Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 31

What I’m busy with this week

1.

The Round 1 Cybils Award panels have made their selections, and finalists will be announced on Jan. 1st. My YA Fiction team read a total of 140 books (more if you count one or two titles we wound up shifting to YA Speculative Fiction). I finished with a personal tally of 63 novels read. Sixty-three! My eyes is tired.

Markmaking

In a comment on yesterday’s “inside my pen case” post, Hanni wrote:

I have loved watching your journey of learning to sketch and draw. I want to start myself but I’m nervous. Have you always been a person who doodled etc? Or did it start when you made it a goal to sketch everyday? Seeing if there is hope for a person like me who has never done it naturally but has always been inspired by others.

I answered with a long reply, which I’ve decided to pull into its own post here. Tl:dr version: If I can do it, anyone can. 

Hanni, start, start!!! I wasn’t a doodler before…I used to try to draw as a kid and was always so frustrated by my inability to make anything look the way I wanted it to. In college I took a costume design course that included a brief unit on Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. That book blew me away. And in doing those exercises in class, I was astonished at how much better I got, and how rapidly. But then I dropped it again…for over 20 years.

I started this daily practice with Lisa Congdon’s line drawing class at Creativebug in fall 2014. From there I jumped to Sketchbook Skool and was really inspired and energized by those classes. Or—I guess actually I started with a Creativebug class on art journaling with Dawn DeVries Sokol* before the Congdon line drawing class, and I liked that one but found that what I really wanted was to learn to draw (vs art journaling which I always admire when I see other people’s but don’t seem drawn to in my own practice).

Since then, Creativebug has added SO MANY great drawing classes (all for your $5/mo subscription). I especially like the ones that are Daily Drawing Challenges because they walk you through how to draw specific things. (I’m currently obsessed with spatulas. Don’t ask me why. Just something really satisfying about that shape, LOL.)

*Dawn Sokol has a new Holiday Art Journaling class at Creativebug that Rilla and I will be checking out on our next art date, because art journals are absolutely my daughter’s cup of tea. (Affiliate link.)

For dipping your toes in without spending money, I would recommend trying out some of Koosje Koene’s free “Draw Tip Tuesday” videos on Youtube. So good and totally doable. Search YT for them and then maybe scroll back to some earlier ones and work forward. You’ll see that a lot of the stuff in my sketchbook comes from Koosje’s lessons.

Other good online instructors are:

Jane LaFazio, Liz Steel, and Roz Stendahl. I encountered them all via Sketchbook Skool first. Then Jane came to San Diego for a one-day workshop version of the nature journaling/watercoloring class she offers online, so I signed up for that. And oh my! So awesome. Here’s a post with some photos of the work I did in that class.

Liz and Roz are both gifted instructors. Their online classes are video-based and include extremely detailed PDF handouts to download.

Backing up to your question: Honestly, I don’t have natural drawing talent. I think in words, not pictures, and I can’t just sit down and draw something out of my head and have the angles and shapes look right. I’m frustrated a LOT of the time by my shortcomings. But natural drawing talent isn’t required to be able to *learn* to draw. If you can sign your name, you can already make all the basic shapes that every single drawing is composed of. That was one of the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain revelations that floored me, way back when. Anyone can learn.

Danny Gregory (the other co-founder of Sketchbook Skool along with Koosje) makes a distinction between small-a art (which we can all make) and capital-A Art (you know, museum stuff).

Everyday Carry: Pen Case Deconstructed

I put this on Instagram and decided to carry it over here in case anyone needs stocking stuffer ideas.

Quick learning notes on Monday

My old books. Beanie’s old comforter. The college girl’s bed.

Lots of Schoolhouse Rock videos this morning. Rose made pumpkin bread.

We’re nearing the end of Understood Betsy. One of my favorite read-alouds of all time, ever. I think “what would Cousin Ann do?” (which Betsy off asks herself) is a pretty good guiding principle.

[image error]Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children’s History of Art — we continue to enjoy this so very much! Skipping around a bit now, rabbit-trail style. Today we read the Hokusai chapter—one of my favorites. Which naturally led to watching videos on the making of Japanese woodblock prints. Man, I love homeschoogling.

Speaking of Vincent’s Starry Night—I’m going to be hosting a giveaway for a copy soon! Stay tuned for details.

 

Enter Title Here

Y’all, I miss posting here SO MUCH! It’s not that I don’t have anything to say. It’s that I’m crunched for time. I keep starting posts that I can’t finish. My drafts folder is comical.

That’s right, FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE posts in drafts. That’s just silly. I start posts and never get back to finish them. This is when blog becomes more like scratchpad.

That “family album” was a solid idea: I had a plan to collect all my Instagram pics and funny kid comments into one big roundup post each month. Guess I didn’t finish the September roundup and never got back to it.

A lot of drafts languish for want of links and images (like the skincare/sunscreen one in that list, which I do hope to finish soon and will probably publish on Glittersquid). Other, like the Weird School post, are waiting for a reasonable chunk of time so I can put some brain into the writing. (Huck loves those books, is the summary. Subplot: when I asked him what was weird about the school, he said, “Actually, I’m not sure, since I’ve never been to school.” At the time, he had the book open to a page featuring a flying teacher in a superhero cape.)

