Meet the Maker
For the month of March I decided to join Meet the Maker over on Instagram. The challenge, organised by Joanne Hawker, happens every year throughout March, and allows creatives from all over the world to connect and share their practice, promote their business, and give insights into their creative journey.
I’ll admit I didn’t complete all 31 days. I decided to pick out the ones that seemed to fit my own practice the best and stuck to those. Today I thought I’d share some of them with you!
First things first, IG is a funny thing when it comes to sharing insights into a creative practice. As I’d already planned what I was going to post throughout the month, I could easily make it seem as though I was staying busy and churning out a load of work, but in truth, my personal work didn’t really get off the ground this month. There were a lot of delays and obstacles I had to work through, most of them probably self-inflicted, and I started to feel disconnected from my creative flow. There were days where I wasn’t drawing anything, because I was focusing all my energy on more urgent, but less fulfilling tasks.
Here is a snippet from Day 15 which sums up how I was feeling:
Day 15 // Priorities
It’s hard to say what my priorities are atm because honestly, my main goal is just to be happy. I know IG can make it seem like we’re always working and always positive but are any of us really like that? I enjoy working on my illustrations but I also procrastinate a lot and spend days unravelling the MANY negative beliefs I tell myself.
This illustration was a favourite of mine but goodness me it was a struggle to get it out. And it’s not even complicated. I was just so uninspired by the limited colour palette, and I think I’d let the whole project drag on a little too long that I started to loose sight of why I started it in the first place. I just wanted to get it done and move on.
I also had several portrait commissions this month which was amazing, but it meant that my personal projects had to take the back seat for a while. The turn around was so quick for these that I unintentionally burnt myself out and had no energy left to put into my own practice.
By the end of March I started to see where I was going wrong. On one hand I managed to stay consistent with Meet the Maker, but behind the scenes I was feeling uninspired and unfulfilled with my work because I hadn’t left any space for myself. I made an effort to pick up my daily sketchbook (something that I’ve sadly neglected since January) and planned to fill it with really bad drawings - the wonkier the better. I started knitting again, and took myself on walks to try and reconnect to that inner creative voice. It’s still a working progress, but slowly I’m beginning to feel inspired by what I’m making again. I’ll be continuing to share my illustrations on IG this month, but I’ll also be holding some of my energy back for work that I purposefully don’t share. And with that comes a new feeling of relief.
If you’ve followed me on Instagram, I hope you enjoyed my little Meet the Maker series, and I hope this post shines a light on the fact that not everything you see on IG tells the whole story.
Shop Update!
New pet portraits have arrived on my Etsy store this month and I’m super excited to share them with you! They’re postcard sized and completely personalised; this one was for a lovely puss named Crumpet and her owner Emily!
I love making these little prints for you, and I’m excited to add more fury friends to the collection! For more info please check the item description on Etsy!
This and that…
*I’m rewatching this adaptation of Howards End at the moment. It’s such a cosy watch and the book is a firm favourite of mine, especially now it’s Spring!
*I listened to Deep Work by Cal Newport this month and he brings up so many interesting points about technology and distractions that made me revaluate how I balance deep and shallow work.
*Any day with yoga in it is an immediately better day. Recently I enjoyed this one.
*Just for fun, this game has been great for passing the time with friends on zoom.
Okay okay that’s all for now! See you next month.
Catherine