One of the best things about sailing in company with other boats – apart from the parties, of course – is the opportunity to photograph and sketch them close up. Sketching from a small sailing boat can be frustrating, not just because you are rolling around too much to draw, or getting in the helmsman’s continue reading »
I’m a slow learner. I think I’m just getting the hang of this creative malarkey at an age when others are beginning to wind down after a long and glorious career. On my headstone, please, I want the words ‘Damn! I was just getting the hang of it!’ Sometimes storms can be as productive as continue reading »
I learn more from teaching than my students do; there’s nothing to focus the mind quite like having to explain something clearly, to show how to do it and analyse why it’s going wrong for someone else. Drawing, I tell them, is just thinking with a pencil. Don’t blame your hand for your mistakes, blame continue reading »
Starting a project in the morning and finishing it in the afternoon doesn’t happen often; life is usually much messier than that, especially when working on a book. But it’s a new year with a new list of projects, one of which is a mouse mat design. I did a similar design last year with continue reading »
You have probably heard this analogy already, but I came across it again recently and it’s a good reminder for when life seems to get in the way of life. Take a large glass jar and fill it full of pebbles. Is it full? Yes of course. Now take a handful of gravel and put continue reading »