Museum and gallery trips

One of things I wanted to do more of this year was get back into drawing in a sketchbook. In recent years I’ve stopped using pencil and paper and was doing pretty much all my work digitally. It did feel a bit alien at first and I realised how used to pressing undo or zooming in or out of the canvas I had got. But it has actually been really useful and has brought back the joy I got when I was younger and just doodling in sketchbooks or on scraps of paper. 

I’ve got into visiting more museums and galleries this year, to consume more art and to get away from looking at a screen for my inspiration. The ‘artist date’ from ‘The Artist’s Way’ has definitely shaped this habit. I took myself out to my local gallery yesterday to do some sketch studies there and it got me thinking about how much I’ve gotten out of doing similar trips recently.

I’ve been to The Ashmolean and The Natural History Museums in Oxford and The Dorset Museum in Dorchester recently. It always takes me a minute to get comfortable drawing in public places, but after the first drawing I get into the flow of it. It’s been nice to get out and drawing without it having to be for something. Just creating for the fun of it, which is something I feel gets a bit lost when you work in a creative career. 

Some recent studies.