When I started my OCA degree in 2018, I was using a desk in our spare bedroom, normally allocated for my PC. As I started to build up more traditional materials it became more and more apparent that this space, as much as I enjoyed being in it, wasn't right for me to get work done. Constantly having to shift the desk around to move between normal PC use, digital art and traditional art was laborious and frustrating.
So, I discussed the situation with my wife and we decided that the only space we had that would allow the kind of space and storage I wanted was going to be our conservatory, which we didn't use for anything more than a dumping ground. There was a good reason for that - in winter the poor insulation and lack of useful heating made the room uncomfortably cold. However, as soon as any direct sun hit the room it became a greenhouse - when we would close the internal door to the house the conservatory the room could easily reach 50°C.
But needs must. I moved into the space, investing in an adjustable height desk for my computer, which I tailored more to my business needs, and I also bought a small craft desk that has an adjustable angled top, to try and achieve a budget drafting desk experience when I needed it. This is my room today:
It's a decent size and manages to simultaneously be useful and completely impractical!
The Bookshelves
Over time I have added to the first bookshelf. I have become a voracious reader of art books through my course, which matches the shelves already stacked with business books. I've already run out of space again, but now don't know how to add more. You can also see my bass guitar in the corner - I started learning this year as a way of helping my son to also learn an instrument. I find it really helpful to have it on hand so I can just pick it up and practice.
I find the act of playing the guitar remarkably soothing. It also allows me to feel a sense of skills progression and mastery that is more immediate than my art skills. This has been incredibly useful when I have been frustrated during my studies. I can almost trick my brain into thinking it's making progress in all aspects, just by making small steps in learning a song that I enjoy.
The Craft Desk
My craft desk is currently covered in models and acrylic paint pots. I have been using the gap in my units to catch up on my long-term wargaming hobby, which my son is also getting into.
This is also a good way to combat skills frustration. I have been painting models since I was 9, so I have built up a significant competency doing it. So I don't get any kind of 'black page fear' when approaching a model. I know exactly how I want to approach the work. Interestingly, the competency also means I have a lot less fear in trying out new techniques.
For example, you can see on the desk a hand-held airbrush. In all my years I have never used one, as they have been prohibitively expensive. This small unit on sale makes this new technique accessible to me for the first time. So I am experimenting with the equipment as a way of adding to, and improving, my skills.
It's been interesting for me to notice how my model painting has changed since I started my degree - I used to take a very traditional approach to painting the models. It largely followed the traditional approach used by the games' maker. However, while I have studied I have learned about different art techniques which are used in traditional and digital worlds alike. In particular, learning how to do grisaille value studies in ink, paint and digital has helped me understand value and contrast. These would then be coloured by adding transparent layers of colour.
I discovered that this technique is also used by some model painters. Called a 'zenithal highlight' they use a combination of dark tones from underneath the model, and light highlights on top to represent the light from the sun at its zenith. Then, instead of a traditional approach of changing the value by adding layers of opaque acrylic, you instead add translucent glazes in layers using acrylic inks or paints. This was a common technique for painting before oils and acrylics were more available (I believe they used egg tempera). You can see below artist Vic Harris apply this technique with oils making a portrait:
I have been learning how to do this with models, following a guide by miniatures painter Dana Howl:
This new way of using paints seems to gel with me more a lot more - after learning to use watercolours, I am more familiar with gradually adding in layers, and using the transparency to create and mix colours. This is something I have also built upon by learning from videos and coursed created by one of my favourite artists James Gurney - when painting with gouache he advocates starting with transparency first, even just using translucent watercolours. Then later to add in opacity by using gouache or adding in white or black gouache to watercolour paint on your pallette. I have translated these to my models by trying to use this underpainting/glaze technique to do a lot of the heavy lifting for me, but then to add on final highlights using a layer of opaque acrylic paint. I think this is useful as it makes the most out of both the local values of the colours as well as the values created by light and shadow.
The airbrush I hope will let me achieve this effect much more smoothly and efficiently. I hadn't appreciated until writing this how much my studies have impacted my hobby, and I will be on the lookout as to how these experiments might in turn subconsciously affect how I approach my university work. I certainly think there is room to play around with the airbrush in traditional work as well.
The Computer Desk
This desk was purchased through my business, and its primary function is to allow me to work effectively from home, facilitating workshops, training and meetings. For this, I use the digital tablet to the right of the desk, which is connected to my work computer behind it. In the middle of the desk is my personal PC, which is more powerful and is what I use for my artwork.
Multiple cables allow me to use different combinations of monitors on both PCs. This was confusing at first but now is a very efficient setup, and will also allow me to experiment with showing both my artistic and business work through live streaming.
In October I was fortunate to have been selected by the non-profit group Tourettes Hero to be one of their "Future Scribers", where I learned how to use my sketchnote and graphic recording skills more effectively. Particularly how I can be more representative in my work, thinking about how I show and encompass diversity and disability. This was also incredibly useful for my business work, and I want to invest more in how I can bridge my illustration with work, and how I can champion neurodiversity in the workplace.
The adjustable height of the desk allows me to adapt the working position from standing to seated and anything in between. This is particularly useful for the drawing tablet - it can angle its surface when using a stylus, but this means that the height will not always be optimal for long workshops. The adjustable desk height allows me to raise the desk so that the height of the angled tablet is as ergonomic as possible.
