What I learned from writing here on Substack
🎁 I opened some paid posts to everyone 🎁
Morning! Today is my first official day back at my desk after I got the stove roaring so hot back in December that I fell into a Christmas stupor - involving telly/ jigsaws/ my Mum’s pineapple cheesecake/ a bit of family grumpiness/ and a lot of fun playing Herd Mentality (have you played it? I love it cos you don’t need to have the sort of brain that remembers facts and figures, you can play it with little kids who don’t know many facts yet and oldies who are forgetting them. 😂).
Anyhooos…
In a minute, down there 👇, I have opened up some paid posts to everyone for free. We’ll get there. But first let me tell you something that has been a revelation to me in 2023.
My friend once told me that when she asked her toddler what she was doing, she replied ‘Ranging and taching’. She was arranging things she found kicking about the kitchen: spoons, pencils, pasta, carrier bags, etc. and attaching them to the garden gate using string and tape.
I loved that description. Ranging and taching. It tickled me, it lit up some excited fairy lights in my brain.
Ranging brings to mind exploring. When you get lost in creative play, that’s exactly what’s happening:
You are exploring by arranging and attaching ideas until you make something brand new.
What has taken me by surprise is that ranging and taching words here on Substack has helped me know myself better.
I have been writing about my work here, intending to share my process with fellow illustrators, but here’s the surprising thing: in doing so, I have been learning stuff about myself. Who knew?
Unpacking my processes and decisions has been a revelation to me. I am completely unaware of these things while I’m lost in the flow of making the work, it is only afterwards, when I write about it here, that I discover this stuff.
Here are some pieces I wrote in 2023 that helped me untangle my spaghetti brain, hopefully they will do the same for you:
Strange Brain Treatures and Source Materials
Capturing Light and Dark (I have made this available to everyone for free! Ya welcome! 🎁🎁🎁)
I made you a Procreate e-book (I have made this available to everyone for free too! 🎁🎁🎁)
Writing here has been a complete game changer. I have better clarity about what sort of work I want to make in 2024 and what makes those brain-fairy-lights flash on that blinky chase setting.
Has writing about your work helped you understand your work better too?
On Wednesday, 10th January, at 12 pm (uk time), we at The Good Ship Illustration are hosting a free Planning Party. It’s open to everyone. Be sure to sign up for the Good Ship newsletter to get the Zoom link. Pals who plan together succeed together!
Love Helenx
Yes I have! And what a blessing it is. It helps put things in order and sense. Or at least a certain sense that explains a little of how I make sense of the world.
I’ve been teaching Capoeira for 20 years and in that time has gifted me the greatest lessons about my own ability. It’s one thing to be able to do something, but another to be able to put into words and explain something. The level of comprehension increases, for myself and those I’m sharing with.
Being vulnerable and sharing the loses as well as the wins has been an incredible teacher.
Each time I sit at the keyboard/journal I am as excited as I am to my sketchbook.
Thank you for sharing your precious words.
I’m really enjoying this journey with you.
I have noticed the same with me too! It was definitely not the intention when I started writing here in substack, just under a year ago. But all the thinking and writing about my art and process has brought so much clarity. It has now become one of the main reasons why I continue to diligently write here.