one year like this...

It doesn’t seem like a year ago that I started my “one day like this” blog…

Following my return-to-sketching experiences on Iona last summer, I decided on a daily discipline of posting a photograph and a drawing on alternate days. One year on and it seems slightly bizarre to look back on folders of the posted completed images.
Predictably, the quality and style vary. The photos are comparatively easy to produce – just an extension of something I’ve done informally for some time (I usually carry my camera with me and just can’t stop myself from taking pictures of things that catch my eye!). Subjects vary, but frequently involve themes of light/shade, colour and composition.
The sketches are a completely different matter and can be anything from 5 minute scribbles to (very occasionally) drawings that might take me 90 minutes to complete. Again, the subjects vary but frequently include cafes, boats, buildings, people and domestic stuff. I would love to be able just to sit down and produce a very quick sketch of a group of people or of a location but, although I continue to persevere, I find it really hard to do this – my default characteristic is for rather careful, disciplined drawings! The most important aspect of the "project" is to draw regularly and certainly NOT the quality of the drawings.  
Whenever possible, I try hard to draw “on location” but, for various reasons (weather, nosey people looking over your shoulder, laziness etc!), I also end up working from photographs (or finish them off from photos). The good thing is that the discipline of drawing regularly has definitely speeded up my technique and also, over the course of the year, I think I’ve “loosened up” somewhat too!
When I first started this “project”, I did so with no specific idea of how long I would keep it up and, to be honest, I still don’t know. All I do know is that I’m continuing to enjoy it and that it’s certainly my intention to continue for another year or two at least – but who knows?
Photo: some of the 180 plus drawings from the past year!