Day 120

'Couldn't be arsed', Pen and Marker on Paper

Been having that general feeling that I really couldn't be arsed doing anything lately which is worrying on many levels, just think I've hit a bit of a funk of late. It's that kind of feeling that i would liken to when you need to  tidy your room, it is something that never gets dealt with until something more important comes up, then all of a sudden we occupy ourselves with that task as a means of avoiding that which should really be taking care of. Luckily the feeling hasn't affected my drawing so far mainly as it's kinda become second nature,  it's becoming so ingrained in my routine that I barely remember doing it. So much so actually that there have been quite a few mornings that I've awoken and immediately though, 'awww... fuck! I forgot to do my drawing yesterday'. Then spent the guts of 15 mins trying to recall everything I did the day before to ensure that I did in fact complete a drawing at some stage, all the while frantically trying to bring my PC to life to check that I haven't made a complete balls up. I'm just hoping that something important comes up so that I can then preoccupy myself with so that I can address the minor apathy that has been affecting my motivation of late.

Day 119

'Murphy', Pen on Paper

Just a quick 10 min sketch tonight of my house mates gecko that some of us have affectionately named Murphy ,due to him eating baby food like Murphy in RoboCop. The reason why it was only a 10 min sketch is due to the fact that allow he never moves and was sitting perfectly still for a good 15 mins before I even begun, as soon as I began to draw him he decided to then move. I could almost swear that he looked directly at my before doing a 180 and strutting off into the undergrowth piled in the corner of his glass cage, it's not a pleasant felling when you realise the you just got owned by a Gecko.

Day 118

'Micro Korg', Pen on Paper

Having the ability to play a musical instrument has always been something that I have a strong urge to do but never really focused long enough to do so, even after being offered free lessons on guitar, piano and drums by numerous friends over the years. My only real foray into the music world was Christmas passed when a house mate and myself set up a fake band called the 'Santa Flaws' to play a few Christmas songs. Recently there have been vague rumblings about a re-union so I think it's time for me to revisit my thirst for developing some musical talent and help get the band back together for some more musical escapades.

Day 117

'Lamp', Pen and Watercolour on Paper

Light is something that is very important in drawing, it's something that I'm becoming more aware of over the course of this project also as any drawn image is essentially built from light and shadow. It's the relationship between the two that give an image it's sense of depth, it's texture and decides it's form, more importantly it's the understanding of the two. This is something that I aim to develop more over the course of this project, the hope is the more I draw the more enlightened I'll become as to how to use these elements more effectively to create an image based on what ever the subject matter will be. It should also become a case that as my understanding increases so to will the technical skill with which I draw, at least that's the hope.

Day 116

'Wallet', Pen and Marker on Paper

We seem to have a preoccupation for creating objects to contain numerous smaller objects for the various different facets of our daily routine. The wallet being a perfect example, it holds our money, bank cards, loyalty cards, identification, receipts from items bought years ago that are reaching the end of their self life, cards and scraps of paper with the numbers of people whose face or relevance we can no longer recall, photographs of those people that we are never likely to forget. It's again another means for us to confine the clutter in our lives to a smaller area and generate the illusion that we are in some sort of state of organisation. However when it comes time to actually access something in particular it never seems to be exactly where you thought it was, instead you spend what seems like an eternity in a blind panic rifling though ever other object you own containing multiple smaller objects in order to find that one thing that you really need at that moment. So even with all the things that we own which are used to create an element of being organised we somehow always end up as lost as when things are left in complete chaos.

Day 115

'got a few things to iron out' Pen And Marker on Paper

I really do have some things to iron mostly a lot of text to catch up on for the last week or so as taken on some extra work but will be off soon and plan to work through it all, so text updates to follow later this week.

As I said I've been doing a little extra work on the side and have finally got it finished which is posted under Day 107, also getting back on top of all the missing text for the last few days finally, so things are running a bit more smoothly again.

