8 Months into Daily Sketching

 
I am still doing daily sketching and posting over at The Sketchbook Blog. I’m actually sticking with it people! This is not that painful!
The whole idea of taking the time to sketch daily has been full of starts and fits for me, but despite that it has slowly turned into a new, daily discipline. Reminder to you all- I DIDN’T KNOW I COULD SKETCH BEFORE I STARTED THIS! I find myself heading over to the family room table I sketch at instinctively every day, usually in the morning, to get my sketch done when I feel fresh and the light is good.


 
If I have no idea what to sketch, I usually can find something in the mail, like a page of necklaces from the latest JCrew catalog…

 
 
or maybe a pretty liquor bottle…

 
Eight months into daily sketching has made me realize that I have created a bit of muscle memory in my hands and brain, just the same way sketching out lines and swirls over and over again in preparation to try free motion quilting them creates muscle memory.

 
Without a doubt, I am getting more confident in my sketching ability, and I am also becoming more aware of what I can and just simply can’t sketch in a short amount of time. Like, nice shading around anything takes time for me. Like, there are some things I simply can’t sketch at this point. Like, I realize sketching everyday things is fun. Like, the more I sketch, the more I realize I have a style that is mine alone.

 
It takes less time for me to complete a daily sketch. When I started this year-long process back in August 2012, some of those early sketches took hours (and I reluctantly admit that, they were not that great). And they weren’t “hours” great! These days, I don’t struggle as much to fill each day’s blank page, it doesn’t scare me the way it did. Also, I am willing to post a sketch that I don’t really love, understanding that the sketch process for that day yielded that particular image and it’s all a part of learning to to tackle this with confidence.

 
Many of you expressed interest in the idea of doing something like this on your own when I first blogged about it and I can’t recommend it enough. I tend to be a person obsessed with pushing my creative boundaries anyway, but it has been eye opening for me to expand this whole side of my creative life. My advice is to jump in and try any new daily challenge that expands and stretches you, everything will look differently because of it.