So

[info]every_day_art

is now officially one month in and I’m settling in nicely I think. The daily either draw or trawl through work is becoming routine, and I’m finding it quite refreshing to be sat down and having to draw something. Sometimes it’s been from imagination, sometimes from a photo; sometimes it’s the ceramic whale and sometimes it’s the wooden plinth on which he stands… The options are endless, and almost never worthless.

I set out with as few rules and guidelines as possible (were there any? I didn’t even commit to post every day!) so that I could just see where it went and there’s been a few surprises already. Firstly, there’s all you lot, who have been really supportive and encouraging. I kind of expected a few folks to sign on through loyalty and friendship but it seems some of you are actually here to see the pictures and that’s wonderfully flattering and a teensy bit scary. I am being very careful however to not let a waiting public cloud my judgement of what to put up – this is a playground and some of what goes up will be nowhere near the “quality” I’d usually share.

Which brings me to the second surprise – the things you respond most to. I mean, apart from the “unmitigated disaster” post, which was meant to be a bit of a laugh, the most popular (if popularity can be measured by number of responses, and I’m not sure it can) was the most throwaway experiment of the lot – the acrylic wash and ink experiment. Really, it was a canvas that I washed with some paint I’d mixed too much of rather than waste it, and a load of experimental marks with pen and ink – the objective was to find out if the approach worked, not to produce a finished piece, but you liked it and that was a bit of a shock. Also very popular was the train sketch, which was a sketch in the true sense of the word in that it was to record an idea or thought as opposed to make a drawing at all. I’m learning from you what “people” like as well as what I can do, and that’s really surprise number 3 – I continue to be surprised by what of my work people like and how far from that my ideas of my “best” work are. It’s making me question just about everything about where my artistic strengths and weaknesses lie.

Right, the photos. Well, they were supposed to be ideas for colours and atmospheres for later paintings. That hasn’t changed – indeed I’ve been working on one based on a source photo today – but when I was forced by schedules and not being at home to use them for the first couple of days I realised that these were “sketches” in their own right – they were a recording of an idea that I would maybe use later. I’m not a photographer and a lot of the photos that have been put up are actually taken with my phone of all things, but it’s really making me look around and think about the surroundings. Frankly it’s made my journey to and from work a hell of a lot more interesting. People don’t even look at me strange when I take shots from the railway bridge any more. Lord alone knows what they think I’m doing.

I admit I’ve fallen back on the photos once or twice out of necessity to post as I felt I should at least get through January without missing a day, and I’ve also resorted to raiding the big bag of pictures a few times too, but I won’t get away with that for much longer because I’ll run out of stuff frankly, but it’s been nice to have a safety net for the first month.

So a month in and I already feel benefit from this project, and still have enthusiasm for it. It’s going somewhere, and to be honest, that’s all I want from it. Thanks for joining me and I hope you’re enjoying and will continue to do so.

Cheers!