Everyday Matters

I've joined a group called Everyday Matters. Everybody on there is so talented that I feel a bit overwhelmed, but even though I haven't posted yet, it seems like an amazing resource and a great supportive community. There's an accompanying book, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be the Artist You Truly Are which I have on order from Amazon and I'm dying to get my hands on, and a series of drawing challenges which is great for someone like me, who never knows where to start.



Here's my effort for EDM #1 - "Draw a shoe". I was pretty pleased with this when it was still a pencil sketch but as soon as I started painting over it it all started looking a bit wrong. I'm not sure about the results, but this is only the second time I've ever played with Acrylics and it's all a bit strange and new.

Any comments or advice or criticism would be gratefully received!

I'll start at the very beginning

I'll start at the very beginning. A new blog for my arts and crafts stuff. Nobody I know in the real world is reading this yet so I don't have to feel embarrassed about anything, and maybe I'll be able to find some constructive criticism about my pictures along the way.

I used to love drawing and painting as a child but somewhere along the way became stifled -- told off once too often by school teachers for spending too long on presentation or for being too prissy -- or maybe it was just the normal self-consciousness of teenage years that put me off. Either way, here I am in my mid-30s with no idea about different types of paints, I don't know a 2B pencil from an HB and I haven't done much creative for well over half my lifetime.

So it's back to the beginning. Hopefully a very good place to start but as yet, still not sure where I'm going. Help me find my feet?

Here's page 1 of my new sketch book -- done with a cheap watercolour set that I took on holiday to Corfu with me a couple of weeks ago. It's called "Villa Sotiris / by the pool". How does it look?