Your March Schedule
and a March update (no marching required!)
Greetings!! Happy March to you all. Is spring here?? (she says tentatively…) - the sun has been positively blazing these last few days and is set to shine all week, and it is lifting my mood SO MUCH!! I am hopping around like the proverbial spring bunny with all the extra energy it’s giving me! I’m also writing this on my birthday - 5th March - and am very happy to have some birthday sun this year!
So I am here with the March schedule, which I have also updated in the calendar links post, which is now permanently pinned to the top of my Substack homepage.
I thought I would begin with a little update… (If you want to get straight to the March schedule, scroll down)
You might have seen from my last few posts and notes that I’ve been working on upgrading the studio a bit. With these last few books, as I got busier with the artwork deadlines I found I was getting into a great big mess as I worked - the studio just didn’t feel…right. It’s not that it was terrible, I know I’m incredibly lucky to have my own studio, but now I have made some improvements I can see that partly the problem was that I was trying to keep everything I needed on the desk I was working on. This meant that by the end of the day, I was boxed in by everything. I would find myself working in this tiny enclosed space with everything bashed and stacked on top of each other. I was finding it so uncomfy to work in.
For example, when I’m making artwork, as I get towards the end of a piece, I switch between coloured pencils and painting more and more frequently as I’m finishing it all off. I was finding that I would bring my paint palette (I use the Frisk keep-wet palette) onto the table, and because I had nowhere to put my pencils, I was putting it on top of them; then when I came to use the pencils, I would have to move the palette, invariably streeeetching to put it onto my computer desk (always covered in paper and mugs of tea) or on the floor… Then, if I want to use watercolour… game over!…it’s time to stop and tidy-up, which takes me right out of my flow!
Actual evidence of me mid work flow in this video!
I recently bought some shelves on Gumtree for a tenner and installed them between my painting desk and my computer desk, and although I wasn’t sure as I tucked them in between the tables, it’s been brilliant! I have somewhere to put everything, and so far, it’s been brill!!
I’ve also been purchasing some extra boxes and storage boxes - keeping it all quite low budget - and that has been really helpful so far too!
Before…
After…
I’m quite proud of the continued work I’ve put into improving my studio. I put upgrading it into my 2024 goals for the year, and last year the big change I made was getting the plan chest, which has been brilliant, and since then I have done various reorganisations and many potters, have been picking up storage boxes, prints, trinkets etc… I know it might sound a bit grand, but it feels like an act of self care to take this time for making the space I spend so much time in nicer and easier to be in.
It’s been good to have this as a mini ongoing project, because if I’m honest, life has been dominated by my book deadlines. I’m now on the home straight of the book I’m working on. I know I’m close because I’ve written a detailed list with multiple things to check off. When I get to this stage in a book - I’m painting the last five spreads over the next two weeks - I like/need to have checklists. To remind me to take in various changes from the sketches; to remind me of changes I want to make to the finished artwork; and also I like to write little tasks just so I can tick them off! Like: prepare the paper for painting, print off the sketches for painting, etc…
It’s always very satisfying - and nerve wracking - and it’s exciting to see them come to life, but because they are made by hand, there’s always the risk I will mess something up - paint in the wrong colour, or generally do something I’m so unhappy with I will have to start again. I find it really hard to make a color rough because it’s impossible to predict the depth and richness of the final colour. For me, it’s not so much about a palette as such, as a general feeling for a spread. And if I’m honest, there’s a fair amount of improvising as I paint. Of course, it’s not actually improvising, I am using all the tacit knowledge1 I have acquired during my lifetime exploring art.
Anyway, I’ve just been told this email is getting too long to be read in an email, so I better get on with the schedule.
These are free, playful and fun art sessions. Each month I choose a theme or material I want to play around with and you can either join in, or go off-piste, and do your own thing. I might spend a session playing with wet textures, playing around with how things bleed, mix together and blend. Other times I might grab a handful of random materials and play around with those together. All previous Art Play Dates are available as replays, and each new session adds to the back catalogue to watch and play along with.
Date:
Tuesday 11th March. 12.30-1.30pm GMT
Theme:
I’ve just bought myself a new Staffordshire figurine! So we’ll paint that, along with a warm up, as usual! Looking forward to this!
One of my favourite things about the MA was when we looked at picture books together and analysed them, so I am thrilled to run this on my Substack. I announce the book at the beginning of the month and then we have a live Zoom together and chat all about it! It is available as a replay afterwards for those who can't make it.
Date:
Tuesday February 25th 8-9pm
Book Choice:
I thought I would give YOU the chance to choose this month’s Picture Book! Choose from:
Du iz Tak - Carson Ellis
Pokko and the Drum - Matthew Forsythe
Each Peach Pear Plum - Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg (this is one of my favourite books from my childhood!)
Get the books from friends of Gather, Filter, Make Helen Hancocks at her bookshop Shelf Editions or Katie Clapham at her bookshopStorytellers Inc.and help support Indies!
VOTE HERE (scroll down to get to poll). I will close the poll at the end of this weekend (9th March)
Looking forward to seeing you all at one or both of these soon!
Until next time!
Ella xx
Here are the links for paid subscribers:
My live meet-ups and recordings are for paid subscribers. If you enjoy my Substack and want to show your support, I would love it if you would consider becoming a paid subscriber. I really appreciate every single paid subscriber (and if you are already subscribed, thank you, from the bottom of my heart). All subs help me to continue making illustrated books, and creating posts here on Substack. And as well as supporting me, you get benefits too. What?! Yes, you heard me! You get access to my big catalogue of paid posts, and access to my monthly Zoom sessions, Art Club and Picture Book Club. And if you can’t attend live, all sessions are recorded and posted afterwards.