Venting Out

Looks like my Amsterdam apartment will have to be relisted on the market. It has been the most annoying frustrating few days since last Thursday. After months of the Buyer messing around and constantly postponing the delivery date (despite signing the Purchase Contract), we finally settled for last Thursday but so far nothing. Today is Monday, and again nothing, not even a contact even though our lawyers are sending reminders. Looks like we are being ghosted which is not a good sign. What is most annoying is that the apartment has been on the market for almost two years and when I finally thought I could get rid of it… no, I’m back to square one.

Time to Rant

And how do you think that makes us feel? I really had to put my feelings down on paper. My sketchbook to be more exact. And so I began with some pencil sketch on a two-page spread. Just a few frustrated and angry faces of despair as well as some words: “Why?” “WTF!” “Noooo!. Nothing violent or aggressive although deep inside, believe me I felt like that. Maybe drawing something kawaii would help me calm down a bit and bring up less aggression but instead some tantrums of helplessness and despair.

Water-Soluble Colors

And now time to color! Coloring is another form of therapy too. What enhances that feeling is using water-soluble wax pastels followed by spreading the colors out with a wet brush. How do they help? Firstly, the repetitive movements of coloring with pastels has a soothing and de-stressing effect. Then painting with a wet brush further clears our mind by symbolically “brushing out” the bad feelings. Such water-soluble mediums included Caran d’Ache’s Neocolor II and Art Philosophy’s Oil Pastels as well as Kuretake Clean Color brush pens which are actually like markers. Finally for a bit of enhancement, I introduced a few strokes of colored pencils (Caran d’Ache Pablo set) and for the writing I chose a black Kuretake ZIG Cartoon marker.

Just something short and simple but in terms of expression going a long way. Although the situation itself hasn’t changed and I’m still annoyed, venting my frustrations like this certainly helped. I think you will see more of this sort of sketches in the next few days although I am keen to distract my attention from all the drama by attending on-line and live classes. Perhaps I ought to focus more on our new beautiful house and keep creating more beautiful art. That said, venting out by creative means is not a bad idea too!

Here are some closer looks of each of the pages: