ASHLEY G'S PAINT. PLAN.PLAY

I always struggle a bit during autumn and winter. I didn't really notice it as much when I lived nearer the equator and there was less of a difference in the seasons, but now that I live in Norway I certainly do. The days are shorter and colder and the evenings are dark and windy, and my creativity totally suffers. It was the same when I lived in Scotland too, and if you look at my old sketchbooks they all seem to follow the same pattern: I draw lots in the beginning of the year, and then around October I draw less and less, and sometimes seem to give up all together. It's not until late January it tends to pick up again, when spring is more in sight and I get a sudden burst of creativity. But right now, it's like I've gone into hibernation. And I'm not a big fan of it either, as I'm usually at my happiest when I'm making stuff and being creative.

So to encourage myself to stay creative during these cold months, I've been working on Ashley G's Paint.Plan.Play course. I love her style and the patterns she creates, and how they always look so playful and fun. And it's been really fun doing her course too. Quite often when I'm drawing in my sketchbook, I get a bit too scared of making mistakes, which can be quite limiting. So I've been enjoying that in this course, it's all about just experimenting and trying out new techniques and not caring. Whatever I make that I don't like, I throw out. It's quite liberating.

So far, most of what I've made has just ended up in my sketchbook (keeping my somewhat terrifying 10 min self portrait company, ha!), but I'm excited to think of what kind of projects I can use my patterns for. I used one of my pages to decorate the cover of a mix cd I made for a friend (and yes, I promise I will post this to you soon, you know who you are!), and I've been toying with the idea of using some of the patterns for some future fabric-based projects. In the meantime, I'll just keep experimenting and trying to combat this anti-creative season!