A Drawing challenge for 30 Days Wild

Horse Chestnut Leaf

The Wildlife Trusts have been running an initiative in June called 30 Days Wild, encouraging people to get back in touch with nature and discover what a positive impact contact with nature has on us. I meant to take part last year but it never really happened so this year I was determined to get involved. The natural world is such an important part of all our lives and our connection to it is at the heart of my artistic practice.

Snail shell after a thrush had dinner

Found wasps nest

A swarm of barrel jellyfish washing up was an interesting highlight!

I sent off for my pack and was really excited when it arrived, complete with wall chart, stickers and seeds. The 1st June was a lovely sunny day and I was out enjoying the self seeded wildflowers in my garden. I did a quick sketch of some poppies blowing about in the wind and decided that I would tie in my 30 Days Wild observations with a creative challenge.

Poppies: Day 1

Buttercup

More poppies: Day 26

I started off thinking that I would make it a creative challenge; the aim being to create something each day either inspired by or made of natural materials I'd collected but in the end it ended up being a drawing challenge. This fitted in well with my (more or less) daily drawing practice and has given it a bit of a focus over the past 30 days or so.

Shells

Shells

An unusual shell

I really enjoyed doing my 30 Days of Wild Drawing (which you can see over on my instagram feed if you'd like to.) It gave me a strong incentive to draw everyday which is what I always aim to do but when it gets busy, as it was this month, my daily drawing is often one of the first things that drops, despite the fact that daily drawing is one of the things I find really helps with my well being!

Swallows and house martins flying high

Thrush

Birds in the garden

It also encouraged me to look more closely at the natural world and I saw lots of small creatures and noticed details I might otherwise have missed. I like to think I'm a fairly observant person and I've always been interested in wildlife but however 'good' we are at something we can always do better and learn something new. Doing this challenge also gave me a good excuse to get out everyday and collect more treasures; mostly feathers and shells!

Trying new media

Feather: Pen, chalk pencil and iridescent oil pastels

Feather: Pen, chalk pencil and iridescent oil pastels

Trying different media: ripped tissue paper

Doing the challenge and sharing it online also encouraged me to try doing things a bit differently. For instance, one day I found two beautiful iridescent feathers on the beach. I wanted to draw them and I wanted to try and capture some of that iridescence so I dug out some iridescent oil pastels I knew I had stashed and had a go with those. I combined them with my usual pen drawing and was really pleased with the result. It's quite subtle but is an effect I would like to explore further.

Carrying on into July!

Feather: Pen, chalk pencil and iridescent oil pastels

Detail
Feather: Pen, chalk pencil and iridescent oil pastels

Life Drawing 4.2.19

Layered continuous line drawings

It's hard to believe but we're already in to the second month of the New Year. I wrote in my last post about Life Drawing that having changed the day to a Monday meant I had more energy for the sessions. That wasn't so true for this session as it had been a very long day at work but by the end of the session I definitely felt calmer, even though I was very tired.

Blind drawing

Continuous line drawing

Continuous line drawing

I find Life Drawing endlessly fascinating because it's so different every time; depending on the model, the artists who attend and so many other factors it's never quite the same. Each model has their own way of working and this is one of the biggest factors that affects the sessions. Our model for this session had lots of poses planned and sketched out and it was interesting watching him choose and adapt which poses to use throughout the session. There were also some impressive props, including a large sword (I bet no one argued with him on his way home!)

Layered blind drawings

Layered blind drawings

Layered blind and continuous line drawings

I wasn't particularly pleased with my drawings this evening but I enjoyed the actual drawing process. The poses were quite challenging, providing some really interesting shapes and I had to work hard to try capture them (with varying degrees of success.) I use blind drawing (not looking at my drawing at all, only at the model) to help me understand each pose and I find that the drawings that come after the blind drawings are generally more accurate as I've given myself chance to properly observe what's there.

Continuous line drawing

Blind drawing

Blind drawing

Life Drawing gives me the chance to just enjoy drawing; I don't think too much about what I'm doing or what it looks like. I spend much more time looking at the model than at my paper and letting the drawings emerge. Because it is so time limited I feel like I want to make the most of it and get as much information down as I can as in a couple of hours the model will be gone (home, not gone forever you understand.)

Continuous line drawing

Continuous line drawing

Continuous line drawings

It was good to have some new faces this evening as well, having run these sessions for so long now it's great having a mix of people that I now know quite well as well as new people who come in and give a fresh perspective on things. The next session is Monday 4th March, let me know if you want to join me!

Continuous line drawings

Continuous line drawing (pencil)

Continuous line drawing

Life Drawing 7.1.19

Pen, continuous line
7.1.19

I didn't get around to blogging about last months life drawing session but it's a new year so I thought I'd start again! A few months ago I changed my sessions from a Tuesday evening to a Monday evening as it fitted in better with my work schedule and I'm so pleased I did. I find I'm less tired as it's the beginning of the week and I've been working in the same place all day so haven't had the stress of having to get to a different venue. All this means that I can settle into my drawing much faster and enjoy the sessions more.

Left handed drawing
7.1.19

Left handed drawing
7.1.19

Blind drawing
7.1.19

As often happens during the winter it was quite a quiet session with several of my regular artists unable to make it due to illness (get well soon all of you!) However, sometimes it's nice to have a quieter session and it gave us the opportunity to move around a bit more. We all tend to have our 'place' that we go to each session so sometimes when it's quieter people feel a bit more confident to move and try a different spot.

Pen, continuous line
7.1.19

Pen, continuous line
7.1.19

Pen, continuous line
7.1.19

I really enjoyed my drawing this session, in all aspects of my work and life I've been trying to be more mindful and focus on what I'm doing rather than trying to think of a hundred things at once. I think drawing is a very good mindful activity anyway, as I've written about before. I very much value my drawing time, it gives me an opportunity to focus solely on looking and drawing, keeping other thoughts at bay. It is also a multi sensory experience, the feel of the paper and the flow of the ink, the sound of the pen as well as the obvious visual information. I always feel much calmer after drawing, it's a chance to slow down and escape even if only for a short time.

Pen
7.1.19

Pen, continuous line, layered drawings
7.1.19

Pen, continuous line
7.1.19

Currently I have two lots of cartridge paper that I use for drawing; a perfectly serviceable mid weight paper and a much heavier and better quality one. By chance I picked up a stack of the heavyweight paper for this session and I was surprised by how much of a difference it made to my enjoyment of the drawing process. I've always strongly believed in using quality materials and working on this paper really is a much nicer experience than using the lighter stuff. I don't know that it made a great deal of difference to the quality of my drawings but in some ways the finished drawings are almost incidental; it's the process that I find most important.

Pen, continuous line
7.1.19

Blind drawing
7.1.19

Pen, continuous line, layered drawings
7.1.19

I'm continuing to enjoy layering up my sketches, creating some odd compositions but also some interesting shapes. I worked all in pen this session but last session I played about a bit with charcoal and maybe I'll have another go at that next time...

Pen, continuous line
3.12.18

Pen, continuous line
3.12.18

Pen, continuous line
3.12.18