I know I have a repeated theme here where I talk about how I’m getting hampered by the process of polishing up my posts, adding nice images, etc etc etc. I’ll vow to blog freehand but then when I sit down to write, I’ll think: this would be so much more useful for people if I added links…and that, friends, is how you wind up with a drafts pile nearly 500 posts deep. I mean, I’m even doing it here! Took the extra two minutes to look up and link to that old post—which contains a resolution to “blog lightly, without the sense of pressure and polish that rules the rest of my writing life.” I wrote that in 2014. Some lessons come dropping slow.

Well, I know better than to make resolutions. But I do mean to try to finish up some of those drafts. And the advice I gave myself in 2014—blog first, blog fresh, blog lightly—is really quite sound. One of these days I should start listening to me.

Heads Up: CreativeBug Special

You’ve heard me rave about Creativebug plenty of times in the past. Regular price is $4.95/month for access to dozens hundreds of art and craft classes. Rilla and I have taken many, many of these classes during our Saturday Night Art Dates. Highly recommended! (Especially the Lisa Congdon and Jennifer Orkin Lewis classes.)

They’re running a special right now: three months of access for $1. Can’t beat that deal!

3 Months of Creativity for Just $1

(Affiliate links)

poetry friday: “America, why are your libraries full of tears?”

America this is quite serious.

America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.

America is this correct?

I’d better get right down to the job.

It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.

America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

—from “America” by Allen Ginsberg

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

—from “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen

Why Poetry Is Viral in the Aftermath

And poetry keeps the intensity and the passion of a point of view, but in a forum where people aren’t hurting each other. It says, “Here’s what it’s like from my point of view.” All you have to do is listen to the poet.

And, in that, you don’t have to be anything other than what you are. The poem is a catalyst where you’re bringing two different kinds of people together. And at its best, when it works, there’s a kind of spark, and everyone comes away illuminated by what the spark has ignited.

Poems to visit today:

“Differences of Opinion” by Wendy Cope

“Tenacious” by Tanita Davis.

And here’s one from me.

Fall

by Melissa Wiley

I have quit romanticizing

small towns. Don’t tell me

somewhere Miss Daisy and the Colonel

sip sweet tea from green glasses.

Don’t say Dog Monday pats its patient

tail on the swept platform.

You know Doc Gibbs is no longer

in network. Behind trim doors fixed eyes

watch what all of us are watching.

Some of the mothers smoke still.

Their strong son the quarterback

snaps his frame: splayed limbs,

fanned hair, the blue dolphin vaulting

off the tanned swell. His swell friends

retweet. Here the wagons are circling.

There is plenty of posterboard.

Six fine pumpkins up the porch steps,

and artful corn husks: pin this. Touchdown

at Grover Cleveland High. Hear the roar

shivering the bruised leaves of the Bradford pears

on Elm Street above the patter of talk

radio. The limp girl among the red cups

under the butternut tree cannot

hear what they are saying in the cities.

This week’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Big Brave Writer News!

I’ve been a fan of Julie Bogart’s Brave Writer writing program and classes since the first launch of The Writer’s Jungle. In fact, that fabulous resource was one of the very first things I reviewed on this blog, way back in February 2005. I’ve used Writer’s Jungle and other Brave Writer materials such as The Arrow with my own kids, and I’ve pointed many friends toward the excellent online classes offered each term.

And now I’ll be joining the roster of Brave Writer teachers myself! After that incredible experience at the BW Retreat in July, Julie talked me into joining her team as an instructor. I’ll be taking on some of my favorite topics: comics and historical fiction. The new course line-up was announced this morning, abundant as always with enticing classes I know my own kids would enjoy.

What I’ll be teaching:

Comic Strip Capers — March 6-29, ages 9 and up

Penning the Past — May 8-June 2, ages 11-14

Please click the links to read more about my classes! Registration begins December 5.

I’ll plan to hop on Periscope on Wednesday afternoon (2:30 Pacific time) for some Q&A.

Planning ahead

Scott: I got you a present.


(demonstrates opening a soda can with magical doohickey)


 


Me: That’s genius. You’re a genius.


 


Scott: See, that’s what you’ll think every time you use it. ‘He was a damn genius.’


 


Me: …why am I thinking of you in past tense?


 


Scott: Because I’ll be dead.


 


Me: WHY WILL YOU BE DEAD?


 


Scott: Because you won’t need to use it until after I’m gone. Until then you’ve got me to open your sodas.


 


Me: Are all geniuses this morbid?

Seal of Inevitable Fate

I came home from the drugstore to find Huck in tears. His friends across the street have been away for a week, and just got late last night. He’d been eager to get through lunch so he could go play with them. Lunch, under the supervision of his big sisters, was what was happening while I ran to the store. Upon my return, he was waiting at the door, the picture of tragedy.

He poured out his tale of woe: something had gone wrong at lunch, and Rose had decreed that he wouldn’t be allowed to play with the friends today. This sounded…unlikely, so I sought out Rose for clarification.

She burst out laughing. “The boys were squabbling at the table,” she informed me. “So I told them if they couldn’t get along, they wouldn’t be able to play.”

Because, you know, if you’re a seven-year-old boy of tumultuous emotions, “if you can’t get along with your brother” is an injunction tantamount to “never.”