Category: New year resolutions

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Art goals New year resolutions

Off to a reading start

So I mentioned that one of my goals for this year is to read more. And by reading, I mean things other than web novels. Work related reading doesn’t count either, of course.

It’s only been less than 3 weeks into the year but I’ve definitely been reading books. Not too much, just a few pages here and there everyday… But hey, that’ll add up.

I’ve also bought a bunch of new art books. And there’s all the art books that I got last year as well. Which are pretty much mostly untouched… Well… Also hoping to change that. At least, I’m reading the line and wash art book that I got this year… So there’s that at least. I hope to at least use read and use the art reference books this year.

Let’s see how well I can keep it up.

On the art front, I’ve been doing a lot of simple but quick pen sketches lately. And it’s been quite fun. Mostly quick human sketches that I do on the train…

I also want to try doing more loose sketches. Like the line and wash style but really loose… We’ll see how that goes, and how my style develops over time.

Ok, that’s all for today! Till next time!

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New year resolutions Random Musings

Books…?

Ok, so I wasn’t able to sleep last night, and ended up finishing off two short books. One that I’d read half off during the day + the previous day, and one that I started late last night.

That book reading prompted me to check them off a read in GoodReads, which prompted me to check my reading challenge for last year. For quite a few years now, I’d made it my goal to read a book per month…. But in reality that rarely happens, since I’m mostly just reading webnovels instead of ‘proper’ books.

Well, guess how many books I finished reading last year. None. ZERO. Kosong. Part of me was feeling a bit wtf for sure. Like what do you mean? I look at my kindle on mobile and on Apple Books and I see a few books that I’d ‘recently’ finished reading. Yup. They were marked as read in my 2023 reading challenge. Wtf. Where did all the time go?

It felt like the year just slipped by in the blink of an eye. I accomplished nothing at work. I ate and got fatter. I read zero books.

Ok, I did have a crapton of interns. And I did read a crapton of webnovels, which I didn’t count in my reading challenge. Mostly I just assumed they aren’t on GoodReads. I don’t know, I don’t bother checking. Art was my only saving grace I guess. I did a lot of art. Tons and tons of quick sketches… And my skills and confidence has definitely improved.

But back to the books. I am really quick picky about what I read… And I tend to read more non-fiction or (auto)biography. Romance is a big no, whether webnovel or not. I love fantasy (of the high/low variety typically). But absolutely not if it moves at the pace of a snail… I end up reading lots of books marked as for kids or young adults… Who cares? I like a fast paced, action packed story.

The non-fiction books are enjoyable too, but I just can’t chow through them like I do fiction books. They tend to be longer for one, and I also take more time to think about the facts etc. And just read through it slower. And of course, I only pick topics that I’m interested in. I started a few of such books last year but have yet to finish it… Opps. It’s a tad more of a technical read sometimes… Or rather, it just uses more brain cells, which I clearly had few of last year. I’ve also abandoned a few books in said category because the authors seems to be either, droning on and on about stuff forever, just hopping around historical timelines too much, or just wrote in a very uninteresting and uninspiring manner….

So that’s me on about books… I hope to spend a little more time reading actual books and not just webnovels (and translated webnovels at that…) this year. At least I’m already 2 up from last year lol. Of course, since they were really short autobiographies, it feels like I’m cheating a little. But hey, a book is a book, and they were entertaining books at that. I’m by no means a fast reader. Average at best, and definitely as slow as a snail if you were to compare to folks in say a book club. On one hand, it would be nice if I could read faster. That would mean more efficiency right? But I’m not exactly willing to put in the effort for it. I read my books at night, before bed. Or in the office when I’m slacking…. Or on the commute. I read for leisure… So enjoyment comes first. (Of course I have to read different materials for work too, but that’s a completely different matter.)

Alright. I will end this here. It’s been a long time since I typed so much. Or well, since my previous blog posts. And gosh. My right forearm hurts like shit. The RSI is real. T.T

Categories
New year resolutions

Art goals 2025

I guess much of my goals remains the same as last year.

