New student hiccups

Part of my course requires that I record what I do and how long I do it for in a work log; this is essentially a record of my attendance. For the first two weeks I didn't make a huge effort to write it down and kept forgetting what I did etc. So when I finally did make an effort to write it all down I was shocked to see that I hadn't been doing enough hours a week. I tried to figure out why (I genuinely thought I was doing OK). I came up with these:

1. I kept putting down the amount of time I thought should be spent on certain exercises, not the actual time I spent on them. I usually spent longer on certain things than I wrote down mainly because I didn’t think it should take that long (a confidence issue which I will overcome).
2. I wasn't keeping a record of how many hours I was doing and adding it up each day so I wasn't aware of how many more I had to do. It didn’t help that I wasn’t separating the weeks either.
3. I'm still not 100% sure what can count towards my time.
4. I get distracted far too easily!

So after figuring this out I have decided to do four things:

1. Buy an A5 sketchbook and carry that around with me all the time. This way I can do ten minute sketches on the ferry twice a day, and some on my lunch breaks. If I managed to do 1/2 hour a day that's an extra 2 1/2 hours over a week. Plus it means I will draw every day, even if it just for 10 or 20 minutes.
2. Make a timetable for each week and stick to it. It does involve a lot of planning (I don’t know why people say it doesn’t) but it should work out well. I have exercise classes I am about to start for 2 evenings a week so I need to plan ahead for this and make sure it all fits in.
3. Even if I can’t face doing the set exercises, I have to at least do something. A sketch, paint a background, experiment with ink; anything! I just need to make sure I keep creative don't fall into a rut.
4. Work at my desk 90% of the time. There is no TV in that room, or anything distracting. Just lots of art supplies!

It is taking longer to settle into the new routine than I thought but I am getting there. It’s just going to involve a bit more planning and organising.

I had a good day on Friday though. Finished work at 12pm and I spent an hour wandering around my area taking photo’s since it was such a nice day. I had a pleasant lunch at the cafe at the end of my road and did a bit of sketching and reading of my course material. I also finally took a picture of this sweet painting done on the side of the building opposite the cafe.

In the evening I started to copy a picture of a townhouse I found on the internet in 0.1 fine liner pen. It took me 2 hours to get up to where I got to but then I started to make mistakes (I think I ran out of patience). I managed to sketch a few more pattern ideas too and found some old colour pencils I started to use.

Saturday was really good in the evening. I just felt like being expressive and playing around with paint, words and sketching. Nothing specific, just experimenting really. I decided to use a colour I don’t usually use: GREEN. I am really happy with how it came out and found it to be quite addictive. I’m going to do another one tonight – I am just thinking of what theme I’m going to go with.

Red & Orange only

Green only

This is my "creative space" on Saturday night. Most of the desk is taken up by speakers but I can't work without music so it's necessary =)

**The A5 journal is workingd well so far, but I think I need to bring some material with me to “copy”. I’m not confident enough to start drawing people, especially when they are sitting in front of me on the ferry wondering why I keep looking at them hehe