Day 30 My personal record

 I hate hate those punny magazine headlines, but I couldn't resist this corny one. Yes, I have made it: 30 days of drawing. A record for me. I'm not in the mood to reflect on lessons learnt blah-blah. So instead I'll talk about other records.

Something else I like looking for at markets and second hand shops are records - but I have to be in the right mood. My record buying tends to be along the lines of what I would have bought if I'd had more pocket money when I was 15.  As a result, I don't often listen to them, but I do like the way they look on the shelf in the lounge. Every now and then I declare it a vinyl Sunday and subject the family to the likes of  U2, Pink Floyd and Alphaville. This last Sunday was one of those, kicked off by Dirty Dancing (my original copy that I did manage to buy when I was 15) in memory of dearly departed Patrick Swayze.

After all this hectic sketching and posting, I think I will take a break for a few days - that's if I manage to, it's all become rather addictive.

Day 29 After- supper sketch

And the supper was not made my me!  Fortunately it hardly ever is thanks to having a fab inspired cook for a husband (he actually finds it a relaxing thing to do after a long hard day at work - very wierd). I've found doing a sketch a day hard, but way way easier than trying to cook a meal a day. Maybe my next project should be to draw a meal a day - nah.

Day 28 Chinaholics Anonymous

I am a fleamarket junkie and I have a generous grandmother, so I've ended up with a lot of tea sets and other wonderful china. I could host a tea party to make the WA ladies proud and even so I just can't stop at a good bargain. For many years the main target of my bargain hunting has been Susie Cooper. And then a a closing down sale in a small south coast town and my mother's even sharper nose for a bargain now has us tripping over the stuff. So, I've had to make room for another teaset to sit unused but much admired in my sort-of display cupboard. Will I give it up? Never ever.

Day 27 Bit of sunshine

I was preparing myself for yet another cold rainy day to finish off my long weekend, but it turned out to be sort of decent in patches. So, I was rescued from my urban sketcher's cabin fever with a trip to the nearby park this afternoon. The park's next to the bridge I love-hate, and I've been wanting to it draw for ages.


What I hate about this bridge is that it cuts our side of Obs in half. The houses on each side just peak over the top of it. Plus, it's dark and smelly and ugly. What I love (hmm love it too strong a word by anyway) about it is well, let's be practical, traffic would be worse than it already is without it. But that's not it really, it's the strong lines and shadows enhanced by the fact that it's too big for the space it occupies.


And then, I managed to get in a quick urban classic, of roof-tops, chimneys and TV-aerials before being called to balance out the see-saw. I am realising with all this Victorian architecture, inside and out, that I need to simplify it and eliminate the detail in order to achieve the effect I want - the patterns and shapes and how they relate to each other.

Day 26 enough already

Enough of winter, enough of being stuck indoors and enough of this stupid sketch a day thing. I'm really sick of drawing the inside of my house. I'm bored, and I've lost my favourite pencil.

Day 25 Housekeeping tips for busy sketchers

The ultimate form of procrastination has to be drawing the mess rather than cleaning it up. I was really hoping some else would get to those dishes while I looked seriously busy with my sketch pad.


Same goes for sorting out those shelves and clearing the stuff that's been sitting on the top of the fridge for months (years?).


Another way of dealing with a messy house is to draw out the mess. This page in my sketch pad conveniently ended before I was forced to draw all the stuff not yet picked up off the carpet. Pity that life does not always reflect art.

Day 21 Books

I dashed off this one just now, and so I thought let me just post it quickly.
I thought books would be easy and maybe a bit boring, but I enjoyed the subject matter and found it more challenging than I thought. I'm definitely going to do more.

Day 20 Out and about again

Yesterday I had plenty of opportunity to sit down in front of something interesting with my sketch pad. Here's one of good old Crown Street.

And then, while working on this one, I noticed that this electricity pole / street lamp has aspirations of being a Russian cathedral. It's the only one in the street that has a fancy dome on top of it. So, I decided to draw it to officially recognise it's subtle individuality in the world of street lamps.


