Nothing useful (& Copic Marker doodles)

Dear friends,

First of all, I just want to thank all of you who took the time to post a comment and tell me a bit more about yourselves on the last article ! This made me so happy ♥

Social medias can be quite "self-centered" sometimes, and this is not a side of it I love. So being able to share a bit more here is wonderful. It is like having a conversation rather than just posting my own things ! So, thank you, with all my heart 😊

As I am starting to write, little Marcel just came onto the desk and sat between my arms, in front of the computer. It is not that convenient to write properly, but it is so cute I cannot tell him to leave ! I will write slowly today, and this is okay.

By the way, slowness is something I have been thinking about a lot these days. As you might have read somewhere on my Instagram, I have been working on a big project for most of summer, and until late October. It was a very beautiful project and I am happy and grateful I got to work on this (by the way, I cannot wait to share it with you to know what you think ♥), but it was very difficult because it did require lots of energy and creativity in a short amount of time. So I felt really tired when I finished working on it. I took a week off, and then a second one (because I did not have urgent work and felt like it could do some good). And then, when I came back to my desk, I did have to start working on some new things, answering emails, and everything. But, little by little, I realised that I could do the same things, only taking my time and not rushing for everything. Holidays were over, but I could stay calm anyway.

It is something very common nowadays to be as busy as one can possibly be - I feel like this is a sign of success or something similar in our societies. But taking our time, enjoying the little things around us are just as important as the rest. Taking care of ourselves is the first step before we can take care of anything or anyone else properly.

And I realised that I tend to forget this a lot when it comes to drawing. I "run" from a commission to another, feel pressure (that I only put myself on my own shoulders !) to post perfect finished illustrations on Instagram, and barely take the time to draw randomly in my sketchbooks, for the own sake of drawing, and not necessarily to come up with something polished and beautiful. Just to have fun and to enjoy the process.

So, as I was trying hard to come up with a nice sweet topic for this next blogpost, I suddenly thought that, maybe I should just put those thoughts into action and go for something a bit more relaxed than what I had planned in my head, and just take the time to sit, listen to some nice music and write to you. Marcel was here to remind me of this (he always is). I also thought I can post some pictures of my random doodles from my sketchbook I made yesterday with some copic markers. It was wonderful to draw for no reason. 

So here we are, a small article, just to tell you that it is okay to take your time, to not work all day long, to take breaks, to stop in the street to look at a small insect or a tiny leaf, to sit in your couch and just think and look around you, take the time to look at the corners of the walls and the ceiling. To buy a piece of cake and eat it slowly, looking at the people around, or through the window. To take a sketchbook and draw randomly the things that come to your mind and make you happy -even if they are very basic, even if they are not so "interesting" to post on any social media. To read some pages of that book we have put away for a while now because we did not have time, or because we had more "important" or more "serious" books to read before (I always feel guilty to read "dumb", light books, because I want to be a grown-up and read "real literature". I am so silly sometimes, I cannot believe it). To slow down and breathe.

What if today, we all tried to take a moment - even a few seconds is already great, to do nothing "useful", but something that puts a smile on our face ? I know sometimes, just looking at the sky, seeing all the planes going to places I probably don't know, and thinking about all the people who are inside altogether, makes me feel calm. It makes me feel like I am a small part of a huge world, and everything is okay.

And to finish this article, I thought it might be nice if I shared some of my favourite Copic/Promarker markers shades with you ? :-)
I am not always very consistent with markers, because I do not use them for finished artworks, but for sketches and doodles. So I like to change the colour palette sometimes and try new shades to experiment ! But there are some shades I really love and tend to use very regularly, and here they are :

O346 - Spice - Promarker

Y616 - Khaki - Promarker

YG91 - Putty - Copic Ciao

E40 - Brick white - Copic Ciao 

R00 - Pinkish white - Copic Ciao

G619 - Tea green - Promarker

O148 - Peach - Promarker

O819 - Almond - Promarker

Y919 - Primrose - Promarker

It is a bit difficult to catch the exact colours with a camera (especially now, because the days are so grey and dull, it does not make the shades justice !). But I used all of these colours in the sketches you can see in this article - those are scanned, so the colours are much more acurate, to give you an idea :-) 

You can also have a look at these sketches being made in this little video : I talk about getting back to drawing after a long time neglecting personnal work, and being kinder to ourselves. (I am actually so nervous, because it is the first time I recorded myself talking in a video ! Please forgive the awkward accent and pronunciation there !)

 

I hope this article helped you feel better about doodling randomly and letting off some the pressure we put on ourselves, or just made you discover new shades of markers you might like !  
Thank you so much for making it until here (this article was quite long, I can be so talkative sometimes), I truly appreciate your presence ♥
Please let me know if you have any favourite marker shades in the comments (I'm always searching for new colour inspirations !), or any tips and tricks you might have to help you create more freely. I would love if this little space could become a place of exchange between all of us, where each could give advice or learn something new ! That would be wonderful :-)

Take care of yourselves dear friends,
And remember to take some time to do something that puts a smile on your face,
Love ♥,
Cécile