I first heard about the #3materialsdrawingchallenge from Naomi Tipping, who I've been following on social media for sometime, I love the way she boldly handles colour and works with so much texture and quite fearlessly. Her sketchbooks are what every illustrator dreams of, so I quite foolishly decided on a whim to take on the challenge as a way to commit to sketching for the summer, to explore colour and to use up the materials I have. I'm quite a hoarder when it comes to materials, and am forever purchasing more pencils and saving more sheets of tomato paste tubes in the hopes of someday using them all!
Well I can honestly say that it has been a challenge, not so much the "finding enough time" to draw but more so of finding a way to balance my colours and materials, trust me - it sounds much harder than one may think! But let's be real, of course finding time was also part of the challenge.
Observational drawing is so important to my practice, I know that if I'm drawing - then I'm on the right track but it's tricky when you are in holiday mode wanting to rest, or read your book, and spend time with family who have traveled miles and miles to see you, but strangely it was easier to draw surrounded by family than it is to discipline oneself to take your sketchbook and go sit alone by the pond to draw.
So whether or not, I will make the fifty days is yet to be determined but I'm glad I tried, it was quite a slog in the beginning, I was on a mission to use the 'ugly' colours I have, using all those super bright colours I've been collecting over the years ( all those purples!). Before moving to Brighton, I would usually buy collections of pencils, and then only end up using half of the colours, but now I've learnt to just purchase my colours one for one, but of course in big bulk orders! Long story short, I was focusing so on the colours and choosing the right materials for the challenge that my work felt quite tight and odd. So eventually, I ignored my need to use up the colours and instead, just aimed to draw - even if it didn't work out. Traveling helped in many respects, I had to be quick - draw something while we all sat down for lunch or had a drink in a pub, I had to be quick to decide what worked, rummaging through my pencil case and choosing the first three materials I could find and desperately trying not to overthink it.
Overthinking. I'm very much a victim of this and overthink absolutely everything, I'll freely admit it, before something even happens, I have thought about all the possibilities, what would happen, what is needed - and many aspects it's pretty useful but it's also super challenging in many aspects, especially when it comes to your work. And I know that its something I need to work on, to not overthink my work, to not think about "will this work on instagram" or " these colours feel too much like yesterday, people will think...". When in reality, no one will know and no one will notice these tiny things we overthink. Even though this was a social media challenge of sorts, I tried not to get too caught up in it, not worrying too much about posting everyday ( pretty sure thats why I'm still on Day 39!) but I recently joined a workshop call with Georgia Norton Lodge, who runs Georgia draws a House and she said something about social media that is so simply but pretty important to remember,
" if you're creating art for you social media then you're doing it wrong" - Georgia.
My instagram page should not hold work created exclusively for social media, because thats just madness, it should just be my everyday work, my projects, my failures and and my drawings. So as we head into a new season, be it Winter in the UK or summer back in South Africa - I'm going to remember that with my instagram, I'm just sharing my drawings - even though you're a pretty hungry beast instagram- greedy and mean at times, I'm only going to share the work I make simply because I made it and I like it.
My Reflections on the challenge,
If I decide to do it next year, I will make bundles of colours/ materials before the time, it might make it easier to head out by myself, forcing myself to draw more!
My graphic design mind, sees shapes and colours and for some reason, I was really struggling to "blend" my materials, to create the softness, texture and atmosphere I wanted, but maybe it's just how I work, if I decide to do this again, I might set myself some goals to focus on or rules to break and rules to keep.
I love working small - I have a A5 sketchbook, which is neat and tidy but a small A7 sketchbook is actually pretty perfect, I prefer working smaller and am less precious about lines and shapes, it just is and in doing so, I actually become more confident.
Mix it up with water - when I remembered I made use of my brush pen filled with water, so many of my pencils are water-soluble, and the texture they create is so so good.
I'm a traditional complementary girl, who loves a red and green pair, green and purple or pink and green, and the more I drew I realized that I do have a colour palette that I usually stick too, in some ways I'm pretty proud of it, I've reached the point where I know what I like, what works but also in many ways I would like to be more playful and explorative in my approach to colour. Colour is something I really struggle with, so I'm going to try and focus on it in the next few months. Starting with reading Colour: A visual History by Alexandra Loske.
Despite the struggles and many many flops of sketchbook pages, I'm determined to keep drawing and who knows maybe I will give the #3materialsdrawingchallenge another go next year!
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