A good start to the new resolutions
One of my New Year's resolutions is to improve my drawing and practice routine. I want to draw every day and capture as many (small) ideas as possible that come to mind. Perhaps somewhat contrasting with this is the desire to actually stick with ideas. I often lose interest in ideas before I've fully committed them to paper – although it's not so much that I lose interest, but rather that new ideas always take priority. I've identified my perfectionism as the main problem; even for "quick ideas," I usually take far too long because I want to develop them perfectly. Therefore, I'm now trying the concept of "Make it exist first, make it perfect later".
Avoid chaos
Furthermore, I force myself to keep things simple. Simple in the ideas and simple in the execution. Not trying to do too much at once, not using too much material in order to maintain a flow and avoid getting lost in chaos. This refers to mental Chaos that arises from having to make too many decisions, and the literal chaos, which is created on the desk by too much stuff.
One decision that is currently causing me particular chaos in my head is the one about colors. Even though I love colors, deciding on them seems like an extremely overwhelming (and almost insurmountable) task.
So that I'm not paralyzed by decisions I can't make and end up doing nothing at all, I'm limiting myself to pencils for now, because deciding "what to draw" is enough for the time being. And that's what it's all about: if there's nothing on the paper, I don't need to worry about colors.
Colors for relaxing
Of course, I don't completely forgo color. If I've barely been able to bring myself to put anything on paper for several days, I spend the evenings painting abstractly. I'm always surprised how much working without a plan or thinking relaxes my mind, and how I usually feel more alert and less stressed afterward.
But these relaxation exercises weren't even necessary at the beginning of the year. The first few weeks and pages with the new routine went really well.
The first double page in 2026
On the left side, I stuck to a specific idea, which I will describe in more detail later. On the right side, I experimented with new motifs and inspirations from time to time.
Landscape Design
On January 1st, I drew the thumbnail of a small landscape. This landscape emerged from a multitude of small ideas. It's incredibly difficult to capture these ideas in writing; there are so many half-finished thoughts among them.
I think one of the main ideas behind it is to create illustrations with a story and lots of details.
On the next page and in the following week, I tried to divide the individual levels of the landscape into smaller, more detailed images.
Developing little stories for each picture was more difficult than expected. And it was even more difficult to include details without too much repetition of individual elements.
Nevertheless, I did manage to create a few sketches that I really liked. I also discovered how much I love looking at a page full of small drawings. I think it's a kind of pride in the work, even if, of course, not everything turned out perfectly.
I redrawn the sketch from January 1st on the new double page to have everything on one page. The stone in the background is meant to represent a kind of magical runestone, "used" by a druid people, and little fairies live around it. A rabbit lives in the meadow near the river.
I would describe the red and blue as rather uninspired. My main focus here was on the bridges and the field wall, but otherwise I had hardly any ideas for the surroundings. I really hope that with more practice I'll master more elements that I can use to embellish such scenes.
The garden is my absolute favorite sketch from this page, which is why it's also shown here on its own:
The other half of the double page
This double page was created in the first ten days of the year. There isn't quite as much to tell about the right half.
While playing Dreamlight Valley, I saw a house that I always think "I have to draw that," and instead of just thinking it, I finally did. It looks like it would fit in the Enchanted Forest or the Enchanted Meadow on the left. The garden could also belong to the house, so I added a path and a small fence in front of it.
The bookshelf was based on an illustration by Poopikat. I often try to use analog sources of inspiration, like the pictures, postcards, and art books I have at home. And the bookshelf is a compilation of many elements from a postcard I received as a patron of Poopikat. I also digitally refined and enhanced the bookshelf.
I copied the books underneath from a template I found online. I was trying to expand my repertoire of antique bookbindings. (However, I've noticed that many of them look very similar.)
All sketches were processed in grayscale mode, resulting in higher contrast and allowing you to see more detail than in the unprocessed scans. The paper in Talens' sketchbooks is actually yellowish.
Soooo… now I have nothing more to say about my first double-page spread of the year. My next blog post will be about my new “favorite toy” – I already mentioned it in the previous post, but it didn't quite fit into the chronological timeline.