Early Morning Mark-making

When you’ve been up since 4am and can’t focus, simple repetitive movements in left over paint are just what the doctor ordered.

I usually sketch a bit when I first settle into the studio - it helps warm up my fingers and arms (ESPECIALLY when it’s 58 and the space heater hasn’t quite caught up yet…) but every so often the entire day ends up being spent in those pages.

Days like today, where I found myself wide awake at 4 am - and now there’s not enough caffeine in the world to get me out of this haze.

So, marks in leftover paint it is.

I’ll use work in a few different methods; occasionally I just close my eyes and let the muscles of my arm pull the brush along the page, or I’ll pick an object and use it for some blind contours, other times I’ll just focus on the brush pressure and placement of the bristles, which can make for calligraphic-esque marks.

Either way, the point is to disconnect from anything analytical and just let the brush make it’s marks.

This is also where having multiple sketchbooks or sheets of sketch paper come in really handy. As one set dries, I can move onto another.

When I’ve decided I’ve finished with these it can be helpful for my process to lay these out and look at them for a while. I’ll note moments that call for more attention, lines that jump out at me as something to work with more (or to ignore), transparencies that I want to explore… etc. Scribbling these down somewhere, or sketching out what is interesting can set me up for a much more productive session the next time in the studio.