I love sheds, huts, garages, shelters, cabins, kiosks, cricket huts, village halls, beach huts............

Whether it's a surviving wooden building in an urban environment or a cobbled together shed in a field I always get a moment of pleasure from them. 

My dream is to live in a wooden house with a porch.

I'm stuck, and I am taking the advice given to me in the past about getting stuck. I'm not sure whether it only applies to quicksand or everything, but I don't want to take a risk.

I'm doing nothing.

Remember that woman who said she couldn't imagine a day without drawing, a life without art? Yeah, me too, vaguely. I got stuck into other things and forgot about that.

However, off to the Norfolk coast for a week and fully intending to make the most of the opportunity and see if I can re-invigorate my passion for drawing. Rob Howell suggested I try another medium, so I shall be following that advice and, bearing in mind there might well be quicksand in Norfolk, I will stay very, very still.

One of my favourite lines from one of my favourite films 'Whistle Down the Wind', and every time I look at this page I think of that line.

Eoin said 'I like your sketch'

I said 'It's not a sketch, it's just a doodle'

Although I prefer this doodle, which reminds me of Evil Edna from Will O'The Wisp

Or this, which started with a triangle.

I have also been playing with drawing techniques and games - one line drawings, drawings with my eyes closed and left hand drawings - as a way of loosening my drawing style and letting go of control.

The drawing of Ginge on a chair is a left hand, one line drawing and with the other two I looked for a few seconds then closed my eyes and drew what I remembered.

 

 

I have bought me a moleskine sketchbook. Until now I have been buying cheap and cheerful so this is a significant move for me. I hope my purchase means that I am valuing my drawing, that I want to have a sketchbook to carry with me and keep to look back on in the future. I hope it doesn't mean I get precious about my drawing and lose the fun.

Hence the 'First page nerves' - What if I do it wrong? What if I do a rubbish drawing and then have to look at it every time I open the book? What if my drawing keeps reminding me I am not an artistic genius?........... And so it goes.

Solutions

1. Get a grip
2. Start in the middle
3. Share the first drawing, whatever quality, on my blog.

 

I have a confession.

I have been cheating.

For a long time I have been pretending I have a simple 'folk' style and that has been my poor excuse for my inadequate representations of hands and feet. It's not my style (well it might be, but that's no excuse): I have forgotten how to draw hands and feet and forgotten how the skeleton, muscles and tendons work. It hasn't always been like this - I used to be quite good you know and pitied those poor people who hid hands behind bodies and feet under skirts. I am now one of those people.

I am hoping this admission is the first step to recovery. I have sought help from the online expert (google) who pointed me in the direction of some tutorials and I have been practising.

Bear with me, and if you see me regressing and hiding hands and feet in my drawings - remind me, support me and hold my hand (conveniently concealing it in yours).

A couple of hours later.......

I have had a go at feet, not so successfully but better than previously. Feet are hard - well, mine are. Must get that pumice out.

And this is why the drawing challenge began........

I have spent three days this week sitting in lessons at St Mary's in Blackpool drawing and photographing creativity in the classroom. The idea of the project is to explore, record and share creative teaching and learning in the school to inform the Creative Partnerships planning process for next year, an integral part of St Mary's vision for a creative future. It's been a fascinating process and I think will inform my practice as much as I hope it will contribute to St Mary's.

What's really moved me has been the response of both teachers and pupils to having their activities drawn. My presence has been welcomed and people seem appreciative of both that and my efforts. The feedback has been positive and people seem genuinely touched that someone has taken the time to come and draw their activities, and as I have sat and listened, observed and interpreted, my drawings have provided an opening for many conversations.

'What are you doing Miss?' 'Are you an artist, Miss?' 'Is that Miss, Miss?' 'Shannon, Miss has drawn you, come and look', 'Do you have to go to college to do your job, Miss?'.

Had I sat in a corner with a clipboard I am sure no-one would have voluntarily come and talked to me about their lessons and creativity, what they love to do and how their Aunty is a great artist, but sitting and drawing prompted curiosity and friendliness and I now have pupils chatting to me in the corridor and shouting 'Hello Miss' as I pass (generally lost in the corridors between technology and science).

