Drawing, baking and making things

Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago at 11:07 pm. 1 comment

I haven’t drawn anything for Illustration Friday for a few weeks. But that’s not to say I haven’t been drawing. I’m starting to get back into the habit of picking up my sketchbook and just doodling, instead of mindlessly sitting in front of my computer like I always seem to do in the evenings. I always read other blogs and check out artists’ websites, and feel amazed and inspired and a little intimidated.  And then think “I should do something like that” but instead of actually doing it I read more blogs. You know, that old cycle.

I’ve also been reading various New Years’ resolution lists, and articles about how to achieve your resolutions, and strategies for getting started working your resolutions.  But I haven’t made my own list.  I think this year rather than make a few vague resolutions I’m going to make a list of ‘30 things to do before I’m 30′.  I got the inspiration from this awesome blog: hula seventy. I found it through Ward Jenkins whom I follow on Twitter (hula seventy is his wife’s blog.  They are both amazingly talented people with awesome blogs. )  I turn 29 in January, and I really like the idea of having your birthday be the start of your own personal New Year, and setting a specific list of goals to accomplish before your next birthday.

I haven’t officially started the list yet but I have a few ideas kicking around.  One of the most important to me is doing something creative on a daily basis. I’m not sure if I want to start a daily sketch journal and hold myself to doing it EVERY day, or be a little looser and just make sure to make some doodles or write a haiku or knit or… whatever, every day.  My ultimate, practical goal from doing this would be to get better and more confident with drawing, since I would love to eventually be doing illustration professionally. But I think knitting or writing or doing anything else creative would contribute to that confidence boost too, and I would just feel better about myself not spending too much time in front of the computer (which is what I do all day at work, I don’t need to do it at home, too).

So my only actual New Years’ resolution this year: Finish my “30 things by 30″ list before my birthday on January 22.

So speaking of doing something creative, here are some cookies I made for our neighbors.  I’m in the process of making other sets of cookies with different themes for various friends and family members as well. They were all going to be Christmas presents, but most of them will have to be ‘Happy New Year’ and maybe even ‘Happy February’ cookies. These are my favorite so far, simpler is definitely better when you are working with royal icing as a medium.  Some of my other cookie designs have been a little too elaborate (trying to get a likeness of existing characters from TV or movies, or trying to use semi-realistic shading and colors).  But I’m learning a lot and getting better at figuring out the process. I still get icing and food coloring all over myself no matter what I do.  It’s not pretty…

These fruits and vegetables are definitely not good for you, but they are pretty tasty!