The Sketchbook Challenge

One of the projects I am taking part in this year is The Sketchbook Challenge.  You can read more about it here:  How The Challenge Works.  A couple of the women I met at Journalfest are involved in leading the group, which is how I first heard about it.  I've always wanted to learn to draw and sketch and thought this might be a good way to start.

The theme for January, as established by Jill Berry (read her blog here) is "highly prized".  While I was out walking about in the rain on January 1st, it occurred to me that water is something that is, or certainly should be, highly prized.  Those of us who don't live in a desert tend to take it for granted - we don't worry about when the next rainfall will be, chances are we won't have to wait more than a few days for the next one.  But lots of people around the world don't have access to clean, safe water like we do here in Canada.

I took this photo while I was walking about that day:

and thought I would sketch something like it when I got home. My sketch got about this far and I HATED it:

Clearly, sketching is a skill that I will need to practice, A LOT!  I decided to try painting something with watercolour paints instead, which really was a more appropriate medium for a water theme anyway!  Here's what the finished picture looked like:

It's very simple, I might add more to it later but I thought it was enough for the first day.

Lucky for me, one of the artists leading the Sketchbook Challenge, Sue Bleiweiss, posted on January 2nd on the topic of how we can't expect every one of our creations to be perfect.  God knows, my sketch above certainly was not anywhere close, it was horrible.   Chances are, I will get better, as I learn and practice.  But as Sue said, "is it perfect? No. Did I have fun doing it? YES!" and really, that's all the matters.