I am a Bad Student
And other things that I learned from taking a workshop this weekend at Outlet. Plus Nick Lowe, Kurt Vonnegut and Pentel Sign Pens. SO IT GOES!
I took a Digital Illustration for the Risograph workshop yesterday at Outlet, and it was a funny experience being a student at the establishment where I 100% of the time fill the shoes of the workshop facilitator. My co-owner, Leland, takes the reigns on our digital workshops, and they run a very good show. For the last several years, the only action my iPad has seen is me watching a lot of TV on it and, more recently, the gooey hands of Hank playing Minecraft on it 25 minutes a day, twice daily.
I used my iPad for freelance work when Adobe had a program called Adobe Draw, but they discontinued it a few years back. I never got into Procreate or Adobe Fresco, so this digital way of working was zapped away. What initially was purchased as a business expense turned into my second screen at night while I painted or drew at my kitchen table.
However, I decided to take Leland’s workshop to avoid having the IRS audit me for using business equipment for personal entertainment purposes. I also wanted to learn how to use Procreate.
It’s humbling and interesting to be repeatedly reminded that I don’t take my advice.
One of the things that I message to workshop students is that they don’t have to prep an image for printing when they take a riso workshop. They will have time to make something on the spot during the workshop, so there is no need to prep or stress. I also constantly repeat to let go of perfection and experiment, that this is just the first of many riso prints, not overthink, to turn your inner critic off, and make. GUESS WHAT! As a student, I did ALL these things and spent most of the workshop getting frustrated with the new tools in Procreate. I spent way too long trying to make a digital brush feel like my beloved pens; I created many layers that I eventually hid, I used the undo button liberally, and I felt myself going into the spiral of negative self-talk about how I am a Luddite who truly is an old dog that can’t learn new tricks and that all of my ideas suck.
Leland was a dream and provided excellent support, instruction, and guidance. When they announced that we only had 20 minutes left until it was time to print, I quickly decided to scrap my digital illustration of tomatoes, a cardigan, a blanket, and a cake with a cake plate. I scrawled out "SO IT GOES" on a plaid background and called it a day.
During my creative spiral, the Nick Lowe song So It Goes started playing on repeat (just the chorus), and then I started thinking about Kurt Vonnegut and his famous SO IT GOES from Slaughterhouse-Five. I know this phrase is one of a few phrases always running in the background of my brain: when dealing with heavy events (which there are plenty on the daily) when navigating conversations with folks who are embroiled in emotional drama, when helping Hank through the crisis of having to turn off my iPad because his 25 minutes of Minecraft is up, and when calming myself down because I am filled with the wrong kind of energy to bring into a roomful of students. My students don’t need to have my angst bleed all over them. And So It Goes. It’s a self-soothing mantra for big things and small things.
Contrary to the paragraphs above, I had an excellent time at the workshop and feel much more confident in Procreate. Everyone in the class did great work, and I am supremely happy that I set aside 4 hours to be a student again, even though I need some big-time practice taking my advice and being a student. THANK YOU, LELAND, for guiding patiently, and thank you to students everywhere for showing up to learn every day.
I spent my drawing table time last night thinking about Nick Lowe and Kurt Vonnegut. I honestly have to thank the Spotify algorithm for introducing me to Nick Lowe’s 1978 Jesus of Cool album a few years ago. I hate that I am thanking Spotify and not a cool, older relative or friend, and I wish I had a better origin story than this, but here we are, and I am glad this magnificent pop album is in my life. So it goes! Thanks for being the soundtrack to my workshop yesterday.
Kurt Vonnegut came into my life on a solo bus ride to Washington, D.C., during spring break of my freshman year in college. I had just switched from being a mass communication major to an English major, and my newly assigned advisor handed me a copy of Slaughter House-Five before I left for my trip. It was the perfect book for 19-year-old Kate, traveling by herself on a bus to Washington, D.C., to visit museums and practice being alone. At this point, I hadn’t started taking any art classes or drawing, but his simple black-and-white line drawings left a tremendous impression along with his words. I just placed Kurt Vonnegut’s Drawings on hold at the library (which I didn’t even know existed until last night). So it goes!
I have made it a habit to draw Hank’s school photos every year since he started getting them done in preschool. This past week's edition in Daily Purchase Drawings includes the latest (bottom tooth missing) installment. We also had a dinner date of hot dogs at Ikea on the 6th, bought a big old box of Halloween Pringles for his soccer team snacks on the 4th, and some cute riso-printed bat garland from Secret Room to give to my sister as a thank you for turning our porch into a giant monster mouth for Halloween on the 8th, an old 7/11 toy truck from a kid’s flea market which was held in the old K-mart in Gresham on the 5th, rediscovered the power of Listerine strips on the 10th and bought a bunch of perfect Pentel Sign pens so I can continue the afghan drawings that I wrote about last week on the 7th.
PS: A Pentel Sign Pen is another favorite tool for making. They offer a few different tips, and it is my choice for a colorful felt-tip pen. Plus, it’s affordable (2 bucks) and comes in many colors. Two thumbs up!
I have seven minutes left of newsletter writing time, and I just ran into Kirsten Bauer, an excellent sign painter who also writes a substack called Brushstroke Giddyup. She asked me if I was writing my newsletter and if my time was almost up, and I was like, HOW DID YOU KNOW? And then I was like, duh, people sometimes read this, and I deeply appreciate you doing so.
So it goes!
Shout out to the shoes in that closing video ;)
So it goes! In class I hear myself saying similar things to students (Don't overthink! Make it! Whatever it is will be great! Something is better than nothing!) but when I'm making my own things I struggle just as much. Thanks for the reminder that we're all students.