In between the pages.

 This year I thought a daily challenge would be a good thing to do. If any of you saw any of my Photo blogs you will know this hasn't worked out in the past. One year it was going to be a photo a day. Didn't last long, then I choose a subject to take a weekly photo of. This was a bench close by my home. The idea was to be a series of photos to record seasonal changes and the any litter showing use of the seat. This was fine for a few weeks then one day I went up there and found a totally different bench! This was like the old one which was wooden and had lots of character, this was a modern metal one. After a couple of weeks I lots heart and gave up.

This time I thought a daily sketch would be great. By the time I decided this there was only a week left in January. 

These are my rules. 

    1- Each sketch is done in a page a day diary. ( A pocket Moleskine was my diary of choice) 

2-Each sketch can only take 15 mins 

3-Can use any thing that makes a mark

4-Any subject or pattern is fair game too.

Rule 5 - there are no rules!!

Having left my creative side behind for years, my drawing skills are rusty to say the least. So for my first day I decided to do a Zentangle. Why? I have no idea is something I never got the hang of. Then there was a weird sketch from outside the bedroom window. I didn't post any of these but for some reason I decided to post a strange rainbow and a badly drawn sketch of my Bass Ukulele. That was my reemergence on Instagram. Some sketches turned out ok ish and as time has gone on I have improved .

As I pike to use colour when sketching I found that the pages need clear gesso to take the water.

This whole sketch thing has had many good effects on me, making me look around more and see things I could draw quickly. I often grab a pic on my phone to sketch later.

All so got me trying out some other media I have had a while and not used. One being water soluble wax crayons. The other thing I discovered was the gesso made a HB pencil darker and I could shade with water. This got me looking at other water soluble media such as tinted graphite pencils.

So all in all I feel it has been a success. Fingers crossed I can keep this up all year and beyond. Good fun go on and try it!!