#draw365 retirement

(UPDATE - 5/2/19) After some reflection I decided to permanently retire my Instagram account. It was great while it lasted but I think there are times for cutting back and achieving simplicity/focus. This is such a time.

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So, part way through my third year of the #draw365 project (791 posts!) I have decided to give it a rest in favour of diving into deeper¹ material. The last three years has seen a lot of stuff happening and I have enjoyed the discipline of drawing something every day. 

So was it worth doing?

Definitely. Here are some (personal) thoughts:

  • As a space for personal reflection I have found the discipline of #draw365 invaluable - I have developed a set of visual-reflective muscles that feel restless without the exercise of reaching for my sketchbook. While I don’t intend to stop reflecting - I won’t be posting them online every day. Every artist needs the space to reflect, and this has been a huge help to me.

  • As a means of interaction and discussion with my students it has been terrific. Beyond the online ‘likes’ I have often used these pictures in class to discuss something currently going on in the culture².

  • Drawing things quickly and not fussing about the results. There is something wonderful about doing something from a deeper, instant conviction and not spending too long on it. I continue to find it frustrating and wonderful that my best stuff didn’t take that long to craft.

My electric dutch bike was always a source of hilarious banter with the year 9 '8.08 crew' boy-racers.

My electric dutch bike was always a source of hilarious banter with the year 9 '8.08 crew' boy-racers.

What are the down-sides?

  • Occasionally my observations are too frank for public consumption. I then find myself caught between the need to keep my #draw365 routine or relationships(!). Not having to post daily means I can still think/reflect while reserving a protective barrier.

  • The pressure to keep it going - this is a tricky one that comes back to a whole bunch of factors - the quality of the imagery (is it good enough? Am I overdoing it?), how you feel it reflects on you (and whether narcissistic crowd-pleasing tendencies matter), maintaining a natural organic feel (vs refined/artificial production).

I hope that these are useful thoughts for anyone who is thinking of doing something similar.  I will certainly continue to post material on there but the hashtag is going into retirement from today.

¹ Lots of artists and writers make the observation that their best work is cheapened by the daily energy being donated to social media. Instead of seven half decent images - why not one each week with six discarded drafts? 

² It’s worth mentioning here that in the age of despicable online grooming and horrific child protection scandals, teachers are rightly required to follow strict professional codes of conduct online. This is why I never post personal photos or follow student accounts. Any communication always stays out in the open. This stuff matters. 

#draw365

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I started a daily drawing routine about two years ago, and am pleased to say it is still going. 

The process

I usually scribble something quickly into my sketchbook¹  using a biro, photograph it with my iPad and compose/ink it in the excellent Procreate app. From here I post it to Instagram. You can find a dump of my most recent images on this page.  

The weirdness of audiences

When I had just finished my A levels² I took a trip to Paris to stay with my Uncle and do a bit of painting and drawing. It was a kind of lead-up to doing my Foundation Art Diploma and I was raring to be an artist! I took some acrylic painting materials, borrowed a portable easel from my girlfriend and prepared some canvases. I was all set. When I got to a monument (somewhere or other) I set up my stuff and began to make some Art™. 

And then it all crashed - I felt utterly paralysed by

a. tourists who kept taking their photo next to me

b. people looking at what I was doing and

c. the inner knowledge that I wasn’t actually that good. Other artists around me were way more impressive. I was a fraud.

It was such a weird experience. I came away not wanting to do it again. Bizarrely, this event illustrates what happens whenever we post material online - purely because there is an audience watching. 

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As I post these daily pictures I try to keep in mind that Discipline and Play are important to creativity³: 

  1. Discipline means doing it every day (or at east regularly enough for it to be a deliberate habit)

  2. Play means that I just make things which are literally that: not done with any audience or crowd in mind

So why bother posting them online?

Good question. If you post stuff where there's an audience, aren't you just trying to market yourself? Isn't it somehow a bit cheap, broadcasting yourself in this way?  Maybe I shouldn’t⁴.  

But then maybe there is value in simply sharing things just because. 

¹I usually draw stuff related to what I have been thinking about in the last few days  

²in 1863, just before the Post-impressionists took hold

³you are probably different to me, I am just saying how I do things

⁴I know I'm probably over thinking this