When nothing works right

Or can't get my mojo working

Well hello and welcome whoever you may be. Welcome to my space for art and trying to encourage others to make some. No AI or algorithms were used in the making of this newsletter. Just pure, human rambling.

Sometimes nothing goes right. You pick up your pencils or pens or paints or whatever and the marks you leave on the paper are just… awful. Other people will look at them see nothing wrong. But not you. You know that it's rubbish.

Today I did a couple of watercolours of bluetits and they sucked. They sucked to the point I'm too embarrassed to share them.

The thing with moments like this is you can let it stop you or you can work through it

I used to let it stop me. Art materials, particularly paper, are expensive and scribbling rubbish on it seems so wasteful. When you let an off day stop you it can often be hard to start again.

So this is what I do. I keep a ream of cheap copier paper to hand and when I have an off day I draw anything that comes to mind on it. Just a pencil and a piece of paper or three. No reference, no rubber, no do overs because it doesn't matter.

I started off on bluetits, trying to get the head right, then tried a dunling and an owl from memory and then started trying to design a cartoon version of me. I'll do some more before the night is over and tomorrow, picking up a pencil won't seem like a chore.

Whatever your creative outlet, don't let a bad day stop you making art. Even bad art is better than no art.

Now go make art. Shoo.