Day 114

'get the measure of one's self', Pen and Marker on Paper

It sometimes important to take stock of things look at your own shortcomings and see how you can make a change. This has been what the 365 Draws has been all about thus far and as one of the things I found most disappointing was how I hadn't been doing any work since leaving Art college. It is frustrating to have a desire to do something but to make inane excuse after inane excuse as to somehow convince yourself that there is a justifiable reason for avoiding that which you want to do. It is something that we all do, and what I seriously recommend is taking a little time to do one of those things that you have always really want to do in any kind of context, even if it's merely for a few days, a few hours or a few brief moments. All it does is confirm once and for all that this is something that you were meant to do or something that you have now done and you can lay the beast to rest so to speak. As everything has been going well so far it also gives me the appetite for more, it has made me once again consider the other notions, ideas and ambitions that have bounced around in my head for a while and there lays the possibility of what to do next which is immensely exciting. Possibility is all about that feeling of what can I do next rather than why It's not feasible to do it now.

Day 113

'Kingfisher', Pen on Paper

Got home from work and was coerced into heading out for a few hours for a beer, so took my sketchbook into the field to fit in a drawing while at the pub. The drawing my seem familiar mostly as I drew some beer bottles before but it fits in with the thoughts for today so you can forgive me for that. I find that we can be very easily swayed, well I definitely am, and we are liable to give in to the slightest bit of temptation. I've never been sure if it's because our curiosity generates that notion of 'what if I miss something epic', if  its that we are worried about letting friends down or if our own sense of adventure leaves us unashamedly open to suggestion. Either way that you look at it it's often quite hard to say no especially as most of those last minute decisions to do something led to the more interesting experiences in our lives. 

Day 112

'Passing the Torch', Pen and Marker on Paper

I've been thinking a lot more recently about the the future of the project when it's run it's initial planned course, do I want to continue drawing for another year or look at the possibility of passing the torch onto someone else. Could I possibly challenge someone to take up the project when I finish or even multiple people to take the project forward, generate growth and allow it to take on a new life under the direction of someone new.

Day 111

'Sunny', Pen and Marker on Paper

Such a great day I decided to take the drawing outside and soak up some much needed rays, get some of those D vitamins everyone's raving about. It really doesn't get much better than waking up on a day off and realising that it's an awesome day, a day when you have no plans, no worries and you can just kick back and relax or make the most of your spare time and do something you've been putting off for a while. Which is exactly what I did today after visiting a few friends I haven't seen in an age, it's could to catch up with people must do it more often.

 

Day 110

'Layers' Pen and Marker on paper

Analogies are often used to illustrate that which is hard to explain in it's original terms, the use of an analogy gives us something to visualise that makes the situation much easier to grasp, allowing us to then comprehend the notion in it's original terms also. There is one analogy that is used frequently that when I visualise it brings to me to a completely different conclusion than is intended. That analogy being the onion, more specifically how the onion and it's many layers are representative of the depth and complexity of anything ranging from a social or cultural model to a person and the many facets of their personality. The notion that the layers can be peeled back to uncover the multitude of hidden traits, histories, and planes of persona that belong to that which the onion represents. I am under no illusion that society or people for that matter can't have multiply layers, my problem comes from what happens when you actually peel back the layers of an onion. Rather than discover that the onion is infinitely unique, that each new layer identifies something more interesting than the last, that with each layer peeled back the more insight you receive... it all ends in tears.

Day 109

'Domo', Pen and Marker on Paper

We tend to be fascinated by other cultures often adopting those elements that we find to be of the most value to us, the things that we most interesting. It's something that we've done since our existence which can be seen in how our society evolves based on the things that we learn from other cultures. It is the sharing of knowledge over time that has led to our advancement technologically, socially and culturally so it's important that we embrace these opportunities to explore other cultures. The best way I think to do this is travel and as they say travel broadens the mind so I think this is something that we all need to do at some point in our life experience the world outside of the normal parameters that we exist.

  

Day 108

'More Stuff', Pen on Paper

I again was looking at someone else's personal space, mainly as I've been considering how you can tell a lot about a person by the stuff that they have accumulated over the course of their life. We all crave to possess those things that we find will make our lives more interesting, more simple or possibly just more entertaining. The actual things that we wish to behold are very representative of our personality as we wouldn't covet something unless we truly wanted it. As a result by looking at the objects scattered, arranged or disguised in someone's own private space we can ascertain a lot about the type of person that they are. We can see their interests, their failed dreams and hobbies, their habits and even their history in the stuff piled on more stuff that surrounds them.

