Every Day in May

When I first started trying to break down that professional graphic designer head space where you’re more or less creating designs to suit your client’s needs, I started to join a few online sketching forums and groups. They introduced me to a challenge called Every Day in May where you have to draw something every day during the month of May.

Its aim is to encourage people to realise you dont need large blocks of time to be creative, that even a small window in your day to day routine there’s always have time for a quick sketch. The value of this project is that drawing every day or at least more regularly, not only improves your skills but you’re exercising and practising creative thinking as well.

2011

My favourite medium that year was dip pen and ink. Despite it not being the most practical of materials to take out ad about I accommodated its messy nature. I felt the only way I could see this massive challenge to the end was make it interesting for myself although it did require a bit of forward planning.

Apart from the materials I wanted each daily sketch to link to the last sketch in some way, like one degree of separation.

2012

This time round I went a little easier on myself and kept the subject matter simpler. Amongst other things I like keeping bits of cardboard, packaging etc to cut up and use. I had a bunch of toilet paper rolls all stacked on my desk and the sunlight hit them casting these soft shadows over them. They became my muses for this year’s challenge and for each day I had to draw them in a different way.