I enjoyed not enjoying these exercises, it meant my mind was rebelling against getting out of a comfort zone. I'm too inexperienced to get set in my ways and confine myself to a style - though part of me craves the personal, recognizable style another part sees that as a trap that will stop me developing.

So during the project I dug out tools I would never normally use, and neglected or new acquisitions, and tried to enter into the spirit of things. Naturally I hated pretty much everything I produced :-)

Journey

I started out scribbling down everything I could think of that could convey the idea of journey, from modes of transport, to sights and tools, to the journey of life, inner journeys and one very important festive traveller.

I recalled many train trips and the strange sense of being between places, with nothing to stop me riding on and on and just seeing where I arrive. I never intentionally travelled beyond my stop, but I do remember the voyeurism of seeing down into the back gardens, places that are ordinarily hidden but for these people are routinely and fleeting exposed to the gaze of whoever chooses to look through the wind.

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Cloudwatching

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Slow

Trying a few different ink-based tools and breaking out the charcoal for the first time in years.

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Fast

Using pavement chalks to stop me fussing about details. What a marvellous sunset I've drawn :-)

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And a quick sketch that turned into Old Mother Hubbard finding her cupboards bare while her poor (and disproportionately large) dog waits on the other side of the door.

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Metamorphosis

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Metamorphosis 2

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Crowd of creatures

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Colours

The dominant feature of my life at the moment is Microsoft Teams and the easiest colours I had to hand were the pavement chalks.

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Thread

A daisy chain

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Transform me

This was a surprise, I didn't exactly fall in love with it, but seeing another image emerge was a really interesting experience.

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Flat

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Structure & Take 2

Willow domes led me on to bird nests and bird boxes.

The parts I liked from previous were the effect of the charcoal on this paper (from the earlier vase) and the creatures, so I tried combining them.

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Texture

Bark from the birch tree in my garden

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