2021

January 4, 2022 marks five years of drawing [almost] everyday (my daily routine didn’t quite survive the disruption that was 2020 and so on December 9th 2020 I transitioned to drawing quickly in a sketchbook as opposed to digitally). The sketchbook is definitely more of a personal dumping ground so I’m a bit more selective on what I share.

You can see my past 2020 and 2019 recaps, but here are some highlights about what I’ve been up to in 2021.

January 6th:

The end of winter break mostly consisted of updating my portfolio and applying to internships. Also finished my first crochet project (a scarf).

January 19th:

Here are some preliminary sketches for a DnD character (would later redraw digitally), my friends and I began a campaign that spread out throughout the semester which always gave me something to look forward to each week.

This was also the first day ‘back at school’. In case you missed it, the entirety of my third year of architecture school was online over Zoom, so a lot of the subsequent doodles were drawn during class.

February 4th:

I celebrated my 21st birthday in a small way, by using permanent markers (which bleed through and ruin the back of the page, I only do this for special occasions). Otherwise it was a pretty typical day of virtual class.

March 2nd:

Perhaps you can gather I wasn’t a huge fan of 100% online classes (for the most part).

March 6th:

Here you can see a rough draft of my comic for the Spring 2021 Static Fish (digital) anthology, which doubled as a draft for my larger, annual zine.

March 16th:

Thumbnail ideas for the cover of my 3rd year zine.

March 17th:

Draft of my ‘looking at myself on Zoom’ gif.

March 29-31st:

Some more comparisons between a normal semester and an online one (looking at the pros), and around this time I must have gotten back into the rabbit hole that is looking at old houses for sale and dreaming about fixing them.

April 7th:

A memory from the before-times (and my typical Bojangles order in case you needed to know that information), also some cat appreciation. My drawings got more sparse around finals season time.

June 15th:

June 25th-28th:

In late June I went camping for the first time in probably 10 years. Enjoyed cooking, having a campfire, taking long walks, trying out a tandem kayak, and dissecting an owl pellet (finally fulfilling a dream from 5th grade).

July 2-4:

From June 30th to July 17th, I went on a road trip with my mom and her friend, to visit her daughter who had moved to Utah. I did not draw a whole lot but here is a page about our trip from St. Louis to Topeka. I drove through a good chunk of Kansas and created my own state flag based on their landscape. Also some opinions on toilet roll placement based off of hotel room experience.

July 9-12th:

I instead kept track of the trip through a notebook, here’s a spread about the trip within Utah. It was definitely the longest road trip I’ve ever been on and was the highlight of my 2021. I’m thankful I got to make the memories I was able to with my mom and go out west for the first time.

August 28th:

Thankfully I was able to go back to school in-person in August. I was able to help run orientation again, this time was a lot more fun and rewarding. After being away for so long, I was eager to do as many things as possible before getting swamped with schoolwork.

September 4th:

During the Labor Day weekend I went to Governor’s Island for the first time. Finally was able to do the free kayaking (available in several points throughout the city) I wanted to since 2018. The island made it feel like I was teleported somewhere, it was really cool. I loved how it was only pedestrians and bicyclists allowed.

September 6th:

Also went to Coney Island for the first time, went with some orientation staff friends. I had also been wanting to go there for a long time, somewhat regretted not going during my own orientation.

September 10-11th:

Was able to go to CW Pencil Enterprises twice (another place I had been wanting to go forever) before they closed.

October 15-18th:

After way too long they finally opened the Hall Street Gate in October. Pratt has been closed to the public since 2020 and as such all the gates except 1 was closed, and there is only 1 turnstile on the entire side of the fence facing Higgins. During orientation we had to get probably 200 first years through the turnstile, not a fun time. If Higgins wasn’t already cut off from the rest of campus, the gate being closed made it feel much worse.

November 11-13th:

Decided to mess around and make a collage.

November 13-15th:

Went on a walking tour with the Pratt preservation grad students for fun. By some stroke of luck we ended right before the hail/thunderstorm, and I waited out the worst of it in the Strand bookstore. While I was in there I found a 2010 edition of Static Fish for $5.

November 24th-December 2nd:

Out of a desire not to catch or spread covid (not to mention taking 3 trains, a plane, and a hour and a half in a car to my home, and then back is utterly exhausting when we really only have 3 days of school off) I decided to stay at school during Thanksgiving break. My first Thanksgiving away from family, but it wasn’t too bad. Went to see the Macy’s Parade with my roommate (which required us to get up at 4am), and then got a bunch of food through the school’s dining hall (better than what I expected).

December 7-8th:

I had my design final in early December, it was a weight off of my shoulders for sure. As a reward I started playing Skyrim for the first time (may make a comic post type deal about that once I play some more).

December 9th:

December 9th marked the first year anniversary of starting this sketchbook. There’s not a whole lot of pages left so will have to transition to a different one soon.

December 30th- January 2nd

I survived finals and made it home (after packing up & moving out of my dorm room by myself… feels familiar). For New Years I visited a friend at her apartment and hung around the area for a bit. She had me play Pokémon for the first time (may also want to comic post type deal about that too).

January 4th:

Figured I’d round it off with a little annual ‘about the artist’ and what I am up to in this last week before heading off to Rome (as long as everything goes to plan).

Thanks for reading! I think I may try to post a bit more frequently this upcoming semester to properly document my first time leaving the country.