~scale

So is 2022 over? For real? Is it 100% confirmed? Because if it isn't, excuse me if I go back under a rock until it is over...

Seriously though, 2022 has ben by far the most "complicated" year of my life. I can barely remember what I was doing in any given part of it since I've been running in emergency mode pretty much all the time. Among other things: my wife struggled all year with a very debilitating condition; she and our baby got COVID at the same time when he was just 6 months old and the country was in full lockdown; later my aging parents also got COVID and my father developed pneumonia from it barely surviving; I developed carpal tunnel sindrome in both hands; and a number of unexpected renovation works had to be carried out in both our home and my parents' home for various reasons. We all got better and are doing fine now, but it was quite the nightmare ride.

I had decided when our baby was born in late 2021 that in 2022 I'd take plenty of time off in order to take better care of him, yet with all this stress piling up, things got out of hand and I barely managed to get any artwork done this past year. After the couple paintings I completed last spring it's a miracle I could squeeze some drawings (along with a pile of notes and rough drafts for future paintings) into the very fragmented free time I had.

In retrospect this forced hiatus has't been all bad though because it served as a reality check. I collided head-on with all the bad working habits I had developed in the past, when I had both a lot more time for drawing and more free time for reading and pursuing hobbies, and I was also forced to confront all my technical shortcomings, especially the fact that, being self-taught and frankly lazy in a number of ways, I never did the kind of systematic exercises on art fundamentals that help staying productive during difficult times. In the last few months I've prioritized fixing these issues and I've been doing mostly exercises and master studies, especially on composition and color theory which are my weakest points.

Now I'm able to work regularly again, so in addition to going on with the exercises I'm going through the piled up notes to actually get something done. I plan to share more sketches, exercises and WIPs on social media too, maybe as a weekly recap of what I've been up to, since one of the bad habits I need to break is only ever showing finished works.

I'll have to take a break again at the end of February when I'll undergo surgery for the right wrist, and also in May for a long-planned family trip, which is why I won't be reopening commissions until at least June, if at that. But I'm making sure I handle my time better so that a situation in which I completely stop making art never happens again.