Whatever . . . Issue 1

From the Past to the Future

Many of you will remember, but most of you never knew - that I published a newsletter called “Whatever…Whenever” over twenty years ago. There were no newsletter apps then and I had to create it as web pages. But it was cool.

Because I had created a new type of paper that was similar to vellum, but indestructible, my audience was mostly made up of artists in the paper arts arena, and there is a LOT of variety in the paper arts. My newsletter was about a variety of things.

Lately, I have realized that a lot of my email consists of newsletters from different artists, and that my favorites seem to be those that give me a potpourri of information and I always walk away having learned something new and interesting.

While I am not going to stop sending issues that explore a single topic in more depth, I am also going to send “Whatever” issues like this one - sharing little stories and links about interesting things.

In hopes of creating more community, and because “perspiring” minds want to know, I am also going to ask your opinions and thoughts about some things, and use the Comments section to have those conversations. I think the Comment section is more cohesive for any conversation, and hope I will be seeing many of you there.

Procreate Brush Stamps

Rubber stamps were a big player in the Paper Arts boom of the 90’s. People who were not comfortable drawing had images to work with in their creative endeavors.

There is nothing bad about using images made by other people as long as you have permission to use them. It is not cheating. In fact, you can learn a lot by working with something that already has the right proportions, etc.

Procreate Brush Stamps are the new version of this, but so much better because you can resize the images to suit your desires, and you can edit them too.

I am working on my own sets of Procreate brush stamps which will be grouped by theme and sold in sets.

For those of you who have yet to make friends with Procreate drawing and painting procedures, stamp brushes will be your easy entry to digital art making.

For established Pro-creators, stamp brushes are an awesome tool for time saving and new ideas.

I will also be including tutorials, so stay tuned.

Your Dominant Eye

Eyes have been a big topic in my world lately.

I had my first cataract surgery three weeks ago. Because of a hereditary condition in my cornea, my recovery has not been the instant kind that most people experience and I start each day with blurry vision in that eye. It clears every day at a different time and most days gets incredibly sharp by bedtime, just in time to not need to see anything clearly (I can brush and floss without sharp detail), so I have been learning acceptance of things I cannot control. (Serenity Prayer, etc.).

As a side note for anyone who is contemplating getting rid of cataracts, the surgery was quick, painless, and to me, very interesting. A light show of sorts and I like those.

If you have any corneal abnormalities, it can take awhile to get to clarity (as it does in many things in life).

A more normal result - my husband came out of the surgical center like a kid at Disneyland when he had his done, and yammered all the way home from Albuquerque about the color of bushes on distant mountains and the cracks he could see under the overpasses. I would rather not have heard about those, please!

My brother is an obsessed golfer - and where am I going with this, you might be wondering.

He asked me if I knew which was my “dominant” eye. I didn’t know I had one, but I guess we all do.

Here’s how tell which one:

Hold your index finger up in front of you and align it with some object. Look at it with both eyes open.

Close your left eye. Does your finger move over a couple of inches?

Close your right eye. Does your finger move over?

Your dominant eye is the one that is open when your finger does not move.

What does this have to do with golf? I guess you line up a putt better using just your dominant eye. Who knew?

Drawn the Mother Road . . .

This year marks the 100th Birthday of Route 66.

The other day my husband and I spent a few back-and-forth minutes trying to figure out which year the road opened. I know, right?

In other back-and-forth minutes, we discuss whether it is time to call in someone to think for us.

So that open date would have been 1926 (for anyone who is still thinking about that.)

Anyway, in celebration of Route 66, I want to introduce you to, or remind you of, one of the best travel sketchers of all time - Chandler O’Leary. Tragically, we lost her to a thing like pneumonia about three years ago - at the age of 41. What a heartbreak!

But her work lives on, thanks to her friends and family.

Take a fabulous trip along Route 66 via Chandler’s 66 posts detailing all the wonders she found and drew in her sketchbook. Do come back here to tell us if you enjoyed the road trip.

https://drawntheroadagain.com/tag/66-fridays/

Recent Art Work

Along with my many in-progress sketchbooks for life stories, I use little ones for. current weird ideas that pop into my head,

I post them on Instagram and Facebook, but I don’t know why. Hardly anyone sees them there.

I don’t have (or want) a lot of followers, but I have a couple thousand combined on the two platforms. According to reported “insights” Meta shows my posts to 44 of them.

So I thought I would share them here, and apologize to any you who were in that 44.

This came to me as I sat at a traffic light with my blurry vision in one eye. It’s called “An Abundance of Caution”.

And this one is “I Think I Must Be Lost” . . .

And this needs no title (Kinda sloppy because I used some acrylic brush pens on the sign . . .

These have been fun little sketches and they will continue for awhile. I find myself redoing some really early artwork (talking way before the internet). I did a book of illustrations on Signs in the 70’a - which I must locate and rejuvenate.

So that’s all I’ve got today. Hope you found something to love!

Be well and invite joy.

jessica