Studio Tour

It's "March Meet the Maker" (evidentially) and so I thought it would be fun to give you a tour of my studio and tell you about a few things that make my workspace fun and inspiring.

I use my second bedroom as my home studio. It overlooks Lake Union in Seattle, WA. Sounds include seaplanes flying over, boat horns blowing when the Fremont bridge is being raised, and rain against my window because it rains a lot here.

Some artists prefer going to an actual studio to work because they are more productive. I like the idea of doing that, but I'm a bit of a hermit and enjoy waking up and immediately going to work rather than having to commute somewhere. Who knows, maybe I'll change my mind in the future? However, I do miss having studio mates.

I get beautiful natural light in my studio and apartment because we have skylights and north facing windows. When photographing my artwork, I prefer it to be overcast because the lighting in my studio is soft and perfectly white.

My desk is usually covered with a week or two worth of art projects. Because it's my own art space, I let the chaos build up until one day I decide to tidy up. But realistically it's hard for me to keep it perfectly clean.

My only studio mate is my cat, Willow. She's a 5-year-old black and white domestic cat. Sometimes she'll come and keep me company by sitting next to me on my bench while I work, or if she's bored and wants attention she will walk all over my artwork. I learned to never leave water unattended:p.

I have a Mason and Hamlin upright grand piano that we hauled all the from Utah (and we currently live on the third floor with no elevator so that tells you how much I love it). It was a treasure that Andrew and I hunted for together and I just couldn't leave it home. It's a lot of fun to have it in my studio because when I need a break from my art I go and dink around on the keys. Andrew also plays the piano and sometimes we play duets together. Right now Andrew is learning Debussy's Images 2 and I'm learning and trying to memorize Rachmaninov Prelude Op. 23 No. 4 in D Major.

I've started to collect pencil sharpeners. The one on the left is a model T car from the 1950's but is terrible at sharpening my pencils. The one on the right is a ship sharpener that Andrew found for me while we were in Salem and it sharpens very well.

For the last few years, I've used my piano bench as my desk chair, but I decided I needed something with back support and found this comfy velvet blush chair. I'm not much of a pink person but it was such a fun color that I couldn't resist.

 I can't paint my walls in my apartment so I scattered gold dots all over my studio to make it more whimsical, (but I really have my eye set on whale wallpaper). Since I'm a children's book illustrator it's ok for my studio to look like a kids room right? Also, isn't this sailboat kite fun? Andrew and I sail on Lake Union during the summer so I thought this was a great find for my studio.

What do I usually wear to work? Since my studio floats above a hallway below there's no insulation and so during the winter, my studio gets so cold! Sometimes in the morning, the temperature says 48 degrees (yikes), so I usually wear yoga pants and sweatshirts. 

When I'm working with paint, I throw on paint clothes and this fabulous apron that I've had since I was 9 years old. My older brother made it for me (he was quite the sewer in his 7th grade home ec class). The head is a little small but as you can tell it's been well loved. I like the bright fuschia 90's fabric he used from my mom's pile of leftover fabric.

Anyways....I hope you enjoyed the tour of my studio.

xo, Tessa