Solo drawing and travel thoughts...

At present, I am a little bit crap at solo drawing expeditions. I lose my rubber every two minutes and its ALWAYS the rubber. I'm not sure why. I spend about an hour looking for it and it turns out to be somewhere right in front of me or in my pants etc. I had another free weekend so I thought "GREAT - solo drawing trip". I packed all my bits and headed out the door, got half way down the road and realised that I had forgotten my paints, pad and pencils but yet packed everything else. Fool.

Once I got everything, I headed back down the street and hopped on the bus up to Crystal Palace. I plonked myself in the middle of the park. The sun was beating down and I realised I didn’t have any sun lotion which resulted in burnt shoulders.

I then needed a wee (miles from a loo)

I then needed a drink (which I didn’t pack)

I seemed to be in the path of every dog, wasp and child. I also ended up having some strange half naked tramp come over to me and make some sort of warbled conversation.

I had a much more successful trip the week before at Park Hill Park where I sketched with my new little watercolour moleskine which flips long ways for a panoramic type result. This layout is helping me to draw in a completely new way. I thought I would find it too small, but in fact, I'm finding the size strangely exciting and liberating. The lack of space makes me feel less daunted, yet I put just as much time and effort in as I would in a larger book (and I have both sizes but seem to be using the little one more). Heres the sketch I did in that park:

Here are some bits I drew on my Crystal Palace trip in the same little book:

Big Picture Gallery:

There is now a new gallery set up for local artists in Crystal Palace which I'm interested in participating in. There's a lot of talent out there. I do wonder how they price it all though, some of them were priced at a grand a pop for simple paintings and sketches. I can't imagine sitting down and thinking "this is worth XXX amount", how do people do it?

Last year I went on trip round Asia to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. I was thinking back to it the other day and although at the time I struggled with being in a group 24 hours a day for over a month (man that was hard) it really helped me. At the time I was in a bad place and when I think of the difference in me from then and now and it makes me smile. If only I had been drawing - I wanted to, but my head wasnt right. I took some good pictures though, which need to go on flickr. Here are a few I like (which was tough to pick through because I have HUNDREDS):









I'm going to be loading the whole lot on flickr at some point but please have a gander at my recent doodlings here

Where I appreciate time

Appreciating my time is new thing. I remember not too long ago when I had to keep doing things, mainly going out all the time and being active. Since this, art reawakening thing (and since my brain has calmed down etc) I am so much more CHILLED. I actually punched the air with glee last night because I had a free Saturday today - no plans, nothing (well just my own) but no ties or obligations. I knew I had the entire day to myself and that felt like a little gift. I cleared out some of my room, I did some exercise (which killed in the heat to be honest) and I did some flower watercolours in the garden. I hated the first one and then did the sinful horrific ripping out sketchbook page *cringe* because it wasn't up to scratch. I've never been one to go for watercolours, so it was like my own little mission. I sat back and thought 'right.....what the heck am I doing wrong here?' then it clicked. I tried again and this time it was much better. Still not quite there but I'll get there. I felt a bit gutted I ripped out the page but thats ok, it was my first time after all.

So from today I have vowed to become great with watercolours, like my own mini mission. Expect to see some soon (well if I havent binned them).

Other than that, I've decided to just draw from that core place and not think about it. Not wonder where its going. Not specifically draw something for online (because lets face it, it probably was going that way) however I like sharing it so thats ok. But like I said in the last blog, I've been reigning it all in and its been good. I've also realised Im going to try and draw more from real life and not from magazines/books unless its for a specific reason. Mainly to get into the habit of being able to just sit anywhere, pull out the sketchbook and just go for it. I've been relaxing in the garden on my days off last week and drew a few things -


The back of my house, whilst sitting in the most comfortable deckchair with a cat resting on my foot.



Hanging bird garden ornament.
My mum was given this as a gift and she was pretty horrified and to be honest so was I because we thought it was naff. However after drawing it, I noticed every carve mark, every detail and I realised that someone had painstakingly made this. So I have much more respect for it. Even thought it's not really my thing and all it's quirky.


Coral. Coloured pencil (wimped out of doing watercolour at the time, oh how that will change, we hope).



A quick hand sketch, because well.....I felt like I should draw something. Note to self - never draw just to draw. Draw because you feel it.

The rest so far can be seen here on flickr

So there we are, until next time...