Berlin Sommer

part 2 - der Garten

I spent last weekend with G’s family at their garden near Cottbus. Every time I’m there, surrounded by tall green trees and silence, I’m so grateful to have that little place away from the city where I can relax and reset.

As someone who’s made her “hobby” her job, I find drawing for fun, for the sake of drawing, difficult. So I usually pick a medium I don’t entirely have control over, so I’m not precious about the drawings I make. Sometimes it’s chunky oil pastels or a fat brush, but last weekend it was inks and sticks (as dip pens).

I started by drawing just the shapes of the leaves and the plant as a whole in rough strokes, and then more details followed, turning the page into a composition rather than just doodles. It was so messy, the uneven stick nibs left so many fat blobs of ink on the page that took forever to dry, and my fingers were stained black for most of the weekend after, but I had so much fun drawing that day.

drawing sticks and blobs of ink

Late last week, I even turned one of these drawings into a poster. It was for an open call for submissions on the themes of care and burnout. The lettering is also hand-drawn with a stick, and the design was later laid out in InDesign.

As the poster reads, “stop to smell the flowers,” the whole point is to have fun along the way, to draw for the sake of drawing!

Thanks for reading :)