Hi! I’m Alison Cynamon and Practice Makes is my newsletter.
I’m an artist, illustrator, picture book enthusiast (and aspiring author), and sometimes muralist. I live in Brooklyn with my dog - Stevie Nicks, and my husband - Matt, and my houseplants (I have too many to list all their names - but Barbara Bush and Ms. Figgy pretty much sums up the punny plant naming vibe).
What’s with the name?
Well, I want to focus on the practice, not the end product. I want to measure my days in what I spent my time on and not what I “finished” or “accomplished”. Practice Makes is my way of doing that. This newsletter is to remind myself that just showing up and practicing is in itself an accomplishment. I don’t believe in “practice makes perfect” and I don’t really like “practice makes progress”. I just want to practice for the joy of the practice. So, I created this newsletter for you, but also, kind of, really for me. But since you care so much about me (I assume if you’ve read this far!) it’s also for you.
Should I subscribe?
You can read Practice makes in the format of your choice: as a newsletter in your inbox, on the webpage (like a blog post), or in the Substack App, if you are super fancy. It is free to subscribe! I am treating this project as a place of experimentation. This will not be the filtered and polished instagram posts (though you can still follow me there!) but more about my process and the messy behind the scenes. If you choose to subscribe, here are some things you might find every week:
peeks into my personal sketchbook;
creative works in progress;
art (usually picture book) reviews and recommendations;
drawing tutorials/process videos;
invitations to creative prompts;
love and compliments to other artists I love and admire
any other thing I just really want to share with someone - other than Matt and Stevie and Ms.Figgy.
