Editing The Pen Addict 658/transcript (section)

== Becoming a Tombow Ambassador and Creative Journey ==

* And, um, last year, uh, or the year before, um, I became an ambassador for Tombow, which was like a huge deal for me. Um, and then became part of their creator crew, um, last year, which is a group. I think it's about 10 people who are part of this creator crew and, um, they just basically create content that Tombow shares out. And for me, that was a big deal because, you know, I've been using Tombow products, um, for so long. Um, and this was like a way for me to share my creativity and get it in front of more people. And, um, so my personal Instagram, which was, um, or like my creative Instagram, which had a lot of hand lettering. Um, projects sort of start to started to evolve, uh, with the use of more fountain pens and fountain pen inks. And, um, I was inspired by Clarissa, um, who's the snowy studio on Instagram. Yeah. So if you see her feed, she has beautiful ways of swatching fountain pen inks where she basically creates art out of it. Um, you know, with drops of ink, um, puts, you know, I think it's a Ziploc bag or just like, you know, some plastic cover on top and moves the ink around the page. That looks like it's naturally flowing around the page and then adds journaling or, you know, other art to it. And I was really inspired by this way of using up inks that I decided to try it, you know, in my own way and use paint brushes and started painting with the inks. And so I would put down ink on the paper, paint on it, paint with it. Um, and then I decided, uh, well, why don't I draw flowers on top? Um, and sketching flowers, we're kind of like going around in circles in terms of like my art evolution. This is great. No, I have, I definitely have follow-up questions for this. So keep going. Okay, so, um, sketching flowers came about around that 2019 to 2020, 2021 phase where, um, I went through a lot of life changes, um, some personal loss and grief, uh, which made me turn to, you know, doing more art. And again, you know, I became a mom. And so I had a little bit of free time that I wanted to dedicate, um, to having some, you know, joy. And, um, I decided to sketch floral bouquets and it was simple. I had, you know, a piece of paper, a pencil. Um, and in doing that, I realized that while I was sketching these flowers, it was a way for my mind to quiet down and, you know, not, you know, think about the worries of life. And more so concentrate on just enjoying the process of, you know, watching my hand draw these flowers, you know, and transferring, uh, what I'm seeing onto paper. And so with time, I kind of did this as a daily practice of just sitting down with a pencil, sketching down, sketching flowers. Um, and over time, this evolved into a more abstract, um, style. And so now when I'm drawing flowers, I'm not looking at a physical floral bouquet, which is how I kind of started doing that. Um, but now I kind of just do it because I just want to sketch flowers. And so, um, this abstract style came about because, you know, I don't have time to sit down and sketch flowers for an hour. Um, and so basically what I want to do is take out ink, throw it down on paper, paint with it a little bit, and then, you know, take out a fine liner. Like, usually I'm just drawing with a Tombow Mono drawing pen, um, or, you know, just like a dip pen. Um, and I just draw these sort of chaotic, uh, but what I call intuitive line drawing. Yes. So it's, you know, it's, I'm letting myself go with the flow without any kind of expectation of what it's going to look like in the end. Because I don't know, I'm not basing it on something I'm actually seeing. I'm just letting my hand sort of do whatever it wants to do. And I think over time that, like, practicing something gives us muscle memory. And I think practicing over and over drawing flowers or whatever it is that you sort of feel comfortable drawing. I think over time, um, your hand just sort of knows the shapes and the outlines that come with it. And so that's what I kind of base it on now. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's, that's one of the goals, which we're going to talk about, you know, taking your class, which I've, I've done before is, is learning how to let go and have some of the freedom. But I, I, I'm, I'm sitting here listening to you, you talk about this and I'm just fascinated because I, I have to wonder like, what was that first flower image look like? Like, how did that, did that come about as an accident? Right. Like you just like, some of my stuff just comes about accidentally, like from doodling, like the little lines that I do, which, you know, are just a very simple thing. But it's like a second nature thing to me. Like it just happened because this is how my hand moves. Like, how was that, did that first flower just kind of happen accidentally? Or did you like think about it a little bit as you were just starting to doodle? So that's really funny because it's sort of a mix of both. So the first time I drew a flower, I sat down and I thought, okay, I'm going to draw a flower. Okay. And it didn't turn out well. The second time I sat down, it was more so because I just wanted to get away from, you know, the stress of the day. And I sat down and I didn't actually think I'm going to draw a flower. I just kind of looked at a floral bouquet and I was like, I'm just going to draw this. Like, I'm just going to, you know, draw whatever I want from this.
* And that actually turned out really nice. Nice.
