At the start of the year, I decided to challenge myself to draw something every single day. At the end of the year, I guess I should look back and see how I did.
I have 304 posts in the category for Drawing 2024. That’s not every day (304/366 is just under 6 per week), but it’s an awful lot more drawing/painting than I would have done without this challenge. As promised, not all of them are good (by whatever standard you judge that!), but some I’m even pleased with.
In no particular order, some things I’ve learned:
- I’ve tried oil painting, and I wasn’t sure about it at all.
- I learned more about colour mixing. How to make colours darker, mixing greys, adding shadows by using complementary colours rather than just adding grey…
- I’ve played with soluble inks and water, and different colours of ink.
- I drew some Christmas card options and produced actual cards (with Clarkie’s input).
- I’ve discovered I can draw a reasonable impression of a scene directly in ink, without making an under-sketch.
- And correspondingly, that my sketches will be better proportioned if I do use an initial sketch!
- I’ve started to understand that you can ‘learn’ an object, it’s proportions etc, to make it quicker to sketch.
- But that it’s super easy to draw what you think you see, and that never ends with a picture I like.
- And that there are so many things to see! Like the table I’m using to type this on, how the legs join, what the grain looks like, how does it cast a shadow… There are so many interesting shapes, things that I’d never noticed (sun-loungers, hello) that are much more complex than I’d ever imagined.
I think that last point is the biggest thing I’ve learnt from this challenge. There’s always something to look at and imagine how you might draw it, even if you don’t do it. It’s made mundane views and objects so much more interesting. And I have my small travel sketchbook that’s turning into a really fun record of the places I’ve been. The memories attached to the drawing are quite visceral.
On the down side, I think I did slightly burn out. Inktober was a bit of a slog (I didn’t even write it up!), and that spilled into the next couple of months too. As the weather got colder I wanted to knit more than draw, and some of the things I want to try next need a bit more space and prep. Excuses. Mostly I’ve just felt a bit tired.
Am I done? No. I don’t think I am. There’s a lot more to learn, and I can definitely improve. I might reduce my target though. But that’s for tomorrow. For today I’m calling this challenge a success, and enjoy looking back over some of this year’s work.
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