January Check-in

It is officially February. I can't believe how quickly the first month of 2019 flew by!

This year, I'm doing an art challenge where I pick a different medium every month and use it to create art everyday. This is inspired by inktober; I had so much fun drawing with ink for the whole month of October that I wanted to adopt a similar daily art practice every month in 2019.

In January, I picked pencil as my medium of choice. I love drawing with pencil. I love the texture of graphite, the various things you can do with line, and how it scans. I was just going to draw something different every day, but it turned into a story. Here are all the drawings I did in January:

January Pencil drawings: Where Boy meets Dinosaur

You will notice that there are only 27 drawings here and 31 days in January. I did not draw every day in January. At least, not for this challenge. I did work on art everyday which I am proud of. 27 out of 31 isn't bad!

I even colored one of these drawings for the weekly twitter challenge Colour Collective.

Boy gives ball to Dinosaur

In February, I will be participating in the kidlitart28 challenge. The challenge is to create art every day with the theme "What you love". Read more about it on the kidlitart blog . I decided that I will create my images in watercolor for this challenge. Want to follow along? Follow me on instagram, facebook, or twitter!

I got a new iPad this month in order to be able to create my work more easily since I primarily work digitally. Here is the first piece I created on the new iPad. I'm including it in this post since I created it in January.

Once Upon a Time

Now it's time to work on February's art. Which pencil drawing is your favorite? Are you challenging yourself in your art this year? I'd love to hear!

Pinecone Peril

Welcome to my second poetry post featuring a brand new poem by yours truly.

The following poem is based on true events. (That happened to me and not to squirrels.)

Happy Halloween!

boo! A little Halloween illustration for you

Hey everyone! Recently I've been struggling a bit with my writing process. Any time I try to write or revise something, it's as if any word I've ever known goes straight out of my head. Getting frustrated, I started thinking about a time when I really enjoyed writing. When I was getting my illustration degree, I took a lot of writing classes. I thought this would be useful as an aspiring picture book writer and illustrator. I really loved writing, and most of the classes I took were either creative nonfiction (memoir) or poetry.

Thinking about this, I came up with several ideas.

1. I should write poems again

2. I should approach writing my picture book manuscripts like I approached writing poetry

3. I should illustrate some of my old and new poems and share them with people

Sharing my poems is a little bit terrifying. I don't often share my writing with people. Going to art school, you quickly have to get used to showing your art to people. Is it still scary? Yes, but it's easier for me than sharing my writing.

This is my challenge for myself. Starting now, I would like to share one illustrated poem a week on this blog. It could be an old poem or a new poem. The idea is to start enjoying writing again. Let's see how it goes!

Which brings me to this week's poem. I wrote this in 2012, after Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey.

The day after Halloween is a holy day in the Catholic Church. Despite poorly lit roads with trees across them, my parents went to a vigil mass on halloween and I went with them. This poem is about that experience. I did the illustration this week.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! What do you do to get out of a creative rut?