Artist Mixy shares her latest sketchbook pages and creative process.
Four years ago I decided to embark on a personal project in which I committed to follow a specific creative goal every week for the next 5-6 years (I couldn’t bring myself to math it out exactly, suffice to say, a really long time)
Riding the waves of 2020 chaos, all my coping mechanisms conspired to choose *A REALLY BIG ART PROJECT* as the best way to navigate.
What has helped sustain the project is the looseness of the brief.
It’s just a double page spread, made without a plan, which comes together over the course of one week.
Then Monday comes around, I turn the page, and I start afresh.
Book of Days: 400 page sketchbook
After the first year or so I loosened up the ‘rules’ a bit and now I’ll return to older pages and add little bits here and there as the mood takes me.
I also skip forward now and then and leave little easter eggs for future me to find: Usual sketchbook stuff like blobs and washes of colour when I have left over paint I don’t want to waste.
When I’m listening to an audio book or a podcast and some words catch my attention I write them down.
If a week’s spread gets too wordy I’ll skip forwards a few pages and carry on writing there. Too much text at once gets a bit indigestible to me so I let it fall out into other places.
I’m leaving notes to a future me.
The doodles and characters in this book have gone on to inspire a lot of my other art, from postcards to stickers to zines.
All this to say, I can’t let this 4 year anniversary slip by uncelebrated, so I’m bundling up some goodies from my studio for a giveaway for FIVE of you lovely people!
Details on how to enter will be on my Instagram & Facebook over the next couple of days, the winners will be notified after the draw at the weekend.
See my July newsletter to find out more about the GIVE AWAY
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Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
Mixy, the London-based mixed media & textile artist, took a relaxed approach to starting 2024, sharing a flip through her Book of Days series. She’s brimming with plans for the year and invites followers to join her newsletter for updates. Follow her creative journey on her blog, Instagram, and website MadebyMixy.com.
I took such a relaxed approach to beginning 2024 that it’s already February before my first post of the year!
Let’s kick off with a little flip through from the end of last summer in my always-a-bit-behind series from the Book of Days.
For over 3 years I’ve been adding a double page spread to this ginormous sketchbook every week.
Pages 136-146 came together through February to May 2023.
It’s funny, I look back at these pages and they feel as familiar as yesterday, and at the same time, like a life time ago.
What is it they say – as you get older the days drag but the years fly. I’m not sure it’s that consistent. But I do know time is wobbly and makes no sense to me.
I’m busy-ing away on a new project based around the characters who show up in these pages. Be sure to follow along to be first to see what I’m making!
Hi – I’m Mixy!
This is Mixy 🙂
I’m a mixed media & textile artist from London, UK.
I love to share what I’m making, and I hope it brings some inspiration to your creative time.
You can see what I’m making on this blog, and in these places too
For over 3 years I’ve been adding a double page spread to this ginormous sketchbook every week.
So my routine is this: When Monday comes around, and it’s New Page Day for me.
I love it!
Amid all the uncertainty and chaos, this is a constant.
Every so often I film a flip through, and some while after this I remember to do the editing/posting/sharing part …. there’s often a few-month-long time lag between the drawing and the sharing 😉
This is a look back at the pages from June-October 2022.
To be first to see the next installment, and see more of the behind the scenes to my art, check out my newsletter.
Sharing a sneaky peak into the first 100 pages of the GINORMOUS sketchbook!
Every week since the summer of 2020 I’ve been adding a new double page spread to my ‘Book of Days’, this 600 page sketchbook.
Periodically I update the progress with flip through videos. Picking up at page 94 where I left the last flip through, here’s a look at the next few pages.
Hot on the heels of last week’s flip through from the Book of Days, I bring you Part Five
I often talk about the tidal quality of creativity.
There are times when the ideas and energy to dive into their exploration is abundant.
Other times we feel beached and deserted with all that wants to be made, written and invented all the way over there on the horizon.
Following this analogy, I’m welcoming the inspiration back after a long spell of nothing but metaphorical driftwood and dry seashells to play with.
Hot on the heels of last week’s flip through from the Book of Days, I bring you Part Five:
Be first to see these flip thru vids + find out more about the ideas behind the art in my monthly-ish studio musings newsletter 🙂
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Mixy's Art Blog 