The CreativeLife week 43 in review

 Hello creative friend,

If you are feeling like me on this Sunday evening, then you are both tired and grateful. Tired because of an additional daily challenge, and grateful that I managed the time and completed all the prompts on time. October is Inktober month in my life - not only the prompts themselves, but also making the time to draw every day.

I posted my drawings on Instagram, as the challenge requires, but also in a group called ArtKula.com. The group was founded by Phil Davies (the ArtTutor). He is a skilled instructor and like many others I have learned a lot from him over the years.

I was quite happy to get the invitation to join ArtKula, but getting involved in a new group is a challenge for me. I left many Facebook groups over the years because they grew so big that it became too overwhelming to try and have a decent conversation with anyone. ArtKula is different.

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It still has a huge number of members, over 13,000, but people have the opportunity to join smaller groups where similar minds can find common ground. Groups like watercolour, mixed media, and pen and ink. I belong to all three, but that is not what this blog post is about. I want to talk about community.

Artists that run online classes often have thousands and thousands of people doing their courses, and then their student join their Facebook groups and they love to call these groups a tribe or a community. To me that is not even remotely close to being a community. How can you form connections with 45,000 people? It is physically impossible in the real world, and I don't buy that social media can make it happen. What makes it happen is a smaller group of people who support each other. A small group of people who share things about their life and art and how the two impact the other. Because life and art are not separate things. People that find connection because they are willing to do the work.

While I spend a lot of time drawing and painting, even teaching art, I don't always share my art online, except Inktober and Inktober52. And now we get to the point of this post.

ArtKula also has a monthly challenge, where the members can explore different mediums as their own interpretation of the theme. October was Inktober month on ArtKula too. So it was with trepidation that I posted my first drawing for Inktober. I don't know if I was the first to post a drawing for Inktober, but it wasn't too long before more and more people started to post.

Artists of various skill levels. But one thing stood out above everything else: people were supportive. No negative comments that I could see. Of course, the group has moderators to keep us all in check, but I only had a positive vibe throughout the whole month.

Prompts elicited discussions, and laughs, and inspiration, and sympathetic comments like I have never seen in any other group before. It was fun chatting about the difficulties of finding time to draw, complaining about the prompts that we didn't like, and cheering the amazing drawings that many people made.

With NaNoWriMo starting on Tuesday, the finalisation of Keeper of the Dragon Key still on my to do list, and the art exhibition, I don't think I will have time to do much art. But one thing I do know: come December I will be back to take part in the ArtKula monthly challenge and to chat and learn from the amazing people I had met in October in this group.

If you are taking part in NaNoWriMo, I wish you all the best with your writing endeavours. May your target challenge you to achieve something new. If you are a veteran, may the 50,000 words be the next milestone on your writing journey.

Thank you for reading!

Until next time,

🇿🇦💜 Linzé

The CreativeLive weeks 41 and 42 in review

Hello creative friend!

I hope your October has been a creative one so far. Mine certainly has with inktober on my daily to do list. A few of these prompts were definitely a challenge and some of them felt like they were picked by a child. Maybe they were? Hmm...

On a more adult note: I had applied to take part in a curated Christmas art market show at the end of November. Applying was a lot of work, and I decided that whether or not I got in, would make no difference. I decided to put my work out there and that to me was a victory in itself.

Dates and times of the art show in
Pretoria, South Africa.
Gallery address to come.

A few days later I got a weird WhatsApp message: I was added to a group by an unknown person. Upon further investigation it turned out to be the host of the show. Five minutes later the emails popped into my inbox: my paintings had been accepted. Good thing I was sitting down at this point because my first thought was how on earth was I going to deal with this on top of everything else?

I have a book to finish and publish. I have lots of work already on my plate and more coming in, and now an art show? A slight feeling of panic set in. I recognised this feeling because I have been there - it is the feeling of being overwhelmed. At this point I was tempted to say no, but decided to take a day and reassess my schedule against my to do list

I am only committed to take part in the show when I pay the small fee for which I still have a few more days until the deadline.

