Some time last year, I tried bullet journalling (not in the pretty journals sense - more like a messy list /scrawl) but it helped me note down key points and to my surprise I kept it up - looking through it this year, I realised, amongst other things, that, thankfully, I still kept on learning this year and so I thought I'd share some of the seemingly random things I enjoyed so much that I noted it in my journal and that you may be able to dip into yourselves from time to time if you need inspiration.
Apologies in advance for the format of this long blogpost but it captures links I can refer to in future so it's useful for my future self.
Online festivals (some of which contain links you can still watch)
Cosmic shambles Stay at Home festival (I watched a few of these on days off and the note in my journal says 'fish belch' so I'm trying to find out more but I think it was related to the science ones!)
The Festival of Digital Disruption (we bought the tickets to this fab annual festival by Curious Lounge but was unable to attend so will have something to dip into over the next year). Previous ones have been excellent.
Towards the end of the year, I ended up finding out about the Digital Craft Festival (with the judges from the Throwdown popping up there) and spent a fun, cold afternoon making a plastecine reindeer with Jim Parkyn who apparently has been doing daily clay animals for us all to follow along with.
Courtauld big draw - this was so inspiring and the link to the recording contains so many fun , short workshops (15-20 mins max) - including how to make charcoal ink, fantastic figures, making dyes etc. and printing
I had signed up for an artful box that had contained a lino cutting set and this festival introduced me to the work of Ade Adesina who used a dremel for his huge, gorgeous prints, Inspired, I had a go too and the wonderful local artists Emily Gillmor and Mark A Webber helped me out when I struggled with inking.
Karen Abend Sketchbook Revival - Every year, the sketchbook revival comes along and I give it a shot and learn something new. Carla Sonheim's free online drawing blast had some fun 5 min exercises. My favourite was the haiku drawings and I spent some time practicing this (drawing in 7 lines) this year.
She also introduced me to the concept of box journalling.
Melissa Lee taught us about character drawing and that the first cowboys were in fact African American or Hispanic. She also pointed out that line of action was an excellent resource for drawing practice.
Nina Rycroft - short workshop on animal characters helped me out when I struggled to draw animals quickly. This was useful for the Illustration workshop with Linda Newcombe I did later this year.
Reading Fringe Festival - some gems in there.
What's On Reading online events - if you want to check out more local, online stuff
Reading Guild of Artists online exhibitions - explore these to find local artists and their lovely work https://www.rga-artists.org.uk/online-exhibition.html and https://www.rga-artists.org.uk/online-exhibition2.html
And speaking of amazing exhibitions - this curator tour of the Kimono exhibition at V&A is fascinating
Online art workshops and regular classes
Rebecca Vincent - ran a Sunday art Club during the 1st lockdown and a friend introduced me to these.
All the young nudes - online life drawing - I did this class pretty regularly during the first lockdown and support them on Patreon. They, like others, discovered the power of online classes.
Linda Newcombe Illustration Thursdays via Jelly Reading - Another useful resource for this was the RBdigital app via Reading libraries - I was able to look at New Yorker and New Scientist Illustrations to look at awesome examples of editorial illustration before I had a go myself. Other resources from the library include: driving theory, audio books via BorrowBox, books via
SketchbookSkool ran a few workshops this year and I had a go at some of these and learned skills I didn't think I had in me.
Frances Van Stone portraits using pencils
AugustWren and painting from old photos using gouache
Ohn Mar Win and ink and paint workshop
Gigi Chen and Ballpoint birds
Pottery/ceramics
The wonderful Great Pottery Throwdown has introduced a lot of us to aspects of ceramics we may not have known or considered before. I learned about Nerikomi (assumed it was Japanese but originally practiced in Egypt , China and via the Romans) and the work of Dorothy Feibleman
Thanks to the rabbit hole of Youtube, we also discovered amazing work by Barbara Gitting and Walter Keeler . I also came across the work of Angela Mellor who does paper clay amongst others and spent a good part of the pandemic watching potters throwing clay which was oddly relaxing.
Reading-related link: if you want to learn from the lovely Cait Gould (whom you may have seen in a previous series of the Pottery throwdown) then she runs classes, has a shop and also sells a clay kit for home with proceeds going to charity and tips on her site.
Nature and all that malarky
Bird Watching game - we bet how many birds will be in the tray regularly - in the process we learned a couple more bird names!
Tristam Gooley - we've seen talks, read his books and considered going to his walks but lockdown inspired us to sign up for his course (that he finally tried) and watching it cemented some things we had learned through his books and now our walks and the way I look at trees are never going to be the same.
If you like trees and learning about ones local to you (London) then check out Treetalk
Food
- Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - - This series (also a book) made me look at food and cooking in a different way. It was recommended by a good friend.
- A yum, simple recipe for Okonomiyaki shared by a friend was a life saver for a quick and simple lunch
- Fruit crumble - very useful and yummy recipe
- A quick, free knife skills course reminded me of all the tips I had learned and forgotten from a few years ago.
- Zoe Laughlin's - Jacket potato - she's right, you know
- Swadish (avail online and at the wonderful Fidget and Bob are lifesavers for quick, simple food)
- Clay's Hyderabadi Restaurant recipes and better still, FOOD
- Gousto cookbook - some great, quick recipes in there.
- Swedish Chef - popcorn song - cos we all need this.
YouTube - learning from makers
There's obviously so much great stuff on Youtube. Tested.com has aamzing stuff,
- Tested.com review of 3d printer from formlab
- Maslow - CNC cutting machine
- Simone Giertz has fun stuff including the link to a photo booth for her dog to take selfies .
- FliteTest has fun stuff including this flying 20lb pumpkin
- And Vsauce can really bend your mind -here's the one he did on is the Earth actually flat? (spoiler: no, really it isn't but this is a very enjoyable ride)
We also enjoyed woodworking and resin videos but haven't noted links. Woodworking is specially hypnotic once you have had a go (and we did thanks to Reading HackSpace at the end of last year)
Racing and betting
MarbleRacing, DIECAST RALLY are races you can bet on (well, not bet money - just play for fun)
Commute/Travels from the sofa
- St Moritz - for cab rides (driver views from trains)
- MelbourneSparks for miniature train cab views so you can pretend to be a Borrower
- Japan's last working forest railway
BOTOBER
Janelle Shane challenged us to Botober this year with challenges including concepts - these were generated and were the first time I really enjoyed a daily challenge for the WHOLE month.
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| Toilets in various stations |
Inspiring stuff to watch, listen and enjoy
- Connected (netflix)- such an amazing series that will make you look at dust, numbers, poop, veeries etc. in a different way and find that everything is connected!
- Brenee Brown - A call to courage (netflix)
- Gone fishing (bbc iplayer) - never thought I would find a series on fishing interesting and moving
- Everything is alive (podcast) - wonderful storytelling
- Undone and tales from the loop (Amazon Prime )
- The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain (youtube) - The Model by Kraftwerk performed by George Hinchliffe's Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain while in self isolation. Episode 1 of their lockdown.
- Peter and the Wolf - a gorgeous animation
- Grief in a box analogy (tweet) and GriefCast (podcast)
Sketching
Just wrote a post on all the art that Urban Sketchers Reading group have been doing this year - check it out to find out about local urban sketchers.
Finally - favourite sketches I did this year - thankfully I did this thread so I didn't have to write it at the end of the year.
