Creating good habits

double page spread 12x9
Micron, inktensive pencils.

This year I find myself in a reflective state of mind closing out the matters of the old year and embracing the new. This includes the incorporation of creating at least one good habit. Used to, my resolutions almost always had an art factor like... "I'll do an urban sketch once a week"..., "I'll finish up that themed sketchbook from last summer"..., "I'll test that sample paper I have collected"...- whatever! In the past these art resolutions focused on drawing more after the holidays break. Often times as resolutions go, the enthusiasm fizzles and the dedication weakens to distraction.  The last time I committed to a daily regular practice of drawing it was an online drawing course associated with more harm than good. Needing to begin 2017  with confidence to achieve my art resolution, I challenged myself to 100 sketches in 3 months... only I began the challenge in November.

Micron pen 6x9

   This challenge has been reconditioning me to create a positive drawing habit in healing through these 100 sketches. Some times they are the struggles of just getting through another page with words and doodles. Other times they are untypical Urban Sketching without a group. Of the Urban Sketches thus far, what I find fascinating are the few vignettes of people's personal spaces.  As I quietly observe... after the composition is decided, after the sculptural scaffolding of my next sketch are built, I can then begin the real flow of the drawing and I finally begin to relax. In this moment of peace I am no longer in connection of my own challenges and shortcomings either in the drawing or my personal matters and are thus able to connect outside myself to honored a space someone else has created. -  Feather.