Summer so far

Hello friends, I hope life is treating you well!

I can't believe it's already the end of August. Summer is still going strong here, and today especially, leaving the house feels like walking straight into an oven. So I've been taking thing slowly these past few weeks, working at my own pace and in secret, because it's just easier for me to focus that way. But it also means that I haven't been able to give you an update, so here we go now!

I'm getting towards finishing this year's calendar with the glorious concept of "cats sitting in weird places". I've already shared three finished paintings for it (prints: https://www.djamilaknopf.com/store) , but there are many more that are nearly done. I've got a bit of an assembly line process going on here. Let me show you!

 I've made this handy (and cute) project tracker that I stuck above my desk. I find that this is the best way to stay on track and keep momentum while working on larger, long-term projects. It's just much more rewarding to continuously tick boxes, rather than thinking "calendar project still incomplete". As you can see, I've already painted 10 out of 12 paintings, but they have neither been scanned nor edited, and therefore I have not shared them. If I'm able to stick to my plan, I'll get started on that next week, and you'll be the first to see them when they're done!

Let me know, how do you organise your projects?

Another reason I've been a bit inconsistent in my work is that I started feeling incredibly weak and tired a while ago, even though I was getting 8h of sleep every night. And not just normal tired, but so drained that I had to lie down and sleep in the middle of the day almost every day. After giving it some thought, I concluded that the cause was probably my recent change in diet, which caused an iron deficiency (again, ugh!!). After getting that sorted out, I was back to normal. Thank god! This was definitely a good reminder that health is the most important thing. So I hope you all take care of yourselves!

I'm also happy to report that my sunflowers are blooming and that they attract SO MANY bumblebees. Seeing them bustling around makes me happy!
 I also visited a good friend for a couple of days, had some long chats, great food, and cuddles with her cats. And lastly, I did a little event at a local comic shop a while ago, which was a lot of fun! My friend @anikeru and I shared a table to offer some prints and books, and show our sketchbooks.

Oh wait, there's more! I've been reading like a maniac this summer. Some recent favourites are:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum
Just Kids by Patti Smith (re-read, one of my favourite books)
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Stay True by Hua Hsu

And for the German-speaking folks out there:
Nachmittage von Ferdinand von Schirach
Die Känguru-Apokryphen von Marc-Uwe Kling

Recently, I've had a pretty good track record of picking up books I actually loved. I think the magic formular for me right now is 50/50 fiction and non-fiction.

Alright, that's it for now. I'll be back with the scanned and finished paintings very soon. Until then, take care!