Oh No!

Yup exactly what I’m thinking since yesterday. Away I go on my rowing machine looking forward to a good work out and what happens? I move the wrong way and do my back in! Immediately I felt the pain and couldn’t walk much the rest of the day. It’s that same issue I had a few years ago: Compressed spinal disk which could be unbearably painful. Although I struggled getting out of bed this morning, I managed to crawl out and go for the exercises my physio at the time had prescribed. I must say they did help, and along with ibuprofen, plenty of rest but still keeping mobile, I’m surviving. To add to that, my boyfriend has had to go away for the weekend, an appointment he couldn’t get out of, so I’m on my own again. Missing him loads of course! But rather than feel sorry for myself, I decided to console myself with a pen sketch yesterday.

The Outline

And yes, this is how I was feeling. Helpless, sad and losing hope. When will I recover and revert to normal life again? And I was missing my boyfriend. Although it’s just a few days and a good change to have the house to myself, I long for his company too! And so I began sketching first with a pencil, then traced over with the Copic black multiliners. For the first time, I sketched on a newly-developed product by Canson’s: The Wall pad of A4 paper for Markers (200gsm) allegedly ideal for alcohol markers including Copics. And wow, how amazing the ink didn’t bleed through the paper, let alone leak to the page below. Even thick bristol papers occasionally result in the ink penetrating to the back of the sheet. I totally recommend it, as they’re wonderful to work with judging from the experience with coloring with the Copic markers as we shall see later.

The Coloring

This time, I went for Copic Ciao markers rather than the Sketch. No particular reason, but only since I have a wider choice of colors in that range. I kept it all simple this time, limiting my colors to less than ten. Only once did I use another brand, and that was the Winsor & Newton Pro-marker as I needed a flourescent pink shade, although like Copic, they are alcohol-based. I definitely need more practice in drawing with Copic markers as the streaks are still visible. Also, more practice is needed on the light and shading as well. Hopefully they will come with time. Where I was not happy with the yellow in the diamond, I merely covered it up with some of Ranger’s Stickles Glitter Gel in yellow And here we are!

As I’m not 100% pain-free, I wanted to take it easy with the artwork as well. I thus kept this drawing quite simple, also as the objective was to express my feelings and thoughts. Having more practice with Copic markers is so much fun, and always a pleasure to discover new supplies like this wonderful marker paper. I shall definitely be churning out more artwork whilst I have more spare time during my back recovery. Something to look forward to during these difficult moments!