Spent some time this morning uploading more of my old poetry to Medium. The goal is eventually to monetize (some) of my writing through the Partners program, though I doubt it’s going to be any of those old gems. It’s a little hard to believe that most of my sestinas are over a decade old. Sestina has long been my favorite form to work in, and the one in which I wrote most frequently; I hadn’t realized how long it had been since I’d actually written one.
Anyway, most of them are overwrought and embarrassingly purple, but I, almost in spite of myself, have a soft spot for many of them. I’m actually fighting with myself, unsure whether or not I should post up all of my existing poetry (for the sake of posterity, or transparency, or a sense of completeness, or whatever) or if I should be a much, much harsher curator. Some of these are really horrifyingly overblown, ha ha.
I did, however, stumble upon the lists of words I used to use to write my sestinas (sestinas are defined by a set of six words, that end every line in a rotating configuration; I would use word generators to pre-determine those six words and write around them as a challenge), and think that maybe doing a little work with those old lists might be somewhere in the near future, once I get my writing practice off the ground again.
(Yeah, so, I still have to dig out and “set up” my writing notebook. No, I haven’t done it yet. I’m a walking dumpster fire, I’ve told you).
Today’s plan is to be a fairly quiet day. I spent the last few days mostly on the couch, binging a new video essayist who I, so far, really enjoy (Quinton Reviews, on YouTube) and finally managing to “perfect” the sketch that has been stumping me for the last week.
Apparently all it took to break me out of that funk was to broaden my concept of how my drawing “had” to look. As soon as I broadened the scope of what I was willing to do with my drawing, I found reference photos that I could work with that retained the “feel” and “essence” of what I was going for, and which wound up working out so much better than I could have hoped, honestly. I, in total, used three images as reference for the sketch, and I’m very happy with the results. My hope is, after a late brekfast and some household chores, that the rest of my day will be digitally inking and coloring the sketch, and catching up further on Quinton’s backlog.
In the interim, while I was stuck on the current sketch, I did complete another, totally unrelated one that I was pretty happy with. I’m having a lot of fun playing with light and illumination, and while I know I have quite a ways to go, I remember what my last foray into it (in March of last year) looked like, and boy howdy, have I improved. I’ll embed the most recent drawing at the end of the post.
I hope you all are having a good week, and that you have success in whatever projects you are working on. Remember to take breaks, stay hydrated, and breathe deeply. You got this.
All Your Crooked Heart 