The One About ArtSnacks

Category: dribblings

 

I’ve started keeping a sketchbook/art journal this year. It is not filled with masterpieces, and it’s not even filled with ideas for paintings. It’s mostly filled with doodles/things that entertain me. In fact, most of the things in it aren’t very good at all, but I’d say that 90% of it makes me smile or even giggle.

And guys, this is a struggle for me, okay? Cos for the most part, sketches and such haven’t been about fun, it’s been a means to an end, it’s practice, it’s a way to work out a problem for whatever “real” piece I’m working on. Having some fun and making myself laugh, with art, is… it’s just new.

So this art journal I’ve been toting around, it’s small. It’s a 5″x8″ Moleskine sketch book, and stop rolling your eyes okay? I’m not a huge fan of the Moleskines, but it’s small and self-contained and the little folder in the back is handy for my small ruler and collage bits. I do wish the paper in it was more substantial, but whatever. A 5″x8″ sketch book is wicked hard to use because it is SMALL. I’m not used to small and I feel like we weren’t allowed to work small in art school (remember how big was really important?) so I never really worked on small things other than doodles you draw on the margins of paper while you talk on the phone.

I’ve been playing around with this art journal for 6 months, and it’s been fun trying out new pens and pencils, but I kinda hit a block. I kept thinking that I needed to keep going out of my comfort zone. Try something new. But what? Art shit is expensive. I don’t want to buy new stuff and then hate it and never use it again. So four or five months ago I kept noticing some posts on tumblr.com about ArtSnacks.

ArtSnacks is a monthly subscription service, like a magazine, but instead of getting a magazine every month they send you 4 or 5 different art supplies. And here’s the thing, you never know what you’re getting. It’s a SURPRISE. So I thought, hey, that’s what you need. You need to step out on a limb and let OTHER people, TOTAL STRANGERS, send you art supplies. They don’t know you, they don’t know what kind of art you do, so whatever they send is going to be out of your comfort zone cos you don’t get to pick anything out!

I know what you’re thinking, “HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE NOT KNOWING?”
Honey, I know. It sounds terrible.
If just the thought of someone else picking out your art supplies (how particular are you about pens and pencils, right?) breaks you out in hives, I know the feeling. Signing up for it made me sick. Not because I thought I was going to get ripped off, nay, go back and look at the previous months’ ArtSnacks they’ve sent, and you’ll see that they send out really cool shit. But making art is personal, so the tools you use to make art are also personal. And to have strangers pick out tools for you?
Hives, right?

So while I was sick about it I also knew that signing up for this would be good for me. And, the thing is, it HAS been good for me. Last month I was sent a pencil sharpener, a bottle of purple ink, a black watercolor pencil, and a thin brush. Oh my God. What the hell do you do with purple ink? I don’t know.
After worrying about it for a week I finally just sat down with it (and a beer, y’know, for nerves) and an old watercolor sketchbook, and I just… played around with it.

purpleink1 Well look at that hot mess. I am cringing just looking at it. I’m cringing knowing that now I’ve shared it online, chances are, someone else is going to SEE it. Gah, talk about hives breaking out.

But there it is. I played around with some art stuff. I even tried to make a “real” piece with it later on.

purpleink2

And while it’s no great shakes, I was still pleased with myself for trying something and finishing something. And this is exactly what I was wanting from ArtSnacks.

When I opened this month’s box I saw a tube of paint, a brush, and some brush cleaner and thought to myself, “Ha! I’m a painter! I know what to do with paint! I win THIS round, ArtSnacks!”
But there was something else in the box. Something I’d never seen before.  It was a small collapsible canvas from geniecanvas.com.
Small.
It’s 6″x4″ which is smaller than my sketchbook, my sketchbook that I’ve already mentioned as being painfully small. So it’ll be like painting a postcard.

ArtSnacks, you magnificent bastards, you did it again.

ArtSnacks: 2 fleegan.com: 0

I’ll post my tiny painting as soon as these hives clear up.

 

 

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