Happy New Year! A bit late I know, but I’ve been busy cleaning and tidying my work space, drinking a lot of coffee, shouting at the news, and avoiding all the new year’s resolutions I should probably make…
My only real ‘resolution’ for this year is to get back to work and open up my shop again. I’m still struggling with various dull health issues but with the state of things at the moment (a woefully underfunded and overwhelmed NHS in particular), I very much doubt anything will get done about that this year. All I can do is try to get myself as fit as possible with a view to being able to work part time. I need to keep being creative for my mental health and wellbeing. I also need to earn some money, because I’m absolutely skint and art materials, websites and such are expensive. Even more so this year because of the absolute STATE of things…
Anyhoo, this blog is just a quick update to show you a few recent bits of work I’ve done and to share a rather lovely Twitter thing, for anyone else who’s been struggling with motivation recently.
This was Luce’s Christmas present from me and I had a lot of fun drawing it. We are both big comic nerds and Tank Girl is one of my all time favourites. Lola the dog is affectionately known as ‘Tank’ for obvious staffie-related reasons. You can see how this was always going to happen, can’t you? Bork! Bork! Bork! Bang! Bang!
I’ve also added a few more ink sketches to my ‘Women Who Rock’ project. Here are Debora Iyall, lead singer of Romeo Void (do yourself a favour and click that link if you remember the 1980s. Or even if you don’t. Debora ROCKS) and Pauline Black of The Selecter:
This is Debbie Smith, one of my favorite guitarists, probably best known for playing with Echobelly (gratuitous link to my favourite Echobelly song with a little bit of live Debbie footage, because you get ALL the bonus music today).
I took a month or so off over Christmas and new year and this was my first ink sketch of 2022, inspired by the sad loss of Ronnie Spector on 12 January.
It was tough getting back to my drawing table after the Christmas break, even if the soundtrack was excellent. Which brings me to a nice Twitter thing that’s happening right now. My Twitter friend Dr Mand (https://twitter.com/mandapen) came up with the rather marvellous hashtag #MyOneThing. Here’s an explanation in her own words:
Anyone can join in by just using the tag and I absolutely recommend it as a way to move forward when the blank page or the massive ‘to-do’ list, or just the housework seems overwhelming. Just do one thing, even if it’s a very small thing. Then do the next thing. And give yourself credit for doing the things. I’d be really interested to hear how you get on if you give it a go, and there’s a lovely group of supportive people tweeting about it.
A nice thing on Twitter? Whatever next… That seems as good a place as any to wrap up for now. At the risk of making another resolution of sorts, I will try to be a better correspondent this year, one post at a time.
Bonus Music Video
Regular listeners will know I *love* a cover version, the more obscure the better. I recently became aware that Juliana Hatfield had done an album of Police covers and I am the sort of musical nerd for whom that sparks deep joy. So here’s something for anyone else who’s feeling a bit existential right now.