Happy Christmas 2015

Festive Pine Cone
Watercolour and Ink on Paper
11cm x 15.5cm (4.5" x 6.25")

Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Wonderful New Year

November 2015 Sketches

Let's Have Tea
20 November 2015
Graphite Pencil
Winsor & Newton A5 Heavy Weight Sketch Book
21.0cm x 14.8cm (8.25" x 5.78")

I lost my sketching mojo for a while in October and found it again in November. There isn't any obvious difference in the quality of the sketches from October, but the commitment of drawing every day was slightly heavier.

Too Good To Throw Away
30 November 2015
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

The difficulty was mainly in choosing subjects. Once I started drawing I was fine, but picking something to draw was taking too long. It felt like I was repeating myself - I’d drawn everything in the house and it was becoming too cold to draw for very long outside.

Guest Room
25 November 2015
Graphite Pencil
Daler Rowney A6 Ebony Sketchbook
10.5cm x 14.9cm (4.1" x 5.9")

In November, I fell back on the tested technique of walking into a room and drawing the first thing I saw. The rationale for this approach is that it doesn't matter what I draw - the point of drawing every day is to practice drawing – no one else has to look at it or like it.

Tea Towel
14 November 2015
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

I don’t really pick the first thing I see in a room, I usually pick a subject that either continues a theme from the previous day or contains different complexities, but I don’t spend long thinking about it. If I start to dither, I just pick something.

Store Cupboard Staples
9  November 2015
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
14.0cm x 20.3cm (5.5" x 8.0")

The challenge to draw on every day in 2015 is almost complete. It is a new experience to measure progress by the number of full sketchbooks.