A Summer of Drawings

Hello! Oh it’s been waaaaay too long. It’s now my goal to UPDATE this page monthly with news and stuff that I’ve been doing. I’m thoroughly ashamed of how little I’ve been here, but there’s not much point in worrying about the past when we’re in the now, and hopefully my future self will thank me for putting more effort into the NOW.

Anyway! Hi guys, this is what I’ve been up to this summer! Urgh, summer holidays - such a looong time to have children at home, especially when you’re trying to get suff done. Over on instagram, there’s been a lot of this sort of chat; Helen Stephens talked about it in her excellent newsletter Pencil Pals (I recommend subscribing, especially if you’re a newbie illustrator like me)

The general consensus seems to be that if you can manage it, trying not to worry about not drawing and taking time off from working during the summer is no bad thing. I was lucky that this year I’ve not got anything on that’s time sensitive so I could just focus on family time (when I’m not at my part-time gallery job)

That said, I do miss not drawing, and six weeks is a long time for me not to put pen (or paint stick) to paper. However, Kathryn Boyt started a Summer Drawing Project - drawing every day of the summer holidays for no more than thirty minutes, using three materials or less. She posted her work on instagram, where I saw it…soon I noticed other artists I admire joining in, like Charlotte Durance and Naomi Tipping. So, always the jonny-come-lately I decided to join in too!

I managed to join in for most days of the remainder of the holidays. It’s a great way to have that extra accountability, and I feel like I’ve achieved something and I’m not starting from scratch now that the little one’s gone back to school.

I’ve popped a selection of the drawings on my ‘Work Page’; have a look here: