It’s been a busy month! I’ve been applying to a bunch of things, volunteering, working on a couple personal projects, and working on some client projects. A recap of (some) of January -
Drawing For Kids
I contributed to a coloring book project with the beautiful Leland Eating and Drinking House. I was (unsurprisingly) asked to make my illustrations seafood themed (“And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?”*) This collaboration began with the owner, Randi’s, desire to encourage multigenerational conversations around the dinner table. He lamented that often times the family going restaurant experience includes children watching TV on a phone or iPad while the parents have an “adult” conversation. Our hope was that the coloring and activity pages would give a non-screen alternative to the meal. I LOVED coloring books as a kid, and remember completing many a restaurant coloring page.
A cool thing about working with Randi was that he “beta-tested” the drawings - he would share drafts of the illustrations with kids, see what they are responding to what they did not. We incorporated different word games in order to add different ways of engaging with kids of different ages. Through this “testing” we made some fun changes. This illustration is printed across 4 pages, so that it can be taped together at the end to create a large poster!
This was my third “coloring book” project (second fish themed!) , I hope to do more in the future.
Drawing With Kids
I’ve also continued volunteering with the Brooklyn Public Library this year and led a block printing class. The kids were really into it, and only one bloody thumb!
Obviously this class started with a safety demo (because, you know I was just handing out knives to 10 year olds, as one does) interestingly the kids who came without a parent/nanny were being very careful and really listening to me when I came around and corrected their technique. The kids who had their moms hovering over their shoulder saying “be careful” every 5 minutes were the ones that poked themselves.
Anyway, the prints actually came out great and no one in the class had made block prints before. I made some little prints as a demo and traded my prints with the kids, and they all traded with each other.
I love these volunteer sessions with BPL, its always really cool to see what kids make.
Drawing while holding a kid
is impossible, I’ve tried. But now that Margo can sit up on her own (😭) we can “parallel play”, me with my pen, her with her sock. We did just that on a recent trip to Florida.
This trip I traded in my watercolors for a pen and an iPad. I love traveling with my watercolors but that is a bit trickier now - you need a bit more time - time to set up and to allow everything to dry - and I have a new fountain pen that I loooove that is perfect for quick sketches by the pool.
Matt also held Margo in his lap for the entire flight down (thank you!) allowing me to play on my iPad. I created this funny little cast of tree characters.
Until next time! I hope your days are filled with fish, art, and very good socks.
(*I guess this is how I got here.)