The Space
I feel very blessed and grateful to be able to have a space like this to work in. However, three years on from moving into the space - almost two of which where it's also had to act as a Pandemic office - I thought it was prudent to revisit and reevaluate the space.
The roof, as you can see, is a thin layer of slightly opaque plastic. The benefit of this is the amount of light that enters the space. But light is not always your friend.
Being roughly south-facing, the room gets a great amount of direct sunlight. This strong light either makes things too bright and/or casts strong shadows. There are whole sections of the day when I have to wear a cap indoors just to see my screens properly.
This roof also has very poor insulation, causing the extremes of temperatures I mentioned earlier in this post. I cannot afford to keep the internal door closed, so when it's cold it lets heat in the house escape and when too hot, lets it back into the house. I also rely on a powerful fan and heater respectively, as well as a dedicated cardigan for those particularly cold mornings. The ceiling fan has been broken since we bought the house, and replacing the roof is almost as expensive as a full extension. So, for now, I have to make the best of the space.
If you look at the other photos above, you will also see that two of the walls are completely glass. This makes making use of the space really hard. The direct light I mentioned means that most of the time I have to have insulated blackout curtains closed, so I don't get the benefit of looking into my garden. The additional downside is the amount of practical wall space almost non-existent. I can't put up inspirational (or my own) artwork, I have no for visually planning (a technique I benefit from) on a whiteboard and it's hard to make it an attractive space to spend time.
Because my work and my study occur in the same place, I can spend over 12 hours in this room every day. It's started to feel more like a well-equipped cell than a relaxing and inspiring sanctuary.
What does better look like?
It's no good just complaining about what is. I have to either accept or change. So I decided to use my sketchbook to reflect on what I had written above and think about what I would prefer instead. We've been thinking about a proper extension for some time, at which point I will lose this space as well. We have considered renovating our garage into a studio, so I have used that as a constraint for this thought exercise.
I sat down and made some sketchnotes on my reflections, and then thought about how that might work in the space of the garage. Obviously it's not to scale but I did get the impression that once insulated, the garage would not be as big of a space as it seems from the other end of the garden. It made me think about how other might use studio space.
I created a mood board of studio spaces that I resonated with. The reality is that because of my ADHD I tend to be messy, and my spaces often look chaotic. This comes from an increased amount of object impermanence that I experience (basically, out of sight, out of mind) so I will keep things that I need to think about out on a surface so my brain remembers they exist. So many images on the internet seem to show perfectly neat, minimalist offices. Where, apparently, cables don't exist.
I found this unhelpful. It felt like the interior design equivalent of promoting unrealistic body image through social media. So I particularly tried to select images which seemed practical, grounded and honest.
This also got me thinking about the difference between home office and studio. In my world, they have to blend. Doing more research I started to notice differences between the spaces of artists depending on their media and their approaches. Some needed really big spaces, others managed to survive in very small spaces. Print-makers spaces felt more industrial, like there was a production line.
I read a entertainment art magazine called ImagineFX and I really like their section called "Artist in Residence" where different artists give a detailed tour of their space and explore how their process and space interact.
These two selections are a good example of the kind of space that I would never want or could achieve. I think they reflect their owners but they seem to be created to be photographed, not used in a practical sense.
By contrast, these spaces seem to be fully focused on the practice of each artist. One thing I do like from a number of the workspaces I have explored in this exercise is the presence of comfortable seating. I think that, given enough space, I would love to have a space like this as a place to read and reflect.
These four seem to sit in the middle space. They all have different concerns, but all seem to be practical working spaces making the most of the space afforded to them. It would be lovely to have a little more space so that one could create different 'areas' within the space. I wonder if this is the attraction about using a dedicated (rented?) studio space. I have in the past done research to see what studio spaces exist in my area in case that might be a useful thing for me, but there seems to be so little provision, and even less availability. I think I would like to have a studio situated in or near other studios. I have found the last few years terribly lonely stuck in this conservatory and would relish the opportunity to interact with and be influenced by other creatives.
This exercise has given me a lot to think about. While I can't put anything into action immediately I do believe that thinking about this aspect specifically will influence my choices in the future as I work with my wife on any home improvements.
References
Brunet, M., 2020. Artist in Residence: Marc Brunet. ImagineFX, (195), pp.32-33.
Doran, C., 2020. Artist in Residence: Colleen Doran. ImagineFX, (196), pp.30-31.
Harris, V., 2016. Oil Portrait using technique of Grisaille and Glazing. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYlOj83qZ4 [Accessed 11 November 2021].
Hee, L., 2021. Artist in Residence: Liana Hee. ImagineFX, (199), pp.32-33.
Howl, D., 2019. How to Underpaint Miniatures: A Beginner's Guide to Sketch Style. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGYWYDv8Gq0 [Accessed 11 November 2021].
ImagineFX, 2021. Artist in Residence: Sugarbones. (202), pp.26-27.
Royce Leonards, A., 2021. Artist in Residence: Amelia Royce Leonards. ImagineFX, (201), pp.26-27.
Seeley, D., 2021. Artist in Residence: Dave Seeley. ImagineFX, (198), pp.32-33.
Wertz, C., 2021. Artist in Residence: Colie Wertz. ImagineFX, (197), pp.32-33.
Williams, A., 2021. Artist in Residence: Allen Williams. ImagineFX, (200), pp.32-33.
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