The Wobbly Line ~ 12

Where did March go!? Lichen, knitting, & gardening.

Hello!

Welcome to The Wobbly Line ~ 12. Okay seriously, where did March go? I know we lost one individual hour when the clocks changed but where did an entire month go? Here’s what I’ve been up to (this will be a nice recap for me as well tbh!).

March ~ agenda.

1. The lichen continues.

2. Video; Close up ASMR of me scribblin’ some lichen.

3. The return of Spring (gardening & greenfinches).

4. A mix of stuff I’ve been loving this month.

1. Lichen love.

Sorry folx but this gal is still on the lichen train. I want to give you fresh content every month but tbh, my obsessions have more longevity than usual! I cannot walk anywhere at the moment without obsessing over those big circle patches of lichen on oak trees, lichen that looks like beards, the weird little ‘dusty cups’ as I call them (omg I just found out they are called pixie cups *crying*) that you find on rocks. OBSESSED MATE. Ed’s bro has lent me this book on mosses, ferns, lichen, and grasses and as I type this I now realise where the month of March has disappeared to… He also informed me that lichens grow less than 1mm every year so think how OLD they are! Isn’t that fascinating. Anyway, please join me in my lichen obsession with these glorious pictures I’ve nicked off google (I’ve put the photographers names underneath so don’t come for me!).

Bernard Spragg, Ray Woods, Alastair Hotchkiss

2. Scratchy scribbles.

I do love timelapse videos and full start to finish creations, but realistically this is hard for me to do. Especially when I’m working quite big scale (this is A3) and the details are the best bit. Feel free to scrub through this to make it a timelapse, but for those who want to live in the slow asmr lane please enjoy! Apologies for the sighing I might do in this video haha - I think I forget to breathe properly when I’m doing small detailed sections!

3. Spring in the garden.

While I’ve been out of the house lichen and moss hunting, I’ve also been getting bits of the garden ready for Spring growing with Ed. We’ve shifted a load of brambles (in areas the birds aren’t using to nest), to free up some more space for the raspberries and we’ve popped some beetroot and parsnips into the raised beds. Gardening outside means you have at least 3 robins waiting for you to move so they can access the worms you’ve just uncovered. We’ve also have buzzards fly over, a raven honking from the trees at the bottom of the garden, a tiny wren scooting around in the shrubs, and we spotted our first greenfinches of the year on the bird feeder. Birds are in prime activity at the moment, you can see them collecting materials for their nests, singing for mates and going around in pairs. We also spotted some housemartins the other day so keep your eyes peeled for the return of the swallows, martins, and swifts!

4. What else ya been doing Jb?

4a. Planning my illustrations.

What? JB? Planning? Yep! I look back on 2022 folktale week and the advent challenge and I think - how come I absolutely nailed those and since then can’t figure out a decent full illustration? Short answer; I’m going full steam ahead without actually planning it/drawing enough/testing materials and colours together. Anyone else guilty of this? I run head first into colours, paints, final pieces without any consideration (which is no bad thing sometimes) but it feels nice to actually slow down and think beforehand. Here’s an enjoyable palette I made this last week that has informed a big illustration I’ve been working on.

4b. Knitting obsession.

So, as you know, I got addicted to crochet (because knitting is harder and crochet seemed to be the easier option). Howevvvveeerrr, my daddio came up with a sweet suggestion that he’d teach me how to knit a jumper (we are following this free pattern by Ashley Lillis). Following this, I HAD to (don’t question me) buy some other wool and knit my own one at home too. The wool I’m using is this one. To my crochet-ers do not fear, I still have a crochet project on the go - the Fiskin Coat by wavelengths. I ALSO have two three future projects I need to get started, which are the crocheted Fishy Aleks jumper by Anneli Xie & Aleksander Jaworowski (@woolandbuggers), this knitted Vanilla jumper and this incredible knitted Fruity sweater by Catharina (@knipsarina). I’ve got a limited time as I mighttttt have plans in September that will take over my life but I will tell you about that later! (Paid subscribers I’ll tell you in April!). Pssst - lighting was dreadful to take photos so here’s some scanned textures for ya!

4c. Inspiration cut outs.

Spring is springin’ and with that comes some spring cleaning. Ed’s mum Jane had a big collection of art magazines that needed to go, and kindly offered them to me to look through. Me and Ed are also trying to downsize so instead of hoarding them all (which I could have easily done!), I thought I’d go through them and cut out what’s inspiring me and where I’d like my illustration to go. This was such a good exercise and really made me feel creatively awake. I’m planning on making a full video of this for April, but they have already informed my work in the lichen video above as well as the longer version of this video for my paid subscription team.

The end of The Wobbly Line ~ 12

I hope you enjoyed The Wobbly Line ~ 12. I’m sorry I didn’t have major things to report this month, it’s all gone extremely quickly - anyone feel like that?! Once again a huge thank you for reading and I’ll see you next month for more. Big love, JB x