Day 1

Mimosa Sprigs in a patterned vase.

Day one of my self directed 100 day project.

I’ll start this off by saying, honestly I hated the process and outcome here! I was so far out of my comfort zone, using new materials - I’m firmly a watercolours girl - and restricting myself to 15 minutes was tough. I almost didn’t post this as I really didn’t love it, and we’re  so conditioned to think everything we post online should be polished and perfect. Then I remembered, the whole point of this project was to push myself out of my comfort zone and just make something for arts sake, to get back into feeling creative, so here we are. I’m sure I’ll grow accustomed to the grip of a pigment market rather than a thin paintbrush eventually! 

I set a timer for 15 minutes and drew a rough pencil sketch of the first thing that came into my head, a bunch of Mimosa flowers in a patterned vase. I guess I was dreaming of the Spring we should be having right now - as opposed to the snow yesterday and freezing cold temperatures this morning. Once i’d drawn a rough pencil outline I gently erased the pencil lines leaving just a faint outline and got started with the pigment markers. Using pens after so long with just watercolours and a brush was quite the shock! My whole business is built on detailed intricate watercolour illustrations, and this quick imperfect mark making I’d decided on was so far from my ‘style’ but the childish lines I produced have been quite freeing. Next time I’d definitely choose a lighter blue for the vase as it’s quite overwhelming!