Sketchbook Tour.

Happy Saturday my lovelies! How’s your week been? It feel like ages ago since my last post but it’s only been two weeks! Last weekend I decided to take some time out for myself to just relax, as it was a pretty stressful few weeks for me, so taking some me time was needed. But good news, as you can see, I’m back!

In my weekend off, I spent some time relaxing by doing some of my many hobbies; in particular – working on a new art project! Part of the reason why I decided to work on my new project was because I was talking to my amazing work colleagues and it was said that I should do a sketchbook tour! And you know what, I thought that it’s a great idea!!

For those of you that don’t know about my past, I have always loved art. Whether it’s drawing, sculpting, painting, photography or printing, I absolutely love it! At school I did a gcse in art and design and then another in fine art, and then in sixth form I did a-level art and design alongside textiles and IT and then I finally went on to do a pre-degree in art and design! After all of that I then worked in a small art gallery for several years!

I’ve also taken part in several life drawing lessons, which I will tell you now, it is not as weird as you might think! You may think that drawing a naked person in front of you is very intimidating and possibly even funny (which on my first lesson I will admit I did giggle a bit), but you quickly get used to it and it soon becomes a very relaxing experience.

So, because I’ve spent so much of my life studying art, I have quite a lot of sketchbooks. And so, today I’m going to be giving you a sketchbook tour and showing you some of my favourite pages from my many sketchbooks!

Let’s get into it!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I created the following sketchbooks during my gcse’s:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

These ones were from my A-Levels:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And here’s my work from my pre-degree!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I’ve got a huge folder full of drawings from way way back in the early 2010’s and then I have life drawings too, so here’s some of my favourites from them!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And, after all of those, here’s my life drawings! Please be aware that life drawing does mean you’re about to see naked bodies!! So if you’re not into that then please scroll through.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And finally, here’s a page in my most recent sketchbook!

Well, that’s all of my sketchbooks and individual pieces I have to show you today! Have you got a favourite piece?

Looking back on my artwork and how it’s evolved, changed and improved over time was something I didn’t realise would be so much fun! And it’s given me some well needed motivation and passion boost to keep on drawing more and more. Thinking about all of my artwork reminds me of how much time I have spent practicing drawing, and how much of my spare time I would spend on my hobby. I think part of the reason why I spent and continue to spend so much time on creative outlets is because I used to live in the middle of nowhere, so going out to play with friends wasn’t really an option, so that is part of the reason and the other reason is that it’s super relaxing to sit with music playing and a pencil in hand!

And with all of that said, that’s all from me for today! I’m off to go do a bit of work and then start on a new piece! Wish me luck!

Have a great weekend my lovelies!

Love,

What I’ve Been Up To During Lockdown.

Happy Saturday and happy Easter my lovelies! Can you believe that we’re actually in April right now? Where is this year going?! But I won’t lie, if the next few months could be skipped, I wouldn’t be complaining! For a lot of you it’s probably going into week three of lockdown, but for me I’m well into week four, it could even be week five. I don’t even know anymore.

Because we’re all stuck inside, everyone has been coming up with new ways of doing things and passing the time. As for me, I’ve been busy doing all sorts.

I’m incredibly lucky that I am able to work from home, so monday to thursday every week I spend 8am to 4pm working at my desk for a non-profit called the SUN Network; where I do all things social media, marketing and website related. At the SUN Network we talk to people who have accessed, are accessing or are trying to access mental health and/or drug and alcohol services within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and listen to their stories and what they would like to see improved to make the services better.

Then, after my work at the SUN Network I take a few hours each night and fridays to work on my freelance business Sociaglow. At Sociaglow I help small businesses and non-profit organisations get their website up and running and social media channels set-up and ready to go.

So the good thing for me is that I have been able to continue working and keep to some form of a routine throughout all of this madness.

And then comes my time when I’ve finished work. So, lucky for me, I have a million hobbies that I usually wouldn’t have much time for due to other commitments. Some of those hobbies include:

• Painting and Drawing
• Sculpting
• Sewing
• Playing Video Games
• Designing
• Creating and Completing Puzzles
• Doing Photoshoots
• Reading and Listening to Audiobooks
• Watching Movies
• Organising
• Yoga

Week one: This week I decided to start painting as I had bought a huge canvas a few weeks prior (when we could still go outside and shop) which I had been hung on my wall completely blank because I was struggling to come up with an idea for what I should paint. Plus, I wasn’t sure how well my painting would look if I were to just go freehand when I wasn’t completely in the right mood for painting. After some time thinking it over, and in a creative spell, I decided to just slap some paint on the canvas and see what ideas that would spark. Lucky for me, inspiration hit and I was able to paint a pretty cool piece over the next few weekends! And lucky for you, I filmed my process!

