November Doodle Calendar – The Changing Seasons

November, thank you. You were lovely.

Scrolling through my camera roll for the past 30 days made me realize just how full the month was. More so, probably, since I had so many pictures and video clips for my recent foray into the world of mini vlogs and YouTube. I will start with the highlights:

DREAM MAKING

If you follow me on Instagram you might’ve seen that I participated in an art and book market this month. It was a really small affair and I just contacted the bookshop (same shop where I took my self-publishing class for my book, love dad) where it was held the day before. Results-wise, I sold a few postcards (mostly to the other sellers, makers are each others best customers), but it was still a nice experience and I got to fulfill one of my goals for the year.

Also! The bookshop owner asked me to lead a class on painted paper collage, and I fought the creepy feelings of imposter syndrome and said yes! The class will be a Christmas collage card class, it’s in two weeks, and I’ve begun snipping Christmas-themed collages in preparation.

But what was more exciting than participating in the market was what happened the next day.

The morning after the art market and saying yes to teaching a collage class, I got a DM from a bookbinder/studio owner I had been following on IG asking if I wanted to teach a class. (?!!!) Taken aback, I asked what kind of class, and she replied she liked the stuff I had been sharing on IG, so I could choose the class topic and curriculum. (!!!! What is life?)

I visited her studio a few days later to meet her and learn more. It’s in this really cool old railway-turned literary street of bookshops and book-themed stores.

The highlights of that conversation/self-confidence boost time:

• she liked the style of content I had been sharing
• she liked that I shared consistently
• she assumed I was an art major/art school grad (I still don’t really believe this, but I will choose to believe it)

Hearing about her vision for the studio, I got pretty excited to work with her and hopefully host a few classes there starting next year. (again, what is life?!?) The biggest… surprise… I would say was that she mentioned my Inktober stamp series as we brainstormed on what I could teach. You might recall I had felt insecure about my silly doodles for Inktober, but apparently it was those very doodles and style that caught her eye. Crazy.

Oh, I also signed up for a Passion to Paid online workshop this month. It was a bit of an investment, but I felt like the time was right what with the momentum from class offers and such. I don’t think I’ll have time to start it until next year, but hopefully the class will help me focus this streak of growth and stretching .

LEAF PEEPING

I’ve learned there’s pros and cons to mini vlogging and actively documenting my life: on the one hand I have started to get out more and take advantage of all this city offers for vlog content… but I also feel I’m not fully present in the moment as I’m half preoccupied with filming clips. But still, at the end of the month I have a lot more photos and videos and I feel like I really enjoyed the autumn more this year.

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ARTS AND CULTURE

Other arts and culture type activities from the month included:

Visiting the open studio of a local artist I had admired on IG, likemeg. This corner of her studio space is #goals. Speaking with her and learning about how she became a full time illustrator gave my little heart hope that I could work towards this too.

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Thanks to my much more cultured friend, I went to the ballet and saw a traditional Korean performance.

Also stopped by a university’s museum to see this exhibit specifically on costumes from Jeju island. Hope to get a more detailed post on this later as Jeju island and the tradition of lady divers there is really unique in Korea. This is a bride’s traditional costume.

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Went to Unlimited Edition 11, the Seoul Art Book Fair. There were too many people to get through to properly peruse all the sellers, but the trip was worth it because I discovered another one of my “heart’s art” as I like to call it. An art form that just GAH! makes you clutch your chest because it’s just so you and what you want to be and hits you in your very art soul. In this case, it was drawings and collages on cardboard boxes by the Japanese artist Tsukue Akimoto. I fell in love with the drawings and bought both of his cardboard art books.

GOOD EATS

SKETCHING

I started practicing drawing more this month. A new goal is to finish a sketchbook, so stay tuned for that. Sketches below are from the first episode of The Mandalorian (Star Wars spinoff, soooo good) and When the Camellia Blooms, a Korean drama on Netflix.

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I feel very content and proud looking back on the month, but there’s a little niggling feeling of stress because of upcoming work schedule. Hopefully I can manage my day job, freelance work, and keep up with creative pursuits in December.

This post is part of Su’s The Changing Seasons challenge. Check out her blog to see how other people around the world reflect back on their month!

I hope you all had a nice month as well. Onwards and upwards to the last month of the decade!

See previous months doodle calendars from: April, May, June, July, August, September, October