A Few Updates

Daily Drawings

My drawing-a-day project is going OK. It’s a bit slow, mainly because I have been dithering about the paper, how to bind them and how to make the covers, ends and text pages which need to be part of the 24 books.

But the wonderful thing about this project is that I can experiment to my hearts content, both with the drawings and the bindings. I am just constrained by the size…160mm square. But that one constraint keeps a consistency to the project and yet allows other things to vary.
In some ways they are just scrapbooks in which I can keep ideas, notes, thumbnails and sketches which otherwise are often lost in sketchbooks or on the back of envelopes. I do hope I can keep going!

Luckily my friend Gay is also doing a daily work task so we can encourage each other. Hers is more complex, a whole lot more!  A ceramic vase a day. Respect Gay!

The images are a real mish mash of all sorts of things that I find interesting that day. There will be some relevant texts too.

Some are just things I have seen on my daily bike ride.
A last blackberry …

…and the strange and wonderful candlesnuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) which, right now, is growing exuberantly from old bits of rotten wood amongst the leaf litter.
I drew this curious thing a few years ago.  I’m very fond of it and keep promising myself to make a really good drawing one day. Sketches will have to do for now. The powdery grey white structures are surprisingly stiff and robust.

2017 sketch in grubby sketchbook :).

 

Spinney Sketches
And while mentioning my almost daily cycle, I am almost up to 50 very quick sketches of bits of mossy bits and pieces.

I am generally out for an hour. The cycling part takes 40 minutes which leaves 10 to 15 minutes for actual drawing. I have made it easy by only taking a sketchbook and one pen.
I hesitate to show them here as they are not examples of good drawing but just the result of staring at bits of woodland floor. I generally go early to sort of jump-start my day and have a few minutes “forest bathing”. Very good for the soul.

   

 

I intend to make a slender book to record them all. I think it might be the perfect gift for an insomniac.

Bookmark the permalink.

4 Comments

  1. Val, as usual your blog is joyful and spurs me on to be better and more focused.

    I love the last BlackBerry, dont be tempted to eat them, it is said that after Michaelmas day the devil spits on them….. lol
    Sobering thought.

    Looking forward to your next post 😀

  2. I love looking at your daily sketches when you post!

  3. Thank you both.. you are very kind!
    Hopefully lots more daily drawings to come.
    Some days I really dont quite feel like it but I am sure it will become a “good habit”….which will in some ways redress all the bad ones I have!

  4. I have been admiring berries on Knowltonia on the mountain. My garden plant has berries which are still small and green but sparkly and catching the light in the shade.

Comments are closed