Day107

'Automata', Pen on Paper

My internet connection decided to collapse last night so only getting to post this drawing this morning, it's a rough draft for some imagery that is for a gig poster a friend of mine asked me to do. The image is in it's early stages and may take on a few more drafts before it gets there but for some reason when I heard what bands were in the line-up my first though was dinosaurs and my second was something mechanical. I figured might as well combine the two so have been looking at automata as a means of doing this and by doing so creating something quirky and interesting to flesh out the poster, so whenever it's finalised I'll post it on here so you can see the finished article.

As I said I would post up the finalised poster after it was done so her it is...

Day 106

'Jab', Pencil on Paper

Drawing people is one of those things that I would like to get better at so over the course of this project I aim to include drawings of some of my close friends as a means to do this. Today in particular is a friend of mine Jonny or 'Jab' as a lot of people know him who had hinted at me drawing him before, so I decided to oblige. Like the earlier portrait of Conor I was aiming to highlight some aspect of the subjects personality in the drawing. In Jonny's case it's his ability to look or be involved in something completely ludicrous whilst at the same time be able to remain straight faced and serious until finally breaking down into hysterics.

Day 105

'Go bananas', Pen and Watercolour on Paper

My inability to take things easy got the better of my again last night, as a result I spent most of today in a delirious stupor. In saying this though it sure was fun, sometimes we need to go that little bit loco just so as to blow of the required amount of steam to become a functioning and normal individual again... even if the day after we are not operating at full capacity. There is nothing that it seems can't be cured with a bit of excess amongst friends and copious amounts of sleep the next day, which I do believe is exactly what I'm going to do now as I'm exhausted and in need of a major reboot.

Day 104

'Strange Habits', Pen and Marker on Paper

Today's drawing is in reference to strange habit I had all throughout University, Whilst studying I spent the majority of my time working with found materials such as card, wire, thread, wood and paper. If you're spending much of your time then building and sculpting objects one thing you always need are all the basic necessary tools and bits and pieces, as without them you tend to become undone and lose any creative momentum. As a result I spent the majority of 3 years with a Stanley knife or craft knife somewhere about my person as it was the one thing I used most. In fact I would buy shed-loads of them and they were kept in the pockets of numerous jackets, jeans and trousers. The strange habit then is in regards to my ability to forget that I had said knife or knives in my pocket, only realising when I'd put my hand in my pocket to grab my wallet or my phone. Which is fine but I tended to somehow only manage to do this on a night out surrounded by people. Which then meant that I would spend the majority of the rest of the evening worrying about getting stopped and searched especially considering I had more blades than Gillette.

Day 103

'Without a Paddle', Pen and Watercolour on Paper

It's something I've touched on briefly before but its relevance has shown itself again, what I am referring to is how we can have a knack for getting ourselves into trouble. This may come about by saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time or by simply just having chosen that moment in time to self-destruct. For the most part we never see these moments coming as we lack foresight and instead have to realise in hindsight that there may be some back-peddling, some apologising and possibly a storm to ride out until we can emerge from a certain creek unscathed... especially if we don't have the necessary tools to make a speedy and hassle free exit.

Day102

'The Right Key', Pen on Paper

Just a quick drawing in relation to something I noticed recently, that being how we tend to hold on to keys long after they have failed to be of use. I have one on my key ring that is for a padlock that I haven't seen or used in about 4 years and would be hard pressed to even give you the general vicinity of where it resides. In fact in the house I'm currently sitting in there is a bunch of keys in a cupboard all of which are seemingly unique and of a number far greater than the number of doors in my actually house. For whatever reason as well I know that there useless but I don't think I'll ever throw them out instead they'll stay in a drawer somewhere for a few years undetected awaiting discovery, after which I'll spend the guts of 20 minutes trying them in every lock in my house as I try and figure out what the hell they're for. After finding out they serve absolutely no purpose I'll return them to the drawer from whence they came... just in case, leaving them to grow in mass until the next time they are discovered and the whole thing starts again.

Day 101

'Bird and Cage concept sketch', Pen and Marker on Paper

Slight change of plan as I'm working earlier than usual tomorrow so need to get an early night, good news is though I'm finished up at 5 and have the text written by hand already so will catch that all up tomorrow.

