windowsill wednesday

Strange what accumulates on the windowsill...

a cat with a jumper on, and a man carrying a saddle...

a drawing a day

Recently I have been talking to two friends who each want to start doing some drawing, and I found myself giving both of them the same piece of advice, which is to carry a small sketchbook around, and make one drawing (at least) a day, of something in front of you.

I once did a whole year of taking a photo every day and that was an interesting discipline and good to look back on, especially after a few years, as I think I ended up with photos of nearly all of our friends, along with some strange 'oh good grief, I'll take a photo of my foot' efforts.

But drawing something is completely different, as it makes you really look at it, and make a decision about how you're going to represent it, rather than just pointing and shooting a camera. I became very passionate, explaining all this and then thought that although I do draw a lot it would be good to take my own advice, so I kicked off by drawing the stuffed tomatoes we had for dinner on Saturday...

... and the cat looking out of the window on Sunday...

Doing more drawing might also make a dent in the huge pile of small sketchbooks that I can't resist buying. Put me in a stationery shop anywhere and I always come out with a couple. I have a particular weakness for those orange covered ones with squared grid pages you can get in France...

And does anyone else remember these wonderful three-colour pencils you used to get at Christmas? Well my local art shop sells them (as does the Tate gift shop) and I've been having great fun making multi-coloured drawings!

For what its worth, if anyone wanted more advice about drawing I would say don't make it too precious, or worry that it doesn't look like the object in front of you- it should be a picture of what you see and feel. And if the pristine white pages are daunting at first, scribble on them a bit, and then draw on top, or stick some bits of torn paper on and draw onto them. After a while the lovely neat sketchbook becomes a battered friend, and you'll feel sorry to have to start a new one.

So, draw your foot, draw the cat, draw people on the telly (programmes with just one presenter are good, you get a good look at them)... Anybody want to draw along with me?