What do I hope to achieve with this blog?

I have always illustrated for other people to suit their needs (it’s a commercial thing), but I’ve never had my own style. I was taught to be versatile, which is still important I guess, but these days, you can be who you want to be and it’s okay. It’s acceptable. Maybe it’s to do with the internet opening up the world to us all, and that individuality is a much needed thing to hold on to. Or maybe it happened when independent culture started having mass market success – music, film, etc. and broke down pop culture mediocracy.

Without getting too philosophical, I need to find a style that’s not only ‘me’, but that I feel is going to challenge me and bring out the best in my skills. At the moment I’m just going through the motions. I can draw and paint, but I don’t feel a certain connection to a specific style, medium or subject matter. I think I’m getting there, I just have to be a little more patient. But I believe having this blog will help me get there, or at least keep pushing me on, even to experiment a bit more. It’s the most public thing I’ve done regarding my work, so hopefully that will stop me from slacking off.

Plus I want to encourage  drawing, sketching, rendering etc. and not just as lead ups to finished paintings. There’s nothing like getting down and dirty with a bottle of ink and pen.