* So I think kind of in line with what you're saying with like something kind of comes to you intuitively or naturally like doodling. For me, it's, you know, that sort of floral like sketch style. And it's like, it's not a perfect drawing style. It is very like sketchy. You know, I'm kind of thinking along the lines of like urban sketching where you're like drawing in the moment because you're trying to capture what you're seeing. And not necessarily worrying about getting the perfect lines and the perfect, you know, dimensions and point of view. But you're more so just like capturing that moment so that, you know, later when you look on it, look back on your piece. You're sort of taken back to that moment of where you were, what you saw. And it's, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect for you to still feel that joy. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the benefits of this style of drawing and any type of doodling in you, you kind of alluded to this and something you said, I actually wrote it down. And just kind of the meditative aspect of this. You said that you watch your hand. And I've never thought of like that concept. But when I think about like my doodling, like it's kind of the same way in that, not that I'm watching my hand per se, but I'm in a zone where I could do, like I could literally make the same doodle with my eyes closed. And I think that means that like I'm really appreciating the moment for what it is and like everything else is going away, which like I'm not heavily into meditation or anything on how that works. But when you can have this, even just a couple of minutes of escape and brain reset from doodling a line or like I do, or doodling flowers like you do, it's a valuable experience, even if it's only for a few minutes a day. And I thought that was a very interesting way that you put that, like watching my hand. And like I was thinking about that concept in what I do to, you know, give myself a break or give myself, you know, some peace in the afternoons when I do this a lot. And I thought that was a pretty neat way to put it.
* Yeah. And I think you kind of touched on the mindset there. So it is a type of meditation. It's mindfulness, right? You're present in the moment of what you're doing and whether, you know, you're focusing on looking at your hand or you can have your eyes closed and you're doing it, you know, it's the movement of your hand. And I think it sort of puts you in this calm space. And yeah, I think it has a lot to do with mindset over what you're actually doing. Yeah. All right. Can we get technical on this a little bit for people who are listening who may not be familiar with your work or that you teach at pen shows? You teach these classes about drawing these flowers. And correct me if I'm wrong and I may, you know, be misspeaking. But like I feel like when I take your class, I'm not going to a drawing class, right? Like, I don't know. I feel like I'm just going to a creativity class. Like, you know, I'm not learning how to draw and like the super technical aspects of how to draw, but I'm learning how to express my creativity in a certain way. At least that's what I get from your class. So tell me a little bit about the class and like a couple of tips on like we'll share a bunch of your posts in the show notes. So if people aren't familiar with like the flower, the bouquet drawing, can you give us a couple of technical tips as well? Yeah. So, yeah, I'm not an art teacher. I don't have any technical, you know, education or anything like that. I think my class is more so about like you sort of hit the nail on the head. It's more about creativity than it is about technical art and drawing. So my class is for people who want to be creative and who may not necessarily think of themselves as an artist. Yeah. Right. And my only ask is that they keep an open mind about going with the flow and give themselves permission to not expect something in the end. So I'll give you a real example of this, of what I mean. So my workshop at the SF Pen show last year. So you took that class, right? I did. I did. A lot of people. Yeah. And a lot of people. And maybe you did too. Walked into that class thinking, okay, like I've seen, I've seen this abstract floral style.
* I don't think I can do this. But, you know, I just want to kind of have fun.
* Yeah. And so a lot of people sort of said that as they walked in, you know, I don't think I can do this. It's not going to look the same way it does, you know, that you do it. But I kind of want to have fun. So I think what they were sort of expecting was they're just going to have like, you know, a blob of ink on their page and, you know, some drawings on top. And after the workshop, as I walked around and I asked people, you know, what they thought of their art that they created, I saw genuine joy in their faces of like, I think a lot of people were surprised at how it sort of turned out. Because they came in with an expectation of what it would look like, and it did not turn out that way. And that's okay.
* Right? Yeah. I think the joy of playing with ink or of letting yourself sort of just go with the flow of sketching, doing abstract art is that it doesn't have to be perfect. There is no technical, you know, there is no way that it has to look a certain way. And I think if you're having fun in the moment and you're enjoying it, you are going to enjoy the end final piece because you're going to look back on it and you're going to remember that experience that you had. And I think that is that high that I'm always chasing is knowing when people sort of go into making art or being creative, but thinking that they're not a creative person and then being able to turn around that expectation of themselves and showing them that you don't need to think that you're an artist to be an artist. You don't need to think that you don't need to think that you're creative to be creative.
