Moving house

New digs

Acclimatizing myself to a new place is always difficult. I've moved back to Gothenburg after a few dreadful years in a smaller town, hoping I'll find more opportunities and a more (not too much!) diverse social life. It's been two months and I've simply been obliterated by the task of moving and the adjustments to everything's that's unfamiliar here. As a result, it's been hard to focus on creativity. The illustration I was working on prior the move sits unfinished still, and it's been a struggle to even mount the drawing tablet on my desk until a week ago.

Needless to say, I'm taking things slow, but I've done some sketching to get comfortable again. My hand is protesting by cramping up, which is a clear sign that I'm still overloaded, so I've limited myself to rather short sessions. It feels good to make something though, even if it's quick and rough, and a bit painful.

Sketch mode

Starting back up is always a daunting task. You get rusty fast and it can feel like you've regressed to drawing preschool stick figures! My tactic was to do some timed sketches. Using an interval timer app, I did sets of six "reps" circa 3 minutes with 30s pauses. This forced me to be deliberate and not dawdle on details. Kinda flushes the pipes. It also helps me let go of perfectionism, because the investment in each sketch is minimal. Having a few duds doesn't matter as much when you haven't really wasted your time on them. You also get the chance to explore a bit, or just repeat things to get more comfortable with them. It's just a few minutes, let loose! Ya goose!

I felt like drawing cartoony girls with big ears, so I dids. It's fun. Nothing else to it.

The required focus is pretty intense though. You want to utilize the very short interval you've set and I find it quite taxing. You might be comfortable with a pause of just a few seconds between each sketch, but I quickly noted that I needed to extend the downtime in order to not exert myself. Finding what works for you is really important and it's something I need to remind myself of more often.

Here's a dump of the whole thing, in case you're curious about the mayhem of sub par sketches in between.

Hope you've found some value midst my yammering. Send me a line if you wish, AMA. I'll be back, shortly, or whenever, but sometime, eventually, probably. Until then, take care, share what you love and be excellent to others and yourself.

Published 23 May 2024

Thanks for reading!