  1. Continue to make lots of art
  2. Use more of my supplies.

On top of that, I hope to be more mindful about the art supplies I’m buying… And basically spend less money, and make more art. After all I still have so many unused supplies, and already have enough watercolors to last me for a really, really long time…

Drawing/skills wise, there’s a lot that I would like to continue learning and exploring. I started doing urban sketching this year, especially doing lots of quick human sketches. And I’d like to continue that next year. Probably throw in more watercolor urban sketches as well… But I’d also like to explore more, different styles of watercolor urban sketches. Without outlining. Monochrome. Being more loose. Etc.

I dipped my toes into sketching humans this year. And I’d like to continue doing that next year. Maybe doing more targeted practice on sketching hands, limbs, shoes etc. And then I want to learn to sketch other things like trees, birds, other animals etc. I want to be able to draw more things, basically. Maybe do a few realistic color pencil/pencil sketches as well…

I think that’s about all I have on the art front for next year. Loads of changes will be upcoming in the year to come for sure. Worrying stuff. And for some periods I am not sure how much free time I will have for art… But at least I should, I will, still be able to put in a few quick human sketches on the train.

Alright. That’s it for today. A reminder that I post all my art to Cara these days and you can find them here. Till next time!

Categories
New year resolutions

2024 goals check in

I had laid out 6 goals this year… Let’s see how we have done.

General resolutions:

1) Keep email unread count low. I’ve been doing well on this one, mostly. Unread mail is a bit much at 234 now, but you have to forgive me… We have been on a 9 day holiday trip in Japan and just got back yesterday… But even then it’s been typically 200 unread mails and below. Of course I’ve also unsubscribed to plenty of mail that I don’t want to read anymore… But still… So many mails…

2) Finish a khadi fatbook. Done that, and started on a second fat book.

3) Finish the nerdforge sketchbook. Not done unfortunately. Made a big dent on that sketchbook, but just didn’t use it much in favor of the many other sketchbooks that I have finished.

4) Do art every weekend. Not exactly per say, but I’ve done urban sketches everyday that I have left the house, circumstances permitting. That meant every single day after work, even if it’s some quick train sketches. Somedays if I go out on weekends, I sketch too. But if I’m with the family for example, and there is just no time, then of course I am unable to sketch. Ironically I haven’t been doing art that much on weekends anymore, especially in the days when I did long watercolor urban sketches everyday after work… Because I felt that I was all arted out on weekdays already.

5) Use the happy mail dot cards from sketches.n.scrubs. This I have absolutely not kept up with. Because I stopped doing as much art on weekends… For a few months I just stopped opening the happy mail because I just didn’t have the time/energy to swatch it etc…

6) Tidy up desk space – this I’m pretty proud of, I cleared away all the stuff on my chair, and cleared some space on my desk… Although that is not true at the moment because of all the goodies I have from my Japan trip that is piled up on the chair. I didn’t buy all that much this trip. But there is still some stuff nonetheless, and I have yet to open them all, much less put them away properly.

7) Write more… Can’t say I did much of that…

8) Read more…. Didn’t do that well on that front either. I mean, I finished a few webnovels. But ‘proper’ books? Nope.

9) Use my art supplies more. Unfortunately, didn’t do well on this front in terms of the variety of art supplies I was using either. I just stuck to the same old watercolors. Still have a ton of color pencils, brand new in box, sitting inside my cupboard, unused…

So that’s it for my end of the year check in… next year’s goals? I’d say it doesn’t really change much… But that’s for another post…

Categories
New year resolutions

2024 goals!

2024 Messy Desker resolutions

Ok, trying to type this out on Pages and then I’ll see how I can get it exported/imported to wordpress. At worst copy and paste will have to do. (Update: Yeah, copy and paste it was)

But ok. I’ve started following sketchesnscrubs on youtube and I’ll just her Artist Reset template for this.

I’ll divide it into two categories I guess.

First for the more ‘art’ stuff. Like watercolors, drawing etc.

Second for the more ‘writing’ stuff. Like journaling, pen-paling, blogging.

