Artemis Draws

It is infuriatingly warm and it is also my birthday. In my bedroom in my parents’ home in Kuala Lumpur, sweating buckets and trying in vain to focus. I brought a new Daler Rowney sketchbook out here with me to while the afternoons away, getting back into sketching and drawing, and it was difficult to get started as I hadn’t picked up a brush pen in so long. My new Winsor and Newton sable brush was immediately disappointing; having just dipped it in water, then Sumi ink, the brush hairs then split like a fish tail. No idea if I just bought a dud from Cass Arts or if this is the result of poor quality control from Winsor and Newton. Really gutted especially since it is such an expensive brush. Anyway on the afternoon of my 51st year, I made a lonely drawing of a path snaking through a wintry wood, while sweltering in the tropics. Trying to make the most of an uncooperative brush! Happy birthday to me.