A Painting A Day… or Two?

The first page of current sketchbook

"I was jolted into action by the words of a very dear friend. She rebuked me saying, "You are wasting your talent if you don't paint!" I have not been painting as often as I would like. I suppose life always get in the way of painting for me, because it has not always been a priority. It takes a fair amount of discipline for  me to do a painting, even if it's just a small sketch, everyday..."

The above was an entry I never published, because after doing a sketch a day for perhaps a week I fell victim to "Life" again. There is always another crisis in the family, another emergency to attend to, another busy spell. Not until an accident that put a stop to "normal" Life recently.

On the eve of Fathers Day here in Australia, we decided to go out for an early celebration dinner. Just before leaving, I stubbed my toe in the bathroom when I tripped and fell while in a hurry. Not good. Never be in a hurry. I had fractured my toe.

I had to stop my daily activities because the foot was sore and swollen. After two weeks, I could hobble around on crutches but remained house bound. For a normally active person, it was depressing to say the least. I had to do something to keep my sanity. I decided to draw. My foot was injured but my hands were perfectly fine. The first thing I did was to watch art videos on You tube for inspiration. This led me to sign up for an online course which did wonders for me. I also discovered the Sktchy app on my iPad. Sktchy is a place where artists can draw people (muses) who post their photos to be drawn. It's perfect for me as I really wanted to practise my portraiture skills.

Two things happened this time. Firstly I started sketching daily since 24 September, and have now nearly filled an entire sketchbook. Simultaneously since joining Sktchy on 29 September, I was catapulted into joining Inktober, making a drawing everyday according to the prompts, one for each day in October. So finally, I am making at least 2 artworks daily and more. I can see myself doing this as a habit now. Its wonderful. In fact, its the best thing that has happened in my artistic journey in a while!

Drawing with the Sktchy inspiration on my iPad
The first drawing for Inktober 2017 /Swift

I have been posting my daily drawings on Instagram. Follow me to see my daily sketches on https://instagram/bee_kctan