Highlights of last year:

I managed to get some art done towards the end of the year, found an awesome community, fell deep in the watercolor rabbit hole. But also did a lot, a lot of watercolor.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any penpaling done. I typed up a generic – what happened in 2023 – letter to send to my penpals, but I still want to read their previous letter and reply to that. But didn’t get around to doing so. I did at least start some ‘scrapbooking’ as I call it at the end of last year though, and watching my notebook bulk up with the bits and blobs I stuck into it has been really satisfying.

Because of just how screwed up work got, I didn’t have any expectations or anything in terms of art… But I did wish I could have replied to my penpals at the end of the year… But I just got sucked into doing art and didn’t end up writing any physical letters. Heck, even the ‘digital letter’ will still need to be printed out and sent physically. And I have not done so yet – gotta add in my end of the year covid story now.

Now for things that I want to do this year:

I want to keep less stuff on my chair, and desk… Ideally those two will always be free of things so that I can pop on to my chair and do art anytime. VS now where I have to carry the piles of stuff over to my bed first before I could do art. Same with writing…. I need more space to be able to write. Which is a huge barrier in why I haven’t been able to write… Like it’s just troublesome and more of a mental barrier than anything else. But still a barrier nonetheless. Already some stuff I’ve done like having the water cup always out and almost always filled with water (clean or dirty) made it easier for me to get along with the painting. But that kinda made me want to paint rather than do anything else, like writing, or drawing… Use other forms of art. That and the absolute lack of space on my desk makes that motivation even less. And things are not looking any better now. I’ve got crumpled up but unused serviettes on the desk – from restaurants in Genting. I could use them to dab away paint and stuff but it’s one big mess. There’s all the drugs (well, medication) from the various doctor visits as well as over the counter drugs and lozenges… And lots of trinkets and cups of brushes and pens… And so much stuff.

Do more color pencil stuff and use the supplies that I stress bought (retail therapy) over the black friday sales in 2022. Shop my own supplies basically. A lot of the stuff is still brand new in box. With the wrapper and all still intact. So yeah. That has to change… I’ll like to aim for at least ‘something artsy done every weekend’. No idea how busy work will get and all. Presumably it’ll just be a regular year but who knows. Ideally I’d like to do something artsy everyday. And I would definitely like to move towards that. Maybe even like a 5 minutes quick sketch would be good, and would certainly count. But to be more realistic, just something artsy once a week would be good.

On the writing front, definitely would love to write a lot more often. Both blog wise and penpal wise. And maybe start writing more journal entries again. I don’t think I’m gonna force myself to write in my journal everyday like I once did. But I would like to write again. I didn’t buy any journal for 2024… No hobonichi for the first time since I fell into the fountain pen hobby. But I didn’t even touch my 2023 hobonichi. Don’t think I did the 2022 one either. Those are NOT going to waste, it’s still good paper and I will still use them. But I won’t be making myself write everyday. Write I will. But not like an everyday thing. Oh yeah, you mean the hobonichi techo is meant to be a planner? Sorry, I’ve always used it as a journal. See I work in the lab. When I’m busy in the lab, what I do tomorrow depends on the results of what happens today. I don’t even know what is gonna happen two days later, what use is a planner?

What else do I want to do hmm…

Yeah nothing much. Just slowly going through the stuff I already have, and use them. Toss whatever can’t be used, donate/giveaway stuff I don’t want… And keep writing and doing art. I don’t have anything specific in mind like ‘learn how to draw nice portraits’ or anything of that sort. I do want to experiment with gouache and try out all the weird fancy supplies I got but I don’t have any specific skills that I want to gain in mind.

That’s about it for now I guess. Yeah definitely nothing big or groundbreaking… I mean, what’s the point of setting unrealistic expectations that you know you won’t be able to fulfil? For the satisfaction of writing something down in your new year’s resolutions? Nah. I don’t see a point in doing that.

I have other new year resolutions to think about… Like my goals in cubing etc. As usual I will have my 1 book a month reading goal I guess… I read a lot. But mostly junk webnovels lol. So those don’t count unfortunately.

Alright. That’s all for now I guess. Till next time!