A new beginning...

A year ago on this day, I intended to start a year-long project that would see me completing a sketch a day, every day, for 365 days, and keeping a visual record of these sketches through social media. The purpose of this exercise was threefold:

1. To improve my drawing / sketching skills.

2. To share my failures as well as my successes on social media. (Not every drawing is intended to be a masterpiece!)

3. To create a large collection of drawings by the end of the year, some of which I would develop into paintings which would then be used for an exhibition in the near(ish) future.

A year ago on this day, I abandoned the idea before I even started because I felt like there was no way I could commit to this very challenging goal. I didn’t feel prepared enough mentally, and the self-inflicted pressure on myself for each sketch to be ‘perfect’ overwhelmed me to the point that I gave up before I had even given it a go.

Today, I am starting again! I am no more prepared this year than I was last year, but this year I have a different (and healthier) mindset:

YES – This is going to be a super challenging goal for me to keep up for so long.

YES – Life will continue to be busy, and stressful with other things while working on this project.

YES – I will probably regret making this post public!

But that’s ok! This challenge is supposed to be fun. If I’m not going to enjoy it, then what’s the point of doing it? The plan is to create one sketch per day, but I know this will not always be achievable. Sometimes life just gets in the way. So, if I don’t sketch every single day, this doesn’t mean I have failed the challenge. It just means that shit has happened (as it inevitably does) and the challenge may take longer than planned to complete. But I WILL complete it!

And that’s ok!

Day 001: Maple seed pod sketch in graphite.