A huge thank you to Cynthia who has made me (Tracy) aware of this 30 day sketchbook challenge on Facebook. Led by an artist called Susan Yeates, every day in January a subject prompt is suggested to you and you spend 5 or 10 minutes sketching that subject. You can just sketch it or take it further with a painting or design that takes you longer, it is your choice.

I think it’s a great idea if it gets a pencil or pen in your hand for just a few minutes. I know some M&C members haven’t done any art for months, so perhaps this is a way of spending 5 minutes a day getting you back into drawing? If you don’t have a sketchbook to hand you can use paper from your printer, a lined notebook, post-it notes, the back of wrapping paper or spare wallpaper etc.

If you’re already on Facebook type ‘30 Day Sketchbook Challenge’ into the search bar and the page should come up. Click on it and request to join the page. I did that yesterday and a day later have been approved to join the page, so now I can see what people have been creating since 1st January. Look at the page every day to see the new prompt.

The three prompts so far have been…1st January – buttons and beads, the 2nd – teapots and the 3rd – biscuits.

You can then post your pictures on the Facebook page and I’ve seen Cynthia’s already, well done :o)

It’s very interesting seeing how other people interpret the prompt with a quick pencil sketch, a tiny colourful painting or a bigger mixed media picture, but you don’t have to show your pictures on the Facebook page if you don’t want to. One lady has painted her teapot on a dried tea bag!

A lot of you will say you don’t have Facebook, but that doesn’t matter. You can sign up for a daily email with the prompt on Susan Yeates’ website at… https://www.magenta-sky.com/

The orange banner at the top says ‘Join the FREE 30 day sketchbook challenge – find out more’. Click on that link and scroll down to where it says ‘join the sketchbook challenge’ in a rectangular red box. Click on that box, fill in your email details then go to your emails and click on the email which asks you to confirm your subscription. It was very easy and it took me about 30 seconds. You will get an email every morning with the day’s prompt, but you can unsubscribe at any time.

I hope you give it a go, even for a few days, you might enjoy it and feel arty again. By the end of the month send me a few of your favourite sketches/paintings and I’ll collate them and post them on the blog.