and again, it's the hands that matter

one of the most worthwhile things I have learned over the past few years is that the best path to learning is to simply show up regularly and put in the time

its so simple yet surprisingly hard; in a world full of instant gratification the notion of working at something every single day seems not just daunting but downright unreasonable

and yet...

I have been spending 45 minutes every day doing pen, brush and drawing trials and whilst the desired outcome is to see an improvement in both my calligraphy and drawing skills I'm finding what has actually improved the most is my comfort with the materials

in drawing, holding the charcoal, choosing the paper, mixing the paint... all of these things are building my confidence and making me much more comfortable with the tools and materials

and from that comfort , the marks are being made with more surety and the outcomes are more interesting

I began the pen and brush trials at the end of August I think, the drawing one was added to the mix just over two weeks ago

below are the first two drawings, both done with a charcoal pencil

I found the pencil difficult to use (though that may have had more to do with the paper than the pencil) and so from Day 3 on I have only used compressed charcoal

I'm struggling to preserve any white space, the charcoal seems to get everywhere, not least because it first gets all over my fingers!

I had a stack of papers left over from other projects and have been using them for these trials - some times that works out alright but not always

(a more considered approach to choosing paper seems to be in order)

but what fun it has been to get so dirty, smudging a few clouds into existence with my fingers

charcoal is such a tactile material

the drawings are rather messy, the lines not always as crisp as I'd like them but every day I hold a piece of charcoal in my hand and bring something forth on the paper

no longer does the wish to draw or practice swooping, swirling letter forms live in my mind

the marks on the papers are tangible reminders that it's my hands that need to be at work, not my head