{See the previous episodes about this project here.}
I suppose it’s inevitable that committing to a daily practice of any kind is going to start throwing lessons in your face pretty quickly. There is so much it will show you about what you believe are your capabilities, your weaknesses, and how you behave when you just REALLY don’t want to do something. 😉
gouache {this is part of my new energy painting development, which I’ll talk more about another time}
At the time of writing, it’s Day 18 of my #dailyscapes project, and I’m discovering ~ and in several cases getting the opportunity to, er, reframe ~ what happens when I am not in the mood, what happens when I AM in the mood, what happens when I go in with a plan, what happens when I don’t, and perhaps most importantly and interestingly for me, where I believe my limits lie.
acrylics, gesso and charcoal
Since that last one is coming up in all areas of my life, it does seem to be something asking for my attention lately. It seems I have plenty of beliefs in my limitations, and being able to see them is not yet in all cases developing into an ability to always transcend them.
gouache
I haven’t made any promises about how long I’ll keep this project up; quite frankly I’m astonished to have made it to the greater part of a month at this point. Secretly I’d like to fill the whole sketchbook. We shall see. Most of them really do only take five or ten minutes, which is a tiny percentage of my day, whatever resistance might like to tell me when I don’t feel like it.
water soluble neocolors by caran d’ache
One thing that helps me keep going is sharing.
I share each day’s scape on Instagram and Facebook, and it’s always interesting to see which ones prove popular {often the ones I am not happy with, interestingly}, and really helps to keep me accountable.
Of course I realise no one will care if I miss a day or stop altogether; but I like the connection and camaraderie of sharing with other artists and creatives, some of whom have daily practices of their own.
gouache and my beloved palette knife
So far I’ve been challenging myself to try a different medium or combination of mediums and tools every day. I can feel a call to begin to zoom in a bit now though, to explore my favourite methods in greater depth.
charcoal and soft pastels
I love that in doing this project I not only find greater clarity and understanding in my relationship with myself, enjoy connecting with others through the images, and feel the satisfaction of a steadily filling sketchbook; I also am creating the path of my artistic development by walking it.
Each little painting can tell me something about where I want to go next, what might be fun to try, what I could do as an offshoot, what I might do differently next time.
gouache
Experimentation is an absolute cornerstone of my approach to art {and life, in many ways}. I really recommend a little daily practice like this if you want to develop yourself in all directions. Not to mention it’s a great little self care tool and a way to incorporate the all important PLAY into your day. 🙂
Do you have a daily practice? Have you ever tried one? What did you learn from it? Let me know in the comments!
I’m finding you accounts of your ‘dailyscapes’ really fascinating. Your explorations with different media and and your very varied approaches strike me as being so free and open and full of possibility. This is exactly how I would like to work with a sketchbook, but my judging voice holds me back and tightens me up. I don’t have a daily practice, but would like to make one happen. Your blog has inspired me do it. Please could you tell me what sketchbook you are using? It seems to take all the different media very well. I live in UK so should be able to find the same one. For some reason I keep misreading dailyscapes as dailyscrapes! I think that’s how I would feel doing this, it looks like it could be daily adventures into the unknown which is pretty scary for me. Why should playing in a sketchbook seem so daunting? The way you are doing it is making me see how important the play and experiment part is. It’s exciting to see where this is leading you already.
Hi Christine, and thank you for your comment! I am delighted you are inspired by my ‘dailySCRAPES’. 🙂 That really made me laugh; so appropriate in several ways! I do think that giving it a loose framework {the subject of ‘scapes’, which could really mean all sorts of things} has been part of what has made it easy to dive in each day. I am by nature very experimental and that probably helps too; I’m always thinking things like ‘what if I tried this combination?’ or ‘oooh, that’s pretty, how can I recreate that for myself?’ etc.
What might also help is that the sketchbook cost me £3 {it was in the sale/seconds section}; it’s by Seawhite of Brighton which you can find on Amazon and I think they have their own website too. It’s just a hardback small sketchbook; the pages are fairly sturdy. It crinkles a little with water but does hold most of what I do to it well!
I am also careful to nip any rulemaking in the bud; it comes up from time to time and I try to notice it so I can consciously let it go. Things like ‘I should keep going til I’ve finished the whole book’, or ‘I have to do something good every day’. My only ‘rule’, if you like, is to just do SOMEthing each day, and I certainly don’t love or even like everything I’ve done!
Whatever you can do to keep it fun and light hearted, and not become something serious or heavy, will help. Make it not matter. It’s just paper, a very small amount of paint or pastels or whatever, and five or ten minutes of my day. It’s not about creating a masterpiece, or even a finished painting each time. It’s about play and experimentation.
I’d love to know if you decide to start your own daily practice! Hope this helps. 🙂