Week number two: This week I struggled with having to stay home, for many reasons really, but mostly because I had made quite a few plans to meet up with friends who would’ve been at a high risk and we believe people in my house had the virus; so there was no chance of me leaving the house. With all my new found spare time I finished the painting above, shaved my head (I’d always wanted to, see my previous posts) and decided to make myself some dungarees out of an old duvet set! If you like these I’ll do my best to make a diy tutorial on how you can make them yourself! From start to finish these dungarees took about 4 hours to make, from the cutting to actually putting them on. Not bad for an old duvet cover!

Next up comes week three: This weekend I watched Knives Out and played an escape room game we ordered online. I also managed to create a website for my sister and her husbands clothing brand, took some super cute photos in my favourite outfits and I finished an entire book on the Sunday. The book I read was called ‘Make or Break’ by Catherine Bennetto, and it’s the story of a woman who gets surprised with a holiday to Cape Town by her boyfriend of 6+ years but ends up coming back single, with lots of twists and turns in between. It was a very cathartic read for me, because I too recently came out of a long term relationship, (a story for another day maybe?) and I usually struggle to find books I can’t put down but this one was great and I loved every page. 10/10 would recommend!

• 

• 

That brings us to this weekend: Being inspired by the escape room game we ordered and the Knives Out film, I decided to create my own escape room game for my family. And so, after lots of looking online and thinking about how I could really make this an exciting game, I had a game plan. I wrote several letters, had boxes with hidden compartments, invisible inks and inks that would disappear with heat. It took my family about 45-50 minutes to complete it and I am happy to report that they absolutely loved it. In fact they loved it so much that we’ve decided it will become a tradition of ours for different occasions throughout the year, one for Easter, Halloween and Christmas! I can write up how I pulled all of this together so you can create your own if you’d like, let me know in the comments!

And that brings us to right now! I’m having great fun this weekend chilling out, having a bbq, watching disney + and playing animal crossing! Oh and I can’t forget, I’m also stuffing my face with chocolate right now. I love playing animal crossing right now because it’s such a nice way to escape from this house for a few hours! If I can work out how to let you all visit my island, I’ll post it up here or on my Insta and Twitter so you can come and visit me! Once I’m finished with animal crossing for the day, I’ll be finishing up another pair of dungarees that are 70% finished, because let’s be real, dungarees are one of the comfiest forms of clothes ever!

Every other day I’m also taking time to practice yoga and workout with the be.come project, as well as making sure I take a little bit of extra me-time through trying out skincare products that could help with my acne. Other than hobbies and work, I haven’t spent a huge amount of time just doing nothing, partly because when I’m doing nothing, that’s when all of those negative thoughts and reminders about what is going on in the world start to creep back in. So, something that I’m going to be spending some time doing each day is nothing. And you know what, that’s okay, and having some of those negative thoughts in a time like this is okay too.

How are you spending your time during lockdown? And how are you spending this Easter weekend? Let me know in the comments; as always you know I love to have a chat with you!

Have a great weekend everyone and stay safe!

Lots of love,

And So The Journey Begins..

If you’re reading this then you’ve stumbled upon my blog! Here I’ll be talking about my life, loves and lessons on a weekly basis.

 

Well, welcome to my blog! My name’s Victoria, and blogging is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I just never really got round to doing it.. until now of course.

“I’ve never known what I wanted to do or be.”

I’d thought about writing a blog for quite some time, and I think part of that is because I’ve had lots of changes in the past few years; and writing about them seems like a good way of getting my head in order. After all, I’ve never known what I wanted to do or be.

So.. who am I?

Well, I’m 22 years old and I live in Cambridgeshire. I’ve always wanted to do something creative with my life, I’ve just never really been able to narrow down what that something is. I have a few hobbies, like creating art, watching Netflix, spending time with my boyfriend, doing yoga and working out (this is feeling a lot like a dating profile haha).

There’s a few more things you’ll find out about me in the weeks to come, and I can’t wait for you to find out. I’ll be talking about all the good, bad and just plain weird things about me and my life, I’ll probably have a few rants as well and a few mushy posts, but if I’m honest, I’m just going to be real with you on here. So anyway, this is me and welcome to ‘The Weight Of My World’!

Love,