Messy Desk Dispatch: What to do with all that learning
Getting notes out of my sketchbook and using them in my work. Making zines, using the mountains of postcards I’ve bought from galleries and reflecting on my work.
This month I’m thinking about ways to use all the things I’ve been learning and keep being inspired. Here are some ideas I’ve had.
From a gallery wall into my sketchbook
I love a gallery gift shop. I’m always drawn to the postcard section with the intention of taking a little bit of inspiration home with me. I have so many postcards and I’m trying to find ways to use them in my work. I went to Musée d'Orsay in Paris a couple of months ago and was struck by the exciting composition that jumped out at me in the postcard section. These souvenirs are so useful for composition. I only realised in writing this post that they are all crops of bigger paintings. I’ve made notes at the beginning of my sketchbook to encourage me to experiment with a close crop of sleep, an impossibly high horizon line and interesting limited palettes.
Make a zine
I had the idea of making a zine for myself of key points when I was doing a lot of online courses in lockdown. I’d just started drawing again after many years and I was learning so much.