As I sit here writing this post, the feeling of helpless overwhelm has receded. The first time I felt this way I had no idea how to deal with it. In fact I was so out of my depth that I simply took a few days off and did nothing except to watch YouTube videos or series on Netflix. It hadn't helped, because the reason for the feeling had still been there.

Since that first time, I have realised that not doing anything is not a solution. For some things like mental or physical exhaustion it might be a good time to step back from work and other commitments, but this time there is no such need: I simply have too much to do and no time to do it in. Or do I?

That question made me pause to think about it. Nothing on my todo list was due tomorrow, except one thing. Neither was everything due this coming week. I have one thing to finish this week: the book. Even my work load is light this coming week. Sure the art show fee is due, but what do I have to do for that takes any more effort than authorising a payment which takes less than two minutes? It was the decision that needed the “task” to be done.

Then it hit me: take some time, and it doesn't have to be hours, and sit down to look at my calendar for the next 8 weeks. I don't usually have my tasks planned that far in advance, but what can it hurt to do it this one time?

I am still working on that planning but I know when which things are due for the show, the organiser was very clear about deadlines. Deadlines are good. Art show? Check.

The book's editing is very nearly done. And I will finish the last chapter this coming week. So that is a check, or soon will be. The next step is to work through the edits from my editor, and I have already started doing that. The cover is done, and I am very happy with the result. No, I didn't use my painting, it turned out to be too dark for what I had in mind. Maybe next time. Cover? Check.

When I made a list of all the deadlines ahead, and the tasks I have to make those deadlines happen, I knew I could make them work. If I couldn't have? My first priority would have been the book, but now I can do both and I am satisfied that there is enough time to do what I want without sacrificing any sleep, or letting my engineering clients down.

It is late in the year and tiredness do start to set in, but that is not unexpected. I still have December and about three weeks of rest to look forward to anyway. So I am not too worried about that happening because of the added work for the show.

I was reminded of the quote that says something in the order of - if you don't have a plan, you plan to fail. Since no one plans to fail, having some kind of plan in place can only help you to succeed. I have my plan, and that helped to deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed.

I hope that you plan to succeed in the coming weeks.

Thank you for taking the time to read. Until next time!

💜🇿🇦 Linzé

The CreativeLife weeks 39 and 40 in review

 Hello creative friend,

  If you are immersed in the drawing challenges of October, you are doing a great thing for yourself. So many artists on YouTube and other sites constantly all say that they need to improve their drawing skills. And what better opportunity than Inktober?

  Of course, keeping up can be a challenge given all of our daily responsibilities, but doing whatever you can does contribute to improving your skills. Because it is about the practice, right?

  I love drawing and taking part in the weekly challenge of Inktober52 is also a good way to practice. You can see all the drawings I have done so far on Instagram.  Likes and comments notwithstanding, my favourite is the Gargoyle so far. The gold detail was a challenge to draw because I didn't have a thin nibbed metallic pen. I have since bought one, because gold details could appear on any drawing at any time. 😆

  My biggest challenge remain editing my next book. I managed to finish Chapter 16 on Friday, and am nearly done with Chapter 17. Will see how far I can get tonight. Maybe my editor will get two chapters in her inbox tomorrow morning.

  We had a heatwave badgering us the last two weeks, making it particularly difficult for me to work when we have load-shedding. I have taken to making a little siesta time after lunch, to recoup some of the energy drained away by the heat. I can't say if it really helped, but at least I felt better late afternoon. The heat is not unusual for this part of the country, but the lack of rain is not helping. Neither is the water restrictions that were imposed last week. Tough times indeed.

  I have experimented a bit with the background I want to paint for the cover of the book. I liked the result, but have now changed my mind on the style of background I want. LOL! My workload is still a huge challenge, but I will see what I can do this week, especially if I can finish editing Chapter 18 tonight. With only two Chapters left after that, I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

It is still hard to see the book ready for publication in December, but I am feeling a bit more optimistic. Pre-orders for the ebook will most likely be available from the end of October, so keep an eye out if you liked the first four books, or like adult fantasy stories.

Until next time!

🇿🇦💜 Linzé