* Yeah, I think the mindset's really important. As someone like I've forced is the wrong word because I want to take these types of creative classes, but I've allowed myself to like sign up and take, you know, various classes, at least the ones I remember to go to. Um, that I basically, um, just try to like have a different mindset as soon as I walk through that door and that I'm going to give myself up to the class and the creativity. You know, I'm a super highly anxious person. Um, art is tough for me because I worry about rules and perfection and things like that. So it's really hard to not have that and to allow yourself to be put in this situation to let go, right? I'm speaking for myself here and I'm sure a lot of people can relate and I'm sure a lot of your students can relate. Um, but once you just, you allow yourself to be there and be present and just to not care in like the, uh, in a very black and white way, just like care about like what you're doing and putting in the work and trying new things. And just giving yourself up for a minute. Like I had the, I had the most fun in that class and I was like, I'm going to make the coolest flower. And then I, then I started like, you walk us through the process, you know, like we go through different, different steps and how to just like generally get to an end goal. Like, it's not just like, okay, flower go. It was like, we were very, we were very, uh, deliberate in the order that we went in. And like my first one, like, I did not like this flower at all, but you know what? I just started another one and then I did another one, did another one. And then at the end I was like, man, this is cool. Like, look, I did a good flower. Oh, look, my flower looks like Corollas. I was like, yay.
* It's cool. And, uh, you know, just getting that time with other people who feel the same as you, like we're sitting at like a round table and like everyone's going like, oh my God, I don't know if I can do this. And then we all do it. And it's, it's thanks to you, like, and all the teachers that we have at these, these classes and allowing us the opportunity to like come in and express ourselves in a new, fun, unique way. Yeah. And I think part of the role as, you know, the workshop host is to guide you through that mindset. Um, it's not necessarily me telling you, you know, do this, do this, do this. It's more so like, you know, letting yourself, um, go through those steps, but in a natural, uh, calming way, um, so that you're enjoying it. Um, and for me, you know, guiding people through that process so that they get to the end like you and you're like, well, actually these flowers look great. Yeah. Right. Um, so I think taking a step back, the class, you sort of alluded to what we do in the class. Um, it's called abstract floral art because it is very much abstract. And so the first part of that class is, um, we use fountain pen inks and I typically use three to four different colors. Um, and we use a paintbrush and just make these, um, oval sort of outlines on the paper. And I find these sort of outlines, um, which turn into flowers, uh, they're calming way of painting. Um, and so we sort of do that at first and there's a couple of techniques there that we can use in terms of blending the inks. And it's a great way of finding in combinations that you might like, um, and that you might later ink up a fountain pen with. Right. So if you get like new inks, this is a great way of exploring ink properties, especially if there's shimmer or there's sheen. And so painting with it really brings out those properties. Um, and so we kind of do this calming way of painting with the different inks. Um, and then after the ink dries or we sort of, you know, expedite that process a little bit. Um, then we just take a fine liner and we draw these, um, sort of abstract line drawings of flowers using the paint outlines as sort of a guide. Um, and I find that this helps because your eyes do kind of want to focus on something. Right. And having those, you know, blobs of ink, which are just outlines, um, just looking at the ink itself, you're not going to think, oh, these are flowers. But once you sort of draw on top, just a little bit of detail, um, and one of the ways of drawing your eyes to weather, you know, showing the eyes that these are flowers, these are leaves is by drawing, um, you know, directional lines. So this is a petal that's coming out of a flower. It's, you know, curling towards you. And there's just like little tips and techniques where you can use those lines to your advantage to guide the eye so that when you're kind of looking at your finished piece, your, your eye sort of looks at these little clues of this does look like a flower, right? Like these are leaves. This is a bouquet. Yeah. Yeah. One of the, I'll tell you my biggest takeaway that I still tell myself to this day from the class, and this is literally like an art 101 concept, but for some reason it's not stuck in my head as someone who's taken a lot of art classes in, in their life. That odd is more visually appealing than even when you're drawing like flowers. I still tell myself to this day from that class, you were like, draw your flower with five petals, not four, because it's just going to be more visually appealing. Like it's, it's, it's just, it's like science and math and art, right? It's just for some reason it just works better. And I still tell myself to that day, to this day. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that kind of funny? So that's the rule of thirds, right? Like having three items, like three flowers looks better for some reason than having two. It's like you're missing something. And so, yeah, definitely draw those odd number of flowers. It works. So, yes, that is, that was one of my main takeaways. So I have a lot of, a lot of takeaways and I think we'll kind of, we'll kind of morph into this. You were talking about mixing inks and checking out the ink properties and something you do and something I've dabbled in a little bit with is painting with inks, like outside of like the flowers and just doing other things. So you started to stream on Twitch some, which I'll have a link in the show notes and you do a lot of this abstract floral art on there as well. And you also do some painting like with inks. Can you just give a little bit of, I don't know, kind of like your experience with painting with inks? Because a lot of people, a lot of us fountain pen users, and I'm speaking directly to myself, have only ever used fountain pen inks and fountain pens. And we all have, like you said earlier, we have more inks than we'll ever use in our lifetime.