Drawing

I've been doodling in the same way since middle school, and still have notebooks filled with doodles like the ones here. I find comfort in the meticulous patterns, and like how fiddly they are. When I was younger, I was especially obsessed with the static-like pattern I call "shattering" because it looks like broken glass to me. The front and back cover, inside and out, of my chemistry lab book, was done in this pattern, as are the chipboard of several notebooks.

The rise of Zentangle makes me wrinkle my nose. While it shares visual characteristics with my art, it's part of a wholly different process, and I haven't loved the comparisons I've received between the two.

In 2020, I got an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, which allowed me to take my doodling to an entirely new level. It's been fantastic to work with layers, and also very strange to shift from pen-and-paper to digital. When I'm drawing with a pen, I try to maintain contact between me and the paper for as long as possible, but when drawing digitally, I benefit more from short, small strokes.