The basics of Day 101 is based on a few sculptural works I've done before and I'm looking at making more of them as I feel there is quite a lot of potential there for expansion, have a few photo's of the previous works to that I'll add tomorrow but that will be it for now.

As I said below are a few of the older pieces I did before that should hopefully give you more of an idea of the direction that particular work is heading in and over the course of the coming weeks this will probably be one of the side projects that I mentioned I may be looking to begin.

Day 100

'Century', Pen and Marker on Paper

Updated text due tomorrow morning as for the last few days it's been pretty hectic should have everything updated after Day 101 is posted. In the meantime I've managed to reach 100 days and 100 drawings and I definitely didn't see myself getting this far originally and it's went by fairly quickly to only 265 days left.

Day 99

'One Glove', Pen and Marker on Paper

Just been thinking more and more about the progress I've made so far as it's almost day 100 and things are still ticking over nicely. That's not to say it hasn't been difficult to maintain my motivation, something which if you've read many of the other posts will be all too familiar to you as I think I've went on about that quite a few times. I think we are all capable of becoming lackadaisical and can harbour excuses when we need to do something important, then again we also sometimes need something to blame when we are struggling rather than shouldering the blame ourselves but I think that is a topic for another day. The main point of today was to highlight that in the beginning of this project I essentially challenged my own laziness and apathy to a dual and thus far it has proved the slap in the face I needed to get me drawing again, not only that but so far I seem to be succeeding and long may it continue.

Day 98

'Paper Crane', Pen on Paper

Some familiar themes reoccurring again today those being in regards to an illustration/t-shirt design that plays on the notion of homonyms and how certain sayings and associations can change by reassigning a slightly different meaning. The thought behind today came whilst at work and during a particularly slow few hours I decided to learn some origami in this case how to make an origami crane. Whilst doing this I was also thinking about cranes in terms of the mechanised giants that are used in the construction trade as it has always perplexed me as to how really large cranes are built. It's normally a case that they just seem to appear very quickly but where do the come from and how are the constructed? I thought then that this play on the dual meanings of the word crane would lend itself well to this rough concept. If I was to spend a little more time at this I would probably toy about with the use of sepia ink and possibly a more mathematical drawing of the building under construction. There was something else I found out about Origami Cranes also that I found to be quite interesting, that being that there is a legend that says if you make 1000 origami cranes you will be granted a wish... so I guess it's time to start folding.

Day 97

'Innocent Chaos', Pen and Marker on Paper

Was down visiting a friend at her studio today and decided to fit in a quick sketch whilst I was there, She runs Innocent Chaos which is a small independent business making jewellery, in fact if you look to the left of the page near the top you should be able to find a link to her site. So if you have a chance also be sure to check out her stuff to get a better idea of the kind of work she does.

Day 96

'If Life was a Monopoly', Pen and Marker on Paper.

Just a quick one today, a concept for a series of t-shirt designs based on monopoly and using the symbols and  monetary value to relate to mood or style. So if your affluent, a risk taker, charitable or prone to a little self-deprecation there would be something to relate to this based on the imagery and themes within monopoly. 

Day 95

'Punched Out', Pen and Marker on Paper

Been noticing more and more recently how satisfying the feeling of approaching clocking off time at work can be. It is not even a case either that this is something that only applies in job that you can't stand, even if you love the job you're in you still get that same familiar felling when punching out. A sense of relief, a whimper of elation as we're normally too tired to get overjoyed unless it's the weekend and a general feeling of release as we are finally on our own time. Work is one of those things that we never want to start and as soon as we do we can't wait until it's over and we can kick back enjoy our own company and drink in the ambiance of our homestead. In fact as I write this I'm actually getting a very similar feeling so it's at this time I like to say that's enough for now Don Miller signing off for the evening.

