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Drawing at the beach!

With our continuing new found freedom and the need to motivate myself to sketch and draw more I took myself off to the beach! If you haven’t been taking your sketchbook out and about with you on your daily walks then now is the time to start. July is the perfect time to get out with your sketchbook, find a nice place to sit for 20 minutes and sketch.


A continued drawing practise makes perfect sense and we all know the more you practise the better you get. Why then is it so hard sometimes for us to knuckle down to a bit of drawing practise?


Well I think the word practise is the key;

It’s something that takes time and energy.

It implies we need to try hard at something.

It’s something that we may not be that good at yet.


The problem is all that is true.


It does take time and energy to do anything.

So think how long you sit on an evening watching TV or checking your phone or any other thing you know you could probably live without. (I like to think about all that time I’m wasting doing the hoovering!) Now let’s take 10 minutes, 20 minutes…..a week, a day……… And spend it sketching and drawing.





Sometimes it’s hard.

Well this is an interesting one. I agree, sometimes it is hard and sometimes it’s not enjoyable. This is where we need to push through to the other side. I remember my Mom pointing out during my teenage years that not everything is fun. Sometimes we just need to do it. Fake it till you make it! You will go through periods where sketching and drawing is hard. You can’t motivate yourself, you can’t seem to find the time or you just don’t seem to be able to capture what’s in your head. For this I say ‘just keep going’ you will come out the other side and you will see that the effort was worth it. You will have developed new skills or techniques that you didn’t realise you were perfecting as you struggled on. The key is to keep going.

Life drawing sketches.


Now the problem with us not being very good at it.

This is easy. We aren’t supposed to be good at it (especially if we don’t practise!) and even when we get better at it there is always more to learn. So stop worrying if you’re any good and just do it. Students are always saying to me ‘I’ve done a sketch but it isn’t very good’. Who cares? Not me. Does the sketch capture something you saw? Does it help you plan out your next painting or design? Was it fun? Did you get absorbed? That’s what counts.

This is where it’s useful to have a continued practise in place, so you can continue and develop. Rather than postpone, give-up or abandon sketching for days, weeks or months on end.

So get a pencil, charcoal, brush or ANYTHING. Grab your paper or pad and get sketching!


Pastel sketch sunrise at sea.


Blog you later.....

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