I have chatted to some of the quietest children in the classes (particularly boys) who stand next to me and generally comment on the pens I am using before telling me how much they love to draw or teach me how to draw hands (I used to be quite good at hands, not any more) and we talk about art and anime and the best fineliner pens. I have really enjoyed our conversations and I hope they have too.

I also loved that, as I was leaving school yesterday, one of the louder girls shouted 'Hey, Miss, you should be an artist' and as I walked to the car I walked just that bit taller. and thought, 'Yeah, maybe I should be.'

There are so many things that need to be drawn, I could be busy for the rest of my life. When you think of everything there is to see in the world, or even just in Lancashire, Blackburn, Azalea Road or in my attic, the opportunities are endless.

There's the view from the attic, all the things in the attic which could be endlessly rearranged and drawn. There are things in cupboards and drawers that have never even met each other never mind been drawn together.

Then there are all the books and the records and the millions of words and sounds which could inspire drawings and creativity, there are the conversations that go on up there and the world of information available on the internet.

This doesn't even take into account what goes on in my head and the endless images and drawings waiting to be discovered in there. The only limit is my imagination.

So, potentially I am going to be very, very busy for quite some time.

Note to self - remember to put the light on when drawing into the evening AND don't pursue a career in interior design.

See, the thing is, I want to be a cutting edge contemporary artist whose work contributes to the global debate about life, community, learning, poverty, happiness, politics.......I want to create work which will make a difference and make people think. The people I admire and aspire to be like combine excellent artistic quality with an ability to engage, provoke an emotional response and help people ask questions. That's how I want to be, and I am getting pretty pissed off that I have been drawing again for 22 days and the work I am producing is traditional, decorative, oh so catholic and presents women as passive idealised creatures who gaze calmly at the world. The quality is ok and my little drawings are not going to change the world.

I think I need to have a word with myself.

At this point, if I was talking to someone else about positive mental attitudes to learning I would be drawing a diagram with a diagonal learning path and at the top the person or people we want to be like. Usually a tutor or a mentor, but in my case a great artist. It is highly likely that we will never achieve that level we aspire to, and if we do it will be different, in our own way and in our own time and comparing ourselves to our idols generally results in dissatisfaction and demotivation. (Well, I may as well not bother if I'm not going to be as good as Paula Rego).

I know the most helpful thing I can do now is to reflect on my own learning to this point - to compare myself to Cath 22 days ago, 15 days ago, 3 days ago and celebrate my achievements and my learning. My skills are improving, my mind is working differently and I am inspired to create. The feedback I have been receiving is great, I feel supported and connected and I reckon, on reflection,  that's pretty good for 22 days!

 

On Twitter last night Mandy Precious @aprecious asked me what would happen at the end of the 100 hour challenge. I joked and said 'I dunno, no-one told me. I'll probably go back to slobbing in front of the telly and complaining I have no time to be creative', but nothing could be further from the truth. I started on the hundred hour challenge hoping to improve my drawing skills by concentrating my efforts on something I love but haven't prioritised. No-one said it was going to change my life! I feel re-invigorated and inspired, I look forward to my hour (it usually becomes 3 hours!) and I am looking at my future with fresh eyes.

Part of the success of the process has been the sharing through blogging, twitter and facebook - a part of the challenge I wasn't even aware of until today and it's just a coincidence that I am blogging (but don't tell anyone). Anyway, the sharing bit is motivating me to produce. I have shocked myself by my willingness to put my work out there and seek feedback. Maybe it's the distance that's giving me the confidence, but I think it's more likely that it's because the online arts community seems to be one which is collaborative, questioning, creative and respectful.

Based on my experience of the past 21 days I would encourage anyone to make time to do something they love and experience the joy of learning, and I would also encourage talking to people about it. Share your stories, the challenges and the successes, be open and invite the world into your learning. My experience is that the feedback you get and the impact that has is worth a hundred hundred times what you put in to the process.