got the crow edge.  The sharp, angular personality.  Looking at the shadow made with pan pastel, echoing some pastel in the bird figure.  I think that works. 

Detail here — On the left, the print from a real crow feather paired with the abstractness of the bird. On the right, movement.

OK, some worthy ideas coming out of the media exploration. In the follow on studio time, I made a couple of pictures with them. Some bits working — other bits, less so.

Taking note of the feather printing for another time.

To recap then: Gave a previously undervalued idea and workflow some respect. As a result, 3 media explorations and 2 pictures in the morning. This afternoon, a blog post.  Feels like progress.

A closer look:    

* What are you undervaluing?  Many thanks to David Sparks (https://www.macsparky.com/) for the question, one of a number that guided my quarterly review this weekend.  Kudos for his Productivity Field Guide.

* Pastel innovations.  Many thanks to Dawn Emerson (https://dawnemerson.com/) for her mentoring with pastel innovations and her uncanny ability to help me tap into the joy.

* Being in the world.  Many thanks to James McBride for the character, Chona, in Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, A Novel.