Thoughts on finishing my masters (whoo!), recovering creative energies, and being obsessed with a hobby that isn't drawing but is like drawing anyway.
It didn't feel like long ago when I first announced that I was returning to academia - now here I am about to parachute out of the ivory tower.
In other words, I am done with my Masters degree.
... Or almost. I still have to graduate and get that slip of fancy paper. Apparently the graduation ceremony is going to be held inside a giant sports stadiums, jam-packed with thousands of students across all schools in the university plus their guests. I am not looking forward to it. It's not glamorous. It's not classy. It's not it.
When I graduated from my Bachelors in 2017, that was a more intimate event. A single school would have their own ceremony to themselves inside the Exhibition Building. Downstairs was the seating and the stage. Upstairs was the drinks, the photo opps and the snacks. That was how UniMelb did it. Classy. Chill. But the UniMelb Bachelors didn't get a motorboard. My mum complained about that; it didn't feel like a proper graduation ceremony without the full regalia of gown and hat. Well, I am going to finally have my silly hat now. Unfortunately, I will need to suffer through an arena-like rock concert, a probably-prolonged name-calling-to-stage ceremony, and a bunch of other ego-stroking-university nonsense .
I will probably wear the same dress and shoes I did in 2017. Just for laughs.
I totally overestimated my capacity to juggle my Masters, my day job and my arts career. I forgot that during my peak juggling days back then I didn't have a job to clock into. There was a clear demarcation between study and drawing. Nowadays everything is just work work work.
Unfortunately this meant I had to put my arts practice to the side, since studying and working left me with little to no brainspace to give my comics the attention they deserve (I'd rather have my ideas naturally form and stew rather than by force or by pressure). I haven't really drawn many lush compositions for two years now, nor have I gone sicko mode on my writing (though I did come up with a few good pitches for the coming years), and I am excited to get back in to doing what I do best.
Unfortunately...
I have brought this up on the blog before, but I am in my fallow period. I still don't think I am turned off from drawing/writing - the motivation is there, the ideas are forming, and I can see myself working towards a pretty nice future. It's just that right now I would rather rest and zone out than get back into the publishing hustle. I am not sure if it's because I have forgotten how to make art, or because I am seriously so fatigued that I literally don't have much to expend, especially for an intensive endeavour as Making a Good Book. I can believe the latter, but the former is questionable since I am definitely still drawing. Doodling or sketching, more like. Drawing a lot of unserious characters floating in space. I don't post them publicly, though I haven't posted in general anyway due to a combination of being busy with school/dayjob AND wariness towards AI and crypto scraping.
Here's a half-finished Ilias floating in space. I am obsessed with the idea of him being a luthier as both a job and a hobby.
More floating Iliases.
Oh hey it's Zeynel and Ayse!! Haha, this and the second Ilias sketchdump came from playing around with the concept of domestic grooming - how would my characters get ready for the day.
I probably need to figure out a place to archive them. I doodled a lot of figures and faces these past two years.
I haven't drawn much at all. I have written less. You know what I am churning out lately? Punch needle projects.
I originally picked this up as a hobby in 2020, then I went back to Malaysia during the pandemic, leaving my tools behind, and only came back to it consistently sometime in 2023.
Since then I have made several coasters, a keychain, a pouch and a pillow. I am currently working on a fish purse, which I hope will give me enough confidence to tackle a plushie. Then a rug. And hopefully, my ultimate goal: a jacket.
I just find the act of punching holes into cloth so meditative. I also enjoy the experimental aspect of it: this craft is still new to me so I am constantly finding new techniques to try. Plus it's so similar to drawing/designing that I could already produce sophisticated-looking work, which is very satisfying. These are 3D soft drawings that I could actually hold and make useful for myself and my friends, without having to go through the slog of turning a drawing into a schematic to be produced in bulk by a manufacturer for the effort to be worth the cost.
Anyway I'm considering investing in more advanced tools, especially if I want to move on to bigger projects like the rug and the jacket. There's some visa stuff that is preventing me from making the purchase right now, but soon... soon...
Punch needle is still a hobby and I am going to keep it that way. I miss having a creative outlet that isn't tied to a public-facing career. I wonder if I could reestablish that same sense of whimsy and devil-may-care into drawing, because it would be nice to get back into drawing gift art for my friends like how I used to when I was teen. I have forgotten what it is like to play with drawing and with writing. Maybe remembering will help me get out of this fallow period... fingers crossed.
Not a hefty post this time. I'll come back with my hot takes and thoughts on craft soon, now that I have time. The drafts are staring at me in the face... yikes!
Congrats on finishing your masters, Reimena! Love your punch needle pieces. I've similarly been kitting for close to a decade as my non-art but also kinda art hobby. It feels good to create colour work or textured pattern socks, which I then either keep for myself (winter gets cold here) or gift to friends and family.