No. 1 - Do at least one sketch book painting a week...

Remember the challenge?

Well, number one on my list was to do at least one sketch book painting a week. I haven't done any paintings, I thought I would start with doing a few drawing exercises first. 

It's been so long since I drew something... I know I draw when I paint but when I do that it's just a really simple line drawing because I know I'm going to fill it with paint. I've decided to have a separate sketch book just for sketching. I'm going to teach myself how to draw again. To really look at things. To shut down my brain and stop listening when it is telling me that I'm seeing one thing when actually, if I looked with my creative brain, and turned off my logical brain, I would see something totally different.

I'm not going to draw in pencil. I'm going to be bold and daring and draw in pen. Nice black inky pen. No rubbing out, no tearing up. No matter how bad it comes out, I'm going to keep it and look back on it to see how (if?!) I've improved in the weeks to come. I'm also going to make a note of how I feel when I do a sketch. If I feel excited, nervous, silly, embarrassed... whatever. I want to be able to see how my outlook changes, how my confidence grows.

I've been feeling a bit creatively suffocated lately. I feel like all I do is get up, go to work, come home, cook dinner, have a shower, watch telly and go to bed and then start the whole cycle again the next day (except at the weekends when my P makes me put away all my shoes and pick my weeks clothes up off the floor - I tell him I'm messy because I'm creative). That isn't the life I want. I don't want to be suppressed by life (not by my P, he is really supportive of my artsy tendencies... in fact I think he feels he urge too sometimes). I was born creative, I don't want to kill that off while I've still got so much life to live.

So, I'm giving myself a new challenge. I'm going to challenge myself to see beauty in every day things, to look differently and see things for what they really are. Make time to draw, paint, take photos, write... whatever the mood dictates.

They say that as long as you have all the right letters to make a word, it doesn't matter what order you put them in, as long as it is in the middle of a sentence; people will still read the right word - their brains are telling them what they expect to see, not what they actually see. I think it's the same with drawing. In my sketchbook tonight, I drew a mug, without looking at one. When I had finished, I went and looked at a mug. I mean really looked at it. When I was drawing, my brain was saying "Well the mug is on a table so it needs a flat bottom..." so that's what I drew. But when I looked at my mug later, it hasn't got a flat bottom at all... not even when it's on a table. Have a look. It's round like the top.

I really should get a scanner at home... I'll have to scan my sketch book at work on Monday to show you what I've been doing. Watch this space.

Sleep tight, mind the bed bugs don't bite

xxx