ALPHABET DRAWN, ALPHABET PHOTOGRAPHED, ALPHABET DONE...
A MONTH OF DRAWING
So a few months back this year, the insanely lovely Chantelle Ellem's (Fat Mum Slim) Photo A Day challenge on Facebook/Instagram had a month of Alphabet. Now because I am a totally ridiculous person who loves to just add more to their plate, I decided to do the whole month with every letter drawn, and a little drawing of something starting with that letter(of course) and a few props as well. It seemed straightforward enough. GAH! AS IF!
Silly old me, I should know better!!! I forgot to take into account that the month in question involved a whole lotta travelling, yep, and not being at home A LOT. DUH! I also failed to realise that it would mean selecting things I could actually draw (my drawing skills aren't actually all that great) reasonably quickly, but I would have to select things that went with the drawing that I had props for.
Sure, it is true that I have lots of props. Tick that box. But I forgot that all the props I needed had to be SMALL and fit on a page for a square flatlay. It made it just a wee bit trickier.
So I would lay in bed at night, or while driving in the car, and mentally go through the alphabet and try to figure out what the heck I was going to do. Eventually I wrote it all down in a notebook, scribbled some ideas and thoughts, and tried to organise in advance. Like for Z for Zipper, I saw some zippers at the op-shop in different colours, and stashed them away for a week until I got around to using them. I bought the X-ray skeleton pen with the image in my mind - as soon as I saw it at Typo it was clear that I needed it!
Of course, the wheels did fall off a few times. I went to Sydney and left behind the images and props I had pre-drawn and prepared. DUH AGAIN! Luckily, I always travel with sketchbook and pens, so I just redrew them while watching telly. But it meant that poor hubby was sent on a mercy dash to find glazed doughnuts very early one morning. He is so kind... the payoff was that he got to eat them when I was done!
Overall I was pleased with how it turned out. Some of the images were rushed, and not quite in focus. Some letters were pretty crappy and I look at them and wish I had redone them. Some I really like. The best part was when I was stumped about what to do and then an idea would strike. It was problem solving at its best, and I felt so chuffed with myself when it came together!
