Everything Changed After This

I wasn't going to share this until later, but there's no better time than now.

You’ve come at a good time. I’ve got a new project announcement; stick around ‘til the end to read about it. It’s time for a Side Quest.

If you’ve been following along, you know I’m working on a monthly challenge to get better at sketching, and something happened this week that changed everything.

First, a quick recap and update of how the sketches have been going. It starts ugly, but has quickly become something I’m almost not embarrassed to share with others.

There's a lot going on here, but most importantly, growth.

For the first few images, I was not having a good time, and around the fifth or sixth image, I relented and went back to YouTube to study up and improve my approach, which netted positive results. The image below was done from that instructed session.

I obviously do not live in a quaint European village, so these images were taken from the provided source material, and maybe you can’t see it, but I definitely saw a significant difference between what I was sketching before this and everything after. I wouldn’t call it a breakthrough yet, though, because that moment came today.

This weekend, I was at a swim meet, and while I waited for his time in the pool, I broke out the sketchbook, opened Pinterest, and found a contemporary brutalist style home to sketch.

It’s better than most of what I made earlier, but far from my favorite sketch, but what makes this one special is that it stuck with me. There was something about the process of this image that made me remember it more than the rest.

Aphantasia is not a Disney Movie

I have aphantasia, a naturally occurring neurological variation characterized by the inability to voluntarily visualize mental images in one’s “mind’s eye”, but more on that later! If you ask me to picture an red apple in my mind, not only do I struggle to see the color, but I can hardly picture the apple at all, even though I know what one looks like.

I don’t have verifiable proof of any of this, but it’s why I believe I lean toward abstraction in my art, and why I mostly work intuitively, without a plan; because I can’t ever execute on a vision that I struggle to see in the first place.

Today, instead of sketching in my book, I wanted to try sketching on my ipad in Procreate, but instead of grabbing a source image, I made this one from memory.

Obviously not an exact copy, but I haven’t been able to do this in a very long time. If you had asked me at the beginning of the month to render any building from memory other than my own home, I might struggle with it. Why this one vs. the donut shop from above, or the urban single-family home from above? Maybe it was the recency, or my affinity for the brutalist aesthetic, or maybe it was that I didn’t need to imagine much perspective.

What matters is that I’ve picked up things that have stuck, and if I’m honest, I actually like the more recent version than the original. It feels more like my hand instead of the hand used to copy an image I found on Pinterest.

The big question now is, what do I do with all of this new skill? How will this affect my art going forward, or is it simply an escape to avoid going into my un-air conditioned studio to make are when it’s nearly 90 degrees outside.

That question and more get answered on Friday.

Want to Go Deeper?

I work to bring quality content to all subscribers, and becoming a paid gets you some serious bennies. Free subscribers get twice a month updates, but members get:

A weekly dispatch, every Friday - The raw thinking behind whatever I’m working through that week, and behind-the-scenes work done in the shop as I rebuild my online sales.

The monthly creative challenge - Each month I try a creative impulse I haven’t mastered to see how it adds (or takes away) from my work. Free readers get the takeaway, but members get the process while it’s happening: the resistance, the almost-quitting, and the hero’s journey (yeah, it’s like that).

Monthly digital asset pack - Texture and image packs pulled straight from my own camera roll. There’s no clip art to be found here, and it yours as part of membership, no extra charge.

First look at LostMixtape.com - The sales side of things, which is ever-evolving. I share my e-commerce experiences, new product drops, decisions before anyone outside this list sees them, and real-life strategies for selling creative goods.

Member-exclusive chat - Where the conversation happens away from the public comments. Also, direct line to me, always.

Finally, I’m a bit of a wild stallion, going off script (and apparently mixing my metaphors), and handing out goodies randomly whenever I get the impulse. No guarantees on that, but I feel a generous streak coming on… just saying.

Side Quest

I’ve been working on a project in the background, a little bit at a time, with the intention to launch in September. Things were going ok, but something felt a little off-balanced about it. The ideas were good, but they elements we’re gelling. Then I watched a random video on YouTube where the person suddenly deviated from their main content because they had an impulse to make something random.

They referred to their dalliance as a side quest, but when I heard that, it changed the entire trajectory of my project; even the title, which I’d built my whole thesis around. Oddly enough, though, the name works even better for my concept.

Side Quest is my new, monthly print publication; a zine concept where I share art, ideas, and a challenge to make things. There will be inspiration, materials, goodies, and for a select few, original art.

This new cohesion just happened yesterday, so things are fresh and unfinished. I don’t have all of the pieces in place in order to share, but by next Tuesday, you’ll have all the details, and a unique opportunity to get in on the project in a way nobody else can after this month.

Drop a comment in the chat if you’re ready to go on a Side Quest with me.

Until next week,

Cheers,

Dave