Return to Artwork

Pencil portrait of Digger. Pencil on 100% cotton paper. (Art Credit: Myra Naito)

This drawing marks my return to artwork after a year and a half long hiatus of sorts. After moving to Hawaii in November 2019 I didn’t get a whole lot of drawing in. Life was pretty tumultuous from that point on.

Moving, settling in at home with my dad, settling in at a new job, and then BAM! Covid. Lockdown, working from home, caring for my dad increasingly more, dad getting feebler, and eventually going back to the office part-time. Almost immediately after going back to the office, I had to go on Family Medical Leave. Dad did his hospice at home with me as his primary caregiver. And then he was gone mercifully fast. He would have hated it any longer than what it was.

After he passed (from old age, not Covid), I thought I’d be able to jump back into my drawings. I’d always been able to channel emotions into my artwork. And in fact, drawing was always rather cathartic for me. That wasn’t the case this time. For the first time in a long time I just wanted to sleep my days away. But I still had a life to live. It’s a good thing we were already back at work because I don’t think I would have done so well staying home. But things were mechanical at best and my mindset was not at all geared towards art. My return to artwork would be put on hold for another eight months as I grieved.

But I could still appreciate art and I was still paying attention to some of my favorite artists on social media. Eventually, their work started fueling the drive in me once more.

So this portrait of Digger marks my return to artwork. And even though I was working from a super over-exposed photo with low resolution (from an old flip phone) and new paper (which I ended up hating), I managed to get him done. Unfortunately, because Hawaii doesn’t have any decent art supply stores, I have to order online. And you can’t tell if paper has texture on the little thumbnail images online. So, I got stuck trying to fight the texture of the paper. Nothing worse than having a repeating pattern covering your pet’s portrait.

I’ll be keeping that paper for tests and experiments. It was too expensive to just throw away. They stopped making the kind I used to like using. I’ve since ordered and received another roll of paper that seems to be more like what I was using before. Fingers crossed!

I have the whole process on video which I’ll eventually upload to YouTube. I hate editing video so I haven’t figured out when that will happen yet.

My next project will be a tiger (my favorite!) which I’ll also make sure to record. And then I think I have a pastel project coming up after that (probably another big cat). Stay tuned as I get back into the groove!

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