2025 review
Some personal and professional highlights of the past year
Hello, bandits, it’s been a while, I’d like to thank you for being here with me as I go through some of the highlights of this past year that I didn’t already write about.
Sketchbook practice
My January resolution of keeping a dedicated character sketchbook unfortunately didn’t last long enough to fill out a whole book but it did sparkle something else — I have been filling out my Bologna sketchbook, a physical portfolio of thoughts, sketches and project ideas I will take with me to next year’s BCBF. I am slowly filling it up with sketches that I either draw in directly or photocopy from other sketchbooks, so there is a continuous flow of work from now until April.
Another contribution to a regular sketchbook practice is my weekly live sketching session, CATCH a SKETCH, that I started in August.
You are welcome to join me on Tuesday mornings, 10h - 11h Paris time, when I log into this Google Meet link . We make ourselves a nice cup of something, pick some fun prompts or reference photos and sketch away. Sessions are casual and are not recorded.
Travel and culture
This past year we travelled quite a bit around France, visiting potential art schools our youngest is interested in attending after high school. We’ve been to Strasbourg, Annecy, Valence, all beautiful cities with amazing architecture. However in April our family took several days to visit Paris, this time strictly as tourists, and we got to see the newly renovated Notre Dame, various exhibitions and two theatre plays that we all thoroughly enjoyed. A real cultural break that I would love to take on a more regular basis.
Reflection quilt
Yesterday I took part in this year’s last Art Gym, hosted by Katie Stack and Adam Ming, a guided yearly review session, where we drew some of our milestones form 2025 as icons, squares in a quilt.
Here is what I drew in my Bologna sketchbook - can you recognise any of the highlights from this post?
I’ll be back one more time before the year is out, with a special little holiday giveaway…
So stay tuned,
Damjana