Blog
Hannah Dunscombe is a painter, portrait artist, and aspiring graphic novelist based in Mansfield, MA.
Spot the difference
According to my last few blog entries, I have been spending time exclusively on nature walks and furniture arrangement. But I have been drawing too! It’s just that since I've incorporated higher quality scans, I've had to start saving up new pages in batches to scan them in-person rather than post lower quality photos each week…
New space
We've officially been in our new place for three weeks and for the most part have everything set up the way we want. We're just waiting on a little island for the kitchen and some doors for a shelf in the bedroom. I can't be productive until I have my space set up exactly the way I want it, so getting every detail set up has been a priority…
We've moved!
There have been a lot of changes in the last couple months. First, Chris finally went back to work (very cautiously) for about a month and a half, though has experienced some setbacks over the last couple weeks. But for the most part has seemed to resume some vague sense of normalcy…
Eye balls
There continue to be a lot of curve balls this year. A couple weeks ago we learned that my guinea pig Ivy had an abdominal mass, and we ended up needing to do an emergency spay. This is normally pretty routine with dogs and cats, but for small pets it's extremely risky and depending on what they find for emergency spays, they may not recover. As we saw with Archie last year…
More concerns about scleroderma
I wrote recently about how my childhood illness, scleroderma, has come out of remission and I just started treatment. Something I've been existentially grappling with is that one arm of the disease is systemic and can affect the joints, leading to mobility issues. I don't have any of the tell-tail signs of that part of the disease (Raynaud's phenomenon, joint tightness and pain, calcium deposits, widened blood vessels, or esophageal dysfunction), though my fingers have occasionally been sensitive to cold in the last couple weeks…
Kendall Square and learning in progress
I heard about a small bright spot coming out of the Cambridge community this week: Danielle Geathers just became the first black woman to serve as Student Body President at MIT. In the article linked above she reflects on the importance of prospective students seeing their own culture and background reflected in the student and staff community - especially in leadership positions…
Health concerns
The last few weeks have been nuts. I knew we wouldn't necessarily be "immune" to the physical impacts of COVID forever even as I was savoring the extra time at home not needing to commute. But right after my last post, Chris started feeling really ill. It started with unexplained fatigue and then rolled into chest tightness, shortness of breath, body aches, headache, and nausea. Some of those symptoms are textbook coronavirus...
Some final thoughts about working from home
Just to tie things off, a lot of the stuff I've shared over the last week I've found before COVID-19 and during it. It works for both my own art stuff and for my day job, and it's still stuff that I'm figuring out for myself. I'm sure the appeal of parts is fairly specific to the way I'm wired and probably won't work for a lot of work styles out there…
7. Finding inspiration
Escapism is such a useful tool, whether it's through movies, music, podcasts, books, or something else. Lately, I have looked for things that transport me to another time and place and that has mostly been through film…
6. Realistic expectations
As much as I get energy from creating something and feeling productive, there are days where I need a day off. For instance, if I’ve put in two 8-hour drawing days over the weekend, have a long day at work on Monday, and am just not finding the motivation to draw later that evening, I designate it as a rest day and go all-in on the recovery (for example, a movie, ice cream, and comfy clothes)…
5. What am I listening to
When I am writing comics, I need for the music I'm listening to to reflect the emotion I am meditating on in the scene. I also try not to listen to music with lyrics if I am writing because they will distract me and it can quickly become counter-productive…
4. Take breaks
When working independently on comics or paintings, I usually take a break when I reach a stopping point. I often use part of the break to step back and assess my progress, while also taking time to use the restroom and grab a drink of water or a snack, and situate my body in a different position…
3. Creating incentives
I often try to establish a time by which I will have a reward of some kind based on what I am currently working on. This can take all kind of forms…
2. Establishing your space
I think it’s important to associate certain spaces with certain kinds of work. For instance, I spent most of my time in my bedroom. My desk is where I sit when I need to be productive and at this point my brain associates work with sitting at the desk…
1. Routines and rituals
I try to wake up within the same time window each morning and establish a morning routine that allows you to feel little accomplishments…
Some tips from a natural self-isolator
Over the last couple weeks I've been thinking about how I'm adapting to working from home and what has been working for me. My job normally keeps me quite busy when I'm onsite, so working entirely from home has been a relief. I know it has gotten old for a lot of folks who are able to do their jobs from home, and for various reasons, but I'm still feeling really positive about not needing to leave the house…
Some fun experiments while social distancing
A couple weeks ago, I decided to illustrate a full chapter as a test-run: working speed, efficiency, practice with different faces, level of detail, color pallet, material, size, and texture. So far I have three pages done and I'm loosening up. I'd like to have this as a proof of concept by the end of the summer (I know that seems far away but I'm still learning and drawing comics is still foreign to me)…
Watercolor and colored pencil test drives
Watching the sunset from a plane window / dreaming as the sun comes up / four ships sailing into the distance / free diver floating underwater
Possible chapter header ideas?
Brainstorming some Florida critters for chapter header images. Some other options are manatee, dolphin, iguana, armadillo, coquina...?