Later, we went for a walk on Sunset Beach. The afternoon light formed nice strong geometric shadows of the buildings the city centre across the bay.



I couldn't resist capturing the strong hulking shapes of the ships on the horizon.

day 19 catch up

Day 18 didn't happen either. But, I did two today. One I like, one I don't.

Day 17 Didn't happen

I was so relaxed yesterday, in that just finished deadline mode. It was only at 10pm after watching 4 episodes in a row of Weeds (latest addiction), that I realised I hadn't done my daily sketch. Oh well, I'm relaxed enough to not stress about it. Will do two today or tomorrow to make up for it.
Have a good weekend.

Days 14 - 16

When I made this spur of the moment announcement to draw everyday in September, I forgot that I had a revolting horrible work deadline right in the middle of it. So, all I've managed to do the last few days is the bare minimum to stick to my challenge. But hoorah, free at last. So hopefully I'll have more time for my neglected sketch pad and pencil.

Days 12 and 13 Still stuck indoors

Yesterday any ideas of enjoying the weather and going outdoors were thwarted by a beeeeg deadline at work, which had me slaving at the office on a sunny Saturday. And then, just my luck, today I was rained in. I did say that I wanted to do more interiors though, so here's my chance.

Days 10 and 11

Day 10: Rooms in my house. I like the patterns made by walls and spaces in houses. This sketch doesn't quite show what I mean so well. I must do some more.


Day 11: I always enjoy the view behind our house early on a sunny morning, with these dark interesting shapes silhouetted against the just light sky.

Days 5 - 9 Extremely un-extreme sketching

I was chuffed to get a stern email from a certain neighbour asking what happened to days 5,6,7,8,9. Now I know that at least one person actually reads this thing (just looking at the pictures is also OK). I've been sick. Being stuck indoors and a cold rainy weekend is not good for an urban scribbler. But, part of this challenge was to force myself to draw something other than buildings and street lamps...

Day 5: Fortunately I had a parking garage and house I could draw just sitting in the lounge.


Then I turned to my all time back-up subject matter.


Day 6: Was forced outdoors by Isabel.

Day 7: Isabel stood in for me. She's taking the sketch a day challenge very seriously. This is of a snail and a penguin (oh our daughter is an artistic genius).


Day 8: Starting to get desparate, but shoes are kind of interesting.


Day 9: Comfort food - Marmite on hot buttered toast. I am a devoted fan. I once travelled for 3 hours, half way across Taiwan, by scooter, train and then taxi to get to a shop I had heard sold Marmite. It cost R50 and I bought some.

Night of a 1000 Drawings

As if my morning traffic session wasn't enough, yesterday evening my friend Viv invited me to a Night of a 1000 Drawings drawing session hosted by Word of Art in their fantastically situated studio - big old industrial building in Woodstock. Night of a 1000 Drawings is a charity event where the aim is to generate and sell 1000 A5 size drawings. Read more about it here. The drawing evening drew a large crowd, everyone was sitting around tables getting creative while listening to some great live music. Here's what I managed to come up with.


I drew so much yesterday that I decided it would count for Day 4. So now I've got time to sit around writing blog posts.

Day 3 Extreme sketching

Still got that starting-up enthusiasm, and so seriously am I taking this challenge to myself that I had my sketch book on my lap while driving to work. Mom, don't panic, I only sketched when stopped at traffic lights. Here's the only one that vaguely made it. It's the only time I'll say it's unfortunate that I actually don't sit in much traffic on the way to work.

Day 2

Did this in lunch hour. The view out my office window of the suburb I love to hate.

September Sketch-a-day Challenge

Part of my reason for starting this blog was to push myself to draw more often. So, now I've set myself a challenge for September. I have to do a sketch everyday. It can be of anything, anywhere. It can be a quick 1 minute scribble, or a longer one - whatever I can squeeze in. So, here goes. We'll see what comes up. Eeek! The biggest challenge is to find the time to do it, and the limitations of what's immediately available to draw. Here's Day 1's attempt. I quickly scribbled it while on play-dough damage control duty this evening.