a sketchy dream

I've never known what to do career-wise. Never known what I'd like enough to choose to do long term. Truthfully, I never really planned on having a 'career'. But for quite a number of years now I've had this idea floating around the back of my head of writing, maybe even illustrating, children's stories. During the last year or so I've been thinking more about drawing and have even done a bit more but I still seriously need to develop my skills. Not just in drawing but in being disciplined and persisting. I do tend to have a play at something and then drift away from the idea but I'd like to give drawing--being an artist--a proper try and see if I can be any good and if I might enjoy it long term. Test my potential.

I bought this book a while back called "One drawing a day". I thought this would be a good starter. They call it a six week course in drawing and the basic idea is to simply draw and get into the habit of doing so and explore different art mediums. After reading the introduction I decided to get some more supplies to work with.

Today I went for a jog and purposefully ended up near an art shop. The art store has a sale on so there were lots of good prices. I think I spent more than an hour in there trying to decide what to get. I didn't want to spend too much but there were so many interesting tools and supplies in there. It wasn't till I got home that I realised how much of a bargain I got. Some of the things I bought were 65% off.
I happily have a whole assortment of art toys to play with. A lovely new blank sketch book full of potential. I'm excited about trying the bamboo brush/pen. It has a nib shaped end and a brush end. I wanted a bamboo nib but I was summoned by the bamboo brushes too. I borrowed a book on Chinese Brush Art from the library last year that was wonderfully inspiring. I also bought a gold/bronze ink and black ink to go with it. And I have red already. I also got--some of the huge bargains I scored--a 24 oil pastels set to experiment with and a little watercolour kit that has 12 half size blocks in a practical carry case. I bought myself a good watercolour paintbrush too because it's much nicer using quality. I also got some graphite pencils, some pens (one has a brush end) and a kneadable eraser. That should get me started quite well.

And to help keep me persisting, I aim to share my favourite drawing from the week each Sunday.