Today I am going to talk about where I do most of my arts and crafts...not that I expect anyone to care. But sometimes taking a look at all the materials and things I own makes me feel so glad to have them, and springboards so many ideas for things I could be doing with them!
So, this is my workspace:
It's pretty small, as my apartment is pretty small. My boyfriend and I have the couch right in the middle of the living room area, so as to divide the room into two rooms. In front of the couch is the TV, coffee table, and shelf full of dvds and magazines. That's our "livingroom." Behind the couch, on either side of one of our big deep windows, we have our desks. That's our "office." Maybe it's dorky to pretend like we have office space, but those desks needed to go somewhere!
His space is on the left side of the window you see in the picture. His desk is covered with his computer and untold wires and gadgets (I don't know what half of them are for!) and that's where he does his writing, video editing and a lot of his musical work. (Not to mention internetting!) It's nice when we are right next to each other at our respective desks, both working on something important to us.
But this post is about MY side SO: for the one person out there (me) who cares, the right side of the window is my art space.
1) The window doesn't face the path of the sun, so it really doesn't bring in much natural light. But, if I am working during the day the view of my pretty little street is just lovely. I can't wait till the tree outside puts out its leaves!
2) My lamp, for when I am working at night. (Which is almost always, since I work nights at my job and because I like to sleep during the day.) It used to be my bedside lamp, but I found a new lamp in the street and it graduated to my art desk lamp. It's really more suited to the bedside table, it's so elegant and pretty (and the bird silhouettes I added yesterday really make it cozy) but unfortunately the new lamp is just too big to go in the windowsill! Oh well. Someday I will have the money for a proper artist's lamp with fluorescent and incandescent bulbs and a swivel head, and I can use the pretty lamp elsewhere.
3) My bag of pretty miscellaneous fabrics, papers and stickers that I might end up using for something. I save all my old calendars for their glossy paper and pretty pictures, old wrapping paper, gift bags, scrapbooking papers...anything pretty that I might find a use for. As for fabrics, only "real" fabrics that I have bought or have had given to me go in here. My scrap fabric from old t-shirts and things like that is in a bag in my linen closet.
4) My pretty mirror, right above my workspace. It was given to me by my boyfriend's aunt and actually has a matching twin on the other side of my bookcase. But I love that it's right above my desk because first and foremost when it comes to artsy things, I am a cartoonist, and it is nice to have a mirror right there if I need to research facial expressions.
5 - 9) Things I have made in the past that I am either very proud of or that inspire me to create. They pretty up my whole space and remind me of things I have accomplished in the past. In more detail they are:
5 - a string of paper stars made from magazine paper
6 - two watercolour sketches I made of "Christmas in Vancouver" which remind me why I am living here and what I want to do with my life
7 - a sequined Star Trek combadge my friend Hannah made me, to remind me of her, that I am loved, and also that I should be as nerdy as possible
8 - a pony-bead gecko I made with my friend Krystal, to remind me of her, of childhood, and also that making things with my hands is the most gratifying thing I know
9 - two more paintings I have done in the past
10) My book shelf. This holds almost all the books the two of us own, and it's nice to have them right there should I need to look something up. (I don't allow myself to use the internet when I'm doing art unless I absolutely have to, because I get sucked into the facebook trap too easily.)
11) My desk!!! I found this on the street last October, just sitting there covered with grass clippings and rain waiting to be adopted! It's made of particle board and weighs about two pounds. I seriously would have been able to carry it the four blocks home myself, but Morgan was with me and was nice enough to help. Someday I would love to have an adjustable cartoonist's drafting table, but for now this is just fine. I like that it has ugly black paint because I'm not afraid to get it dirty.
12) The aforementioned Krystal gave me this pretty box that used to contain all her incense; now I keep my cartooning markers, favourite pencil and scraps of paper with ideas and character designs on them in it. And it smells so good!
13) My craft bin. Any craft supplies I have go in here, seperate from the "art" supplies because I am a snob. But it's also probably the most opened box that I have.
14) This drawer hold all my cartooning supplies not held in the incense box: my rulers, pencils, pens, erasers, markers, pencil sharpener, india ink, best brushes and notebooks full of ideas
15) This drawer holds all my miscellaneous art supplies: paints, paintbrushes, oil pastels, and small canvases.
16) This drawer holds printer paper, lined paper, a big box of pencil crayons (too big to fit in the cartooning drawer) wax crayons (too bulky for the craft bin) extra notebooks and sketchbooks, construction and other coloured papers.
17) I stuff things that have no other place or that I am in the middle of working on under my desk, because I am a bad housekeeper.
18) My chair. It came with our apartment, and when we move I will have to leave it behind. Again, I would love to have a fancy, rolling computer chair with back support and all that, but I have no complaints about this one.
And that's it! That's where the magic happens if I don't decide I would rather do art on the couch or in bed or in the bathroom. I'm sorry if I bored the few of you who read this to tears, but it was really good for me to go through all this stuff like this: it made me totally inspired for tomorrow night when I'll come home from work and create something more exciting to share!
Have a great day, and thanks for reading!
~Love, Emily.
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