It's Christmas time, mistletoe and wine...

Well, no wine for me after my horrendous hangover after the Christmas party! This week has been a blur - work, Christmas, Boxing Day and having a cold. I've gone back to the 1000 things to draw, and only managed one thing so far in a week:

32. Redesign a book cover (The Wolf Hound and the Raven), using my Graphiter app on my tablet

I should probably still finish my dragon piece, however my family got me a new sketching set for Christmas, and I've treated myself to some half decent coloured pencils today, so I think today will be spent playing with those. I bought my friend one of those adult colouring books for Christmas, and I've had an idea to make my own colouring sheet, so I'll probably be doing lots of doodling tonight.

At the start of the month I bought a Groupon offer to do 10 sessions of yoga for £10 at my local leisure centre. I've been doing the 30 days of yoga by doyouyoga.com, and in true spirit I've done them haphazardly. I've just done day 3 today, and it's probably taken me about a week to get this far! I wanted to get a feel for yoga though before going to a proper class. If anyone has tips or hints for me post a comment below.

I came across this link during the week and thought you might like to see it:
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/13091885/list/11-tips-to-get-the-creative-space-you-crave

And here is my Pinterest of the week, I literally don't even have a corner to set up an art space, so I'm settling for checking out other people's spaces for the moment: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/330592428875273399/

Also, as of the 23rd of December my blog was a year old! I can't believe I've stuck at this for more than a year. While I haven't done as much art as I would've liked it's certainly kept me more accountable than if I hadn't kept a blog.

Anyway, the plan for the week ahead is to do some more of the 1000 things to draw, and I really need to finish the dragon piece. I have a terrible habit of leaving things half done. I've been having a think how to make it really work with colour, as I didn't get on with Bobby Chiu's method, so I'll have an experiment during the week. I'm at work between Christmas and New Year though (boo), so my time is as limited as normal. Hope Santa brought you everything you wished for, and have a happy new year!

Schoolism complete

So I finished Schoolism last Monday, and listened to the book excerpt from Bobby Chiu. It was quite insightful. I feel from doing the Painting Creatures course I've learned a lot, and also learned how to figure out quick and easier ways of doing things. I've also learned that using reference is not cheating if applied correctly, although I've learned this several times in the past few years it still comes back to give me a kick up the arse.

As such, since finishing the Schoolism course I've done no art at all. Nothing. Nada. Zip. So I did a few figure drawings this evening:

On Friday I attended my first Christmas party for my new job, and I was absolutely annihilated. I've never had a hangover so bad - I was still being sick at 8pm on Saturday! Needless to say this has inspired me to come out with quotes I'll never stick to, like 'I'm never drinking again'. I probably won't drink too much over Christmas now as I've had my blow-out for the Christmas period.

I'm off to Amsterdam on Thursday as part of my birthday celebrations (the big 3-0, eek!). Don't think I'll be drinking much while there, but I have some expeditions planned - the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, and we have a couple of shows at the Boom Chicago comedy club booked too. I can't wait! I went to Amsterdam a few years ago, and loved it so much that I've always wanted to go back. It's such a vibrant city, and we didn't do half of what we wanted to do the last time we were there. That, and the fact we were knackered from walking around on the first day didn't leave us with much energy to enjoy the city for the remainder of our time there.

Well, I hope you're all getting ready for Christmas - I managed to put my boyfriend off from putting up the Christmas tree until 3rd December, and now it looks like a festive elf has sneezed all over our living room; there's tinsel everywhere!

Well, right now I'm going to finish watching my recording of The Hunt, narrated by David Attenborough. I love everything he narrates, and the camera skills of the crew for this series are just astonishing.

I won't be posting a blog post next week due to said holiday above :)

And last but not least, my Pinterest of the Week: http://batkamal.tumblr.com/post/70928746752

Holidays are coming

Well, I've made it to the last lesson of my Schoolism subscription, although I think it's more of a watch-video than a doing-video. In the last week I've worked on scales, hands and eyes, though I'm the first to admit I've not done a very good job on these things. If I have time at the end of the course I will go back over these videos. So below is what I've been working on. Please note I haven't done the base drawing, only the faint scales, eyes and hands:

I haven't worked on my dragon this week. I'm not really much further into my writing course either.

Yesterday I went on a chocolate-making course and made 24 chocolates for an advent calendar, including a few spares. It was loads of fun!

I've been listening to more relaxing music while I study, I'm still really into classical music, although I have deviated slightly... to Disney classic on the piano, ha! The link is here for anyone that's interested: https://youtu.be/tp5hgjD_Y5g

I was listening to classical music while writing this blog post, but then someone came on singing opera, and I'm more of a fan of instrumental classical music, so now I'm listening to Planet Rock. Old habits die hard.

Last but not least it's my Pinterest of the week, and this time it's not an image, it's a podcast: the Creative Pep Talk podcast. I've only just got into them, and they seem pretty good so far, check them out: http://illustrationage.com/2015/11/17/96761/?utm_source=hootsuite