How do you start your day? Before I sit down to work, I always have a cup of early grey tea, I page through my diary filling in my week and months with to-do's, birthdays and important dates, I check my emails and organize my day and maybe do a doom scroll on instagram.
So I've been learning about the different tricks creatives have to start their day. For example, Quentin Blake started his day by "chopping paper" on his guillotine, some make quick sketches or writing, Gemma Koomen starts her day by journalling and doing "small moment" drawings. My mentor told me that she makes something out of scrap paper before she even starts her work, well of late I've really been struggling to focus in the morning - I've been distracted by the sun ( it's never here so when it's out I feel like I need to get as such vitamin D as possible before winter hits!) and of course I've been distracted by my seedlings and my bird feeder. It's the small things and then of course laundry! And I've been distracted by social media - like many, I have a love hate relationship with instagram, love the buckets of inspiration, finding recipes, and my husband and I do love a good reel! Hate the feeling of comparison and "not good enough" and I've been so absorbed by the news and the chaos that seems to reign in our world that before my day even starts I feel quite angry that I am having to be witness to such atrocities and feel quite powerless. We are surrounded by foolish men who rule with foolish ideas.
So I decided to set myself a little task of doing something small each day, before starting my work. Using the #childhoodillustrated prompts from The GoodShip Illustration. Helen Stephen's started these prompts some time ago and I really love the simplicity of it - just going back to your memories. They have been on my to-do list for a very long time and I'm glad that I finally got round to them!
Surprisedly, starting your day by drawing something for a few minutes is pretty easy and a very very low bar to reach, by day three it felt weird to open my diary and emails before doing my drawing for the day. And it was a really lovely way to get inspired, stuck in and to relive a memory again.
I've always been fascinated by memory, and during my masters I read everything I could find on memory. Memories are core moments in life that we store, and after my mom died, I felt this need to hold on tighter, remember more so I spent time reliving moments with her, with my family so that I could remember it. My mom told me as a teenager that I "feel" everything more, I 'see' everything more. At the time, I was a teenager, struggling to fit in- so it was really hard to understand that, to make sense of it but now, I'm so thankful for that. I learnt how to notice and feel more, so I remember more. It's given me more, more time with my mom, more time with my family.
My favourite prompts:
Prompt 1- "What adventures did you get up to as child."
There are far too many to mention! My siblings are my best friends, and as children we got up to plenty of mischief and fun! So when I got this prompt, I thought of all the fun games we would play, just last week I told my dad that as a child, I would take a egg from the chicken coop ( yes - we had chickens, and goats, doves, ducks, fish, birds, hamsters, cats and dogs, not all at once, but there was a time when it felt a bit like a farm!) well back to the eggs, I would take an egg and mix it with sand and "bake' chocolate cookies which I would feed to my Ouma (grandmother) - she was a baker by national standards, so she was pretty impressed, and always played along.
But, one adventure that I remember with great fondness was climbing the roof! See - I'm scared of heights, always have been but my sister, who is a bit of a dare devil and has no fear, well she convinced me. We've always played together and many people who meet us think we're twins, so of course I followed her whereever she went! We spent hours on the roof, drinking juice, listening to music, even taking blankets and snacks up with us (cups and cups of puffed rice - anyone remember the cereal that was colourful, puffed rice! Or frozen jelly - so good especially in the summer) I think we loved the idea of being high and being able to look down into the garden, plus it was great to hide away from our mom. And when she came looking for us, we would just peer over the roof....
Too many memories to remember, I hope that one day I will have enough time to write or draw all these memories of my childhood, because I was incredibly blessed to have a safe and good childhood. When so many children don't have one, you only get one childhood - it's not something you can do again, you have one short time of imagination, curiosity and joy. Thinking about my childhood, I am reminded about children today who will never have a childhood again, we have hurt an entire generation of children who will never imagine and play.
Prompt 2- "How did you find friendships as a child"
I immediately thought of high school. The dreaded institution - for many it was a time of "prime", of utter joy being surrounded by friends, parties and youthful innocence, but for many it was a time of loneliness and waiting, I fell into this category. My break time routine was pretty basic, first I would look around to see if I could spot a "friend" ( person you hang out with at school ) and when I didn't find someone I would resolve to reading my book, finding comfort and support leaning against these big pillars that had these tiny tiny tiles of green and blue, in the Karoo summer they were cool to the touch and provided a comforting break from the classroom. Or sometimes, I would go and practice piano even for 20 minutes - it gave me a purpose and made me feel less alone.