Day 94

'Don't forget your Toothbrush', Pen and Marker on Paper

Just a quick drawing this evening as I had some other stuff I needed to take care of as well, Basically the thought behind today is that when I think about a lot of the people from my past, many of them have left this country or are considering leaving soon to travel further a field to places such as Australia, Germany, America, France, Italy and many other places much more exotic and fascinating than my current surroundings. Travelling is something that I've not really done that much of but is one of those things that I feel I need to do, especially as I haven't developed the ability to get any younger. I've often made plans, as I'm sure a lot of you have done too, to just up sticks and venture to greener pastures but as with most things we can tend to put those plans on hold by letting other priorities and commitments get in our way. In many instances allowing this to go on so too long that it can get to a point where it's no longer conceivable to make those plans a reality. A large part of me is overcome with envy at those that have taken their dream to travel the world and made it so. On the other hand though I seek solace in the fact that most of the people that have done this, have done so with little more than some discipline, some focus and some determination... so I think it may be time I began to think about doing the same.

Day 93

'Plied on the Pressure'

It's becoming increasingly more evident as this project evolves that there is a great deal more that I could be exploring. The Drawings, concepts and thoughts that I have touched upon daily could lead me in any number of directions and the subject matters included could provide with a more focussed practice if I just took one of these notions and stuck with it. However I do find that being able to allow the drawings to be of anything rather than having one particular theme allows me greater freedom and perhaps after the year is done I can choose the elements that were strongest and develop those more. I have also found that from talking to other people about the project to me there is a pressure developing from this to do that little bit more, and this is not to satisfy those people that I have spoken to but more for me. The main reason for starting this project was that I felt I had let my creativity slide, I had entered a slump and I just needed some focus to elevate myself above it. So as things have been going relatively smoothly thus far perhaps instead of just focussing on drawing I could possibly start to develop and incorporate other work and side projects, utilising any extra spare time I can find to take these other things that I want to explore and delve into that a little more. If I do this it's going to be about how I can take these separate tangents and ply them together so that I can still remain focussed on completing the drawing task, all the while trying to further my art practice and generate some larger scale work.

Day 92

'It's been too long', Pen on Paper

Something that I find I've often had a problem with is keeping in touch with people, It is something I think that we are all guilty of at some point or another and for any variety of reasons it can happen all too easy. What normally happens is we meet someone and for that span of time, however long or short, that we are interacting regularly or intensely we form a very solid bond and that person becomes a major part of our life. We've done this all throughout our lives from our homes, at school, at work, at parties, nights out and pretty much any time we interact with someone. The inevitability is though that we move house, we finish school, we get a different job and we don't go out as much or even to the same places. What this means is that those solid bonds that we once generated become unstable and slowly dissipate as our live takes a different direction and we find ourselves not being in the company of that person or persons as frequently. The strange thing is that most people are just a phone call, a text, an email or even a short journey away but we always find some way of perpetuating our inability to make a concerted effort. We tend to blame work, our busy schedules, we prioritise other people or events as being more important and in some cases we take the stance that they haven't made the effort then why should I? We all have the ability to reconnect with people fairly easily these days but we don't normally take the opportunities that are presented to us on a daily basis. It's something that I think we could all work on and how this fits with the drawing today is that the teddy in the drawing is for a friends of mines baby. As you can see from the drawing I still have the present and it has certainly been too long since I was originally to visit, which I feel pretty guilty about but I intend to rectify that soon. So if you're reading this and you can think of anyone that you haven't spoke to in a while I'd recommend giving them a shout it's always good to catch up.

Day 91

'Mind Equals Blown', Pen On Paper

Hey there got todays drawing done but not at home so have no way of uploading the image at the moment, I will put it up first thing tomorrow.

As you can see from the above statement was unable to post yesterdays drawing until today despite my best efforts but, got back home in the early hours of the morning and managed to get it posted. Today's 'draw' is another concept for a t-shirt design based on a phrase that some friends of mine and even myself would use from time to time. A phrase that in certain state of insobriety when sent in a text once read 'mime equals blown' this did not have the intended effect I had hoped for but was a source of great amusement for the recipient of said text.

Day 90

'I need a cuppa' Pen on Paper

It's officially the end of March, so that means that three months have now elapsed and thankfully I haven't given up yet. What I've found so far is there have been plenty of frustrating moments, plenty of times when I've lacked that little bit of inspiration until the dying moments and plenty of cups of tea and coffee to keep my mind caffeinated and ticking over when I need it most. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support so far as it's been one of the main things that has been keeping me motivated, I think I'll leave it there for now as I have a few extra things planned which should hopefully be finished this weekend to sum up things thus far, all that's left now is to kick back, take a break and have a quick cuppa to wake me up to a new month.