Crafted By Colette

When I decide I want to try something new, I have a process.  Sort of.  I will research.  A lot.  I will watch seven million YouTube videos, and collect seven million images from Pinterest to copy, and find seven million webpages to read.  And I will list all of these things on a special page in my notebook for that project.

After that I will sometimes do one or two of those things, and then I will graduate to doing my own thing.  But then I find myself needing to complete the list.  My brain tells me that there’s a project that is unfinished, that I need to watch the rest of the videos and work through the rest of the tutorials.  And it ends up on my list of things to finish that takes months and months and months for me to get around to.

In my notebook at the moment I have incomplete pages for:

– learning to use Copic markers (which I have now been doing for more than a year)

– for using my Dremel tool (which I have had for about 9 months)

– for colouring/drawing digitally (which I am getting better at without having visited any of the links)

– for calligraphy/lettering (which I don’t really do all that often anyway)

– for using my 3D printing pen (which I tend to do spontaneously anyway)

– for using my mini die cutting machine (ditto)

– watercolours (which I do a lot)

– for Brusho paint crystals (which I have bought but not done anything with)

– for acrylic pouring (which I bought all the bits for, but haven’t touched yet)

– for paracord (which I haven’t done in months)

– and for resin (which I have been fumbling through without referring to the list).

These lists sit in my notebook, glaring accusingly at me when I flip through the book.  I fully intend to work through them.  But I just never got around to it.

This year I took the watercolour list and culled it.  A lot.  I crossed off a whole bunch of things that had appealed to me initially but that don’t pique my interest anymore.  And I’ve worked through a big bunch of what was left.

Going forward though, I hope to take an entirely different approach to learning.  The November Scrawlr box contained gouache paints, which were something I had wanted to use at some point anyway.  Not wanting to fill another notebook page (or three) with things to do, I decided to watch one or two YouTube videos only.  I settled on finding 2 or 3 beginners courses or articles, and collecting 2 or 3 reference images to mimic.

So far, I have stuck to that.  I still scroll through YouTube and Pinterest for inspiration, but I don’t add them to any list.

Whether or not this new approach will last is a complete unknown.  I start things with good intentions but… well, I’m sure you know me pretty well by now.