Friendships were so hard as a child, and many of my friends left to attend private school, either out of fear or politics. Back then, I didn't know but now I'm starting to think it was the same thing. How ridiculous it all seems now, as I stand side by side with my peers today, with no difference in education. By the age of 14, twelve of my friends left to different schools. As a young girl whose friends were constantly leaving it felt pretty lonesome and hard to keep making new friends and find new circles, well it made me pretty angry. And I was for a very long time, angry with the situation, angry with my peers, angry with the system.
Even now, I find the whole idea of friendships truly difficult to navigate, I think a lot of adults feel that way, you might meet someone, be invited for a coffee, but the act is not always reciprocated again, don't get me wrong I have a good solid circle of friends ( if three of them are my sisters and my husband - does that count?) but I do, and am so thankful for them.
After high school and university, and moving to the other side of the world, I have resolved to 'seasonal friends', I think as humans we're constantly changing, experiencing new things, learning and unlearning, and if grief has taught me one thing, life is short and somehow it takes a bit of that softness from you - so don't make it more messy than it needs to be. So I'm quite content to be there for someone for a season, to be that person who they can talk too, laugh with and same goes for me, and then like the seasons change, our work circumstances change or life happens, you find you've drifted apart, it might be hard in the beginning but it's also okay. You blessed them and they you with friendship for a time when you needed it, so I try and find comfort in that, we might cross paths again and if not, that's okay too.
Prompt 3- "Did you have any scary, mean or kind teachers at school?"
Ah school - a treasure trove of memories. I actually started to draw two versions for this prompt, one of my tennis teacher who was quite the character, she was poor of hearing in one ear so being the horrible kids we were, we played tricks on her and would often be a bit cheeky. And the other memory I was reminded of was, maths.
I've always been a bit slow in maths and will gladly admit that I absolutely hate it and accept any jokes around my inability to add things up! In grade 7, my maths teacher would grade our papers like flight tickets. And you would be issued a seat based on your performance, ie: "A" grade got you a captain seat and a F grade got you a toilet seat. Let's just say, I got a toilet seat quite a few times. Being assigned a seat, would be a delightful process of being called out, collect your 'ticket' and find your newly assigned seat. The strange thing is, I really like the teacher outside of the classroom but upon reflection this is truly a cruel way to teach maths and encourage learning. And I think after that, my hatred for maths just grew, I had four tutors throughout high school - a maths teacher who only wore one colour at a time, for example when she wore green, it was green head to toe! Even green earrings! An ex English postman with a shiny compass and protractor, with his glaring eyes and condescending voice - let's just say, my rebellious teenage phase was well established with him, we did not get on well. My eccentric maths teacher who offered after school maths and thought by replacing X with fifi made it easier so essentially he explained maths by saying X times X is like Fifi x fifi = fofo. ( How!) and then a minister's wife who was really nice and I'm pretty sure she's the reason I passed maths in the end! What a collection of tutors!
Working through the prompts has been so so good, not only reliving some memories but also it's been been really interesting to see how my drawing has improved, my confidence to just draw what I remember, to draw the tiny hands that I'm always so fearful of. I would highly recommend starting your day with something that is so vital and central to your creative practice, doing something with one's hands is so much more impactful and stimulating than reading emails and writing a never ending to-do list!
What have I learnt from the childhood illustrated prompts
Start your day with drawing - just as you intend to go on. Do what you love first, then tackle what you need to do.
I have a colour palette that I didn't even know...
My favourite colour is Pompeian Red.
Time limits do help. Each day I limited myself to a maximum of 30 minutes, and surprisedly I never needed more time.
Remembering these moments and stories from my childhood has inspired me with new stories to explore.
I'll let you in on a secret - I want to write all these moments down, and who knows maybe one day I will be able to have a graphic novel of sorts? What do you think? Should I give it a go?
ABSOLUTELY!! Yes please! Definitely give it a go! 🤗