But there’s nothing interesting to draw!

It took me a long time, WAY after I had left art college to realise that drawing for the sake of practising looking was a good enough reason to draw. One of many different reasons. I think I used to struggle with the misconception that if I didn’t have a pineapple, a bust of a Greek god or an artfully draped nude, then there was no point. I am glad it dawned on me that if I was to improve my levels of skill then I had do regular training, and 20 or 30 minutes several times a week are always better than an hour every fortnight. There is always something to draw. ( I can hear my English teacher correcting my double negative from here)

This spread is a textbook example of several lessons I have learnt over time.  My drawings tend to expand and burst out of the page if I don’t do a bit of quick pencil planning first, just a few marks to get proportions correct, and useful landmarks indicated. Lesson 1: If it goes out of the page, let it.Don’t distort proportions to get it all in. My boots (hopefully) just look like an ‘arty ‘crop now, the viewer’s imagination can make up the rest, they don’t have to know it was a mistake…

Lesson 2: Halfway through this I hated it. The shapes were ok, but I thought the washes were muddy and lacking in definition. I was close to giving up, but I KNOW from experience, that when I reach that point, if I push on for another while, it will all of a sudden come together into something more successful and pleasing. The brilliant Tommy Kane, one of the teachers in Sketchbook Skool reinforced this lesson in his insane kitchen drawings…http://tommykane.blogspot.co.uk/

No glowing glossy still life here, but an exercise in observation all the same!  I hate the way the personal radio station in my head plays terrible, terrible hooks from the worst songs ever. Over and over. My inner DJ has appalling taste.