Back in June, I participated in an artisan market called Birds of a Feather out here in Fresno. Unfortunately, there was hardly any traffic coming through so I ended up passing the time by sketching on the only paper material I had on hand—brown paper bags. I ended up sketching so much my sharpie ran out of ink so I had to switch to a ballpoint pen I had on hand.

I actually used these sketches as a way to work out my Barn Swallow motif so that was the majority of the subject matter and my focus.

This year, I've been trying to heal my relationship when it comes to sketching and doodling. I'll write another blog post about that in the future, but I got incredibly burnt out on sketching that finally caught up to me back in 2021. I'm now on my way to recovery and this was a great way to just play with drawing again.

I loved the texture, sound, and feel of drawing on these brown paper bags. I kind of want to make an actual sketchbook out of this paper now!

Even though I was disappointed in how Birds of a Feather turned out, I'm still glad I attended. It reminded me of my earlier days tabling at Craft Lake City (also in it's earlier days), and I was able to connect with a few more of my peers and members of the Fresno art community.

Fresno, and the Central Valley, needs more events like this and I want to see more of them as well. Even though this first time wasn't a big success like we were all wanting, I hope Birds of a Feather tries again next year and that it grows and grows into a bigger, successful event for the community. ♥