It's been 12 months...

And what's changed?

…since I wrote on the topic of productivity. This time last February I tore up my goals and wrote down 3 dream outcomes. We were knee deep in a garage extension, to provide a dedicated space for work and hobbies; I was planning to deepen my skillset and dearly hoped to concentrate on making new in-person connections. Happily, I managed all three. So how has it changed my creative practice?

1. I’m very content! Leaning in to experimenting with materials led me down an unexpected path of creating huge spills of art graf water and drawing in to them - designing new wobbly characters with folktale-inspired eyes and wonky teeth. It felt new and exciting; energetic and connected to a potential story.

   

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2. There have been day trips - so many new opportunities to get out of the house and meet interesting people; attend events and even plan sketching dates or online meetups with creatives who at a similar point in our journey.

   

3. Compartmentalisation. Having a space to keep all my art materials together and to organise projects into boxes; keep books together for research and importantly to keep the cat’s paws out of wet paint has allowed me to pop in and out of an artistic moment. Not to mention, there’s no longer a huge desk sitting in the family lounge, covered in work papers and cables.

During January, I was able to attend Goodship Illustration and Orange Beak evenings; fill my collage sketchbook with new motifs and finish a brand new owl collage using hand-painted papers. All of this, alongside applying for and being offered a new job. A brilliant start to the year!

In general I feel less stressed about what is expected of me with respect to treating my creative practice as something which demands a return on investment. After several years of pushing myself to match my skills to my taste level, currently it doesn’t feel like such a rush. There’s a corner of the house where I can spend small bursts of energy and leave it just in the right state to return.

Normally that burst is about 20 minutes and recently I have reflected that most of my life is conducted in 20 minute sprints and then, a pivot. Perhaps I only realised this in the school car park recently, when a friend asked how I juggle kids, job, personal projects. And that was my answer..I only commit to a single task, which requires concentration, for 20 minutes at a time. It's like an inbuilt timer, I don't set an alarm. But lots of activities like oven cooking a meal; letting the kids watch an episode on TV; waiting for a speed wash to finish all take 20 mins so parallel activities are possible.

Completing a larger project, requiring multiple steps can seem a little ominous to approach in this fashion. But recently I finished a huge collage: a portrait of Temple Grandin, noted zoologist and educator, using this method.

This was my first portrait of 2025 and something I had been building up to with research and notes so, by the time I started snipping paper, I was fully invested. For me, this is key. Without the commitment, I wouldn't finish a project and all those micro moments are instead spent cleaning my desk, organising papers and scrolling social media.

Recently Temple Grandin had been popping up on my social media feeds, talking about autism in children; her own experiences and her thoughts on exposing children to many activities early in life to find their interests. I paid to download the semi-biographical movie staring Claire Danes, who won a Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television’. It was incredibly moving and I shed more than one tear. Which is when I knew I would complete the portrait, because there would be enough emotion and care behind the work.

Here are some of the steps; of course plenty of them required several sets of 20 minutes!

• Sketch book research and thoughts

• Designing a colour scheme to pull it together (in this case taking inspiration from a vintage plate

• Sketching, inking and painting motifs

• Scanning and arranging elements in Photoshop

• Creating repeat patterns

• Hand tinting papers with texture and colour

• Using a light box to draw layers of shadows

• Cutting paper pieces to match areas

• Arranging all layers together

• Gluing down paper pieces

• Making backgrounds

• Stitching or embellishing

• Scanning final price

• Adding text and exporting to size

• Saving down for social media use

• Collating box of scraps for future work

I’m happy to have finished this portrait - which has been added to my collection of 4 others; depicting men and women who have spoken out in support of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion.

Another page in my sketchbook is finished; a new page of prompts that will hopefully provide a future book idea. Or perhaps a very pretty page to show publishers at Bologna Children’s Book Fair next month!

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing a sample of how I tackle bigger pieces of work and how I keep the project interesting.

Stay creative!

xx Tabsy xx