Going back to basics

Buying paper and sketchbooks as an artist is more complicated. After using last of birthday money at my local art store that I need to return the 9 ×12.

Saw a 7 × 10 stack next to that and realized I should've bought two of those instead of purchasing a new 9 × 12. Want to down-scale.
Have been creating a lot of art on this paper but I remember for many years creating on standard 8.5 × 12. So using a 7 × 10 isn't a stretch.

This particular sketchbook paper isn't just any paper. This is Canson, a paper company established in 1557! I've been using their paper for years (Not as long as they've been in existence. Haha) and this sketchbook is for mixed media, 98 lbs, and acid-free.
It brings out vibrant color on designer markers and especially watercolor, which I am now using with my beloved color pencils.

I remember creating a lot of my early works on regular 8.5 x 12 and so I'm returning to those days.

The new skills will bring new creativity and it also has technical practicality. It's easier to scan on my 3-in-1 copier machine or on my mom's copier via wi-fi.

This will make life easier to take pictures and upload to my social media and scan/upload to my online art portfolio account.

Another character...

Ok, so here's the BIG secret, although, if you're following me on social media, you may have already guessed it: I GOT INTO GRAD SCHOOL! Why is this important? Well, it's in Creative Writing, and since I get to submit drafts, read tons of stories, and rewrite projects I'm currently working on, this degree program is right up my alley!

Now, on with the show...

My male protagonist's father.
Like all else with this story, I am trying to multi-fold each character with a history, and not just for background sake, but with the intent that we are all woven into a fabric, and that each life is part of a tapestry.

"Antonio Di Castellan" by Carmen K. Welsh (c)

Take, for instance, Antonio's story - a native Italian, born ethnically a Gypsy, who later takes his inheritance to travel to the New World. His story is like millions, and this immigrant experience continues, wonderfully, to this day.

The history books gloss over things once a person steps off the boat, the ship, or the plane. Yet, luckily for writers, the story does not end there.

Here, I had creased the paper, to find it quickly in the sketchbook, and looking at the sketch, I now realize it almost resembles an Ellis Island photograph, so I'll keep the crease there.
This is a sketch that I will hopefully revise soon. I also studied Ellis Island pictures so that I could get the sense of what a man, recently from Italy, in the 1890s - 1900s, would wear.

I also added the earring because many Romany men do wear jewelry proudly.

Why I use social media now

One of the first questions I am asked as to why I have a website, my first answer is "Who doesn't?"
But, this is not true. I have a more personal reason for having a site, heck, for having two blogs!

had
For a period of years, I expected my art to draw crowds..I just assumed this was a part of being an artist, that having an audience was part of the territory.
However, this circumstance became an odd side effect: people began to look over my shoulder, wanting to flip through my sketchbooks. At first, I felt proud, and especially the more positive statements. I could even handle some of the criticism - ACTUAL constructive criticism, not the snarky, envied-laden speech.

Then things changed.

I began getting fearful. I don't know when these feelings started. I began to explore different themes in my drawing. I wanted to stretch my abilities. But I no longer felt comfortable with sharing with artists and later, non-artists.

I realized this when a friend and I attended a comic convention. I knew more of the personalities than she. We met Ben Dunn of "Ninja High School" fame and his adorable wife.
Both artist and spouse were amiable, and Mrs. Dunn was a schoolteacher, a job and industry I had lived with and participated in much of my young adult life.

Finally, Mrs. Dunn flipped through my sketchbook, and I suddenly felt a panic attack. I quickly, but respectfully, took back my sketchbook.

Now, before you blast me, I didn't think anything as immature as my ideas being taken. In my art, I was exploring, I wanted to test my own waters, and psychologically, was facing my shadows.
My sketchbook had no longer become just a bragging rights to other artists, but cathartic, and therefore, not under any simple term of 'private', but as if I had let someone into my deepest thoughts.
If I was going to continue to attend conventions and other places to showcase my art, I needed a safe place, a safe 'venue' to allow others to access my art but in a way, comfortable for me. I began to look for a webhost. The rest was history.

"I'm marryin' him, Mama!"

"I'm marryin' him, Mama!" by Carmen K. Welsh (c)

In this scene, which I later refined thanks to a Sears & Roebuck's catalogue, my protagonist, Stacey Hankin, is really getting it from the confrontational, no-nonsense, Mrs. Beatrice Hankin. Stacey's just given the news she's engaged. Her mother does not like one bit the man the daughter is intent on marrying.

In another sketchbook, I've refined this scene: changes to both mother and daughter to reflect the 1930's look. I'm also studying the hairstyles among Black American women of this time.
I will post the refined sketch to this soon.