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!

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I created the following sketchbooks during my gcse’s:

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These ones were from my A-Levels:

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

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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!

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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.

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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,

Learning To Play An Instrument.

Hello lovelies! How was everyone’s week? Are you looking forward to the Bank Holiday Monday? I know I am! So, you can probably guess from the title of today’s post what I’ll be chatting/writing about. I have been learning to play the piano!

Ever since I was little I wanted to be musically talented. You know what it’s like, ‘I want to be a popstar!’ and all that. But, sadly for me, that was not to be. I have zero musical abilities and have tried, failed and vowed to only listen to music over and over again and give up on my dreams of being able to play an instrument and sing.

Well, about a month and a bit ago, I decided that I was going to learn to play the piano once again. And this time I promised myself that this time I WOULD NOT GIVE UP. If you’ve been in this position before and tried to learn an instrument then you’re likely familiar with feeling super motivated and determined and then trying to play a tutorial from YouTube and then realising you’re in over your head. And then giving up.

Also it didn’t help that last time I tried to teach myself the piano I was trying to do it on a small kiddies keyboard that was bright pink.. you know the ones, you get them from Argos for about £20. Bargain for young kids who are just starting out if you ask me! But maybe not ideal if you’re teaching yourself.. especially if you’re in your twenties..

And when I tried to learn before I had no intention of starting with the basics, I couldn’t read sheet music, couldn’t use both hands to play anything and just generally couldn’t do anything other than the start of maybe one song without any cords.

So, what changed this time?

Well, I decided I wanted to learn to play again when I found a fairly decent keyboard in our loft! This time I WAS going to learn and I was going to take it seriously and practice everyday and actually have some structure to how I was going to learn.

I’d seen adverts for the app Simply Piano (by JoyTunes) more times than I could count so I thought I’d give that a go. The app is a subscription based app but for me, I figured that would give me the motivation I needed to keep learning and not give up on it.

The subscription is about £38 for three months I think, which originally I thought was a lot, but when you think about how much actual lessons with a tutor cost per session, its really cheap! (By the way this isn’t an ad or anything, this is just what I’ve been using and liking!)

So.. on to how the last month and a bit has been. Well, I have been doing at least 30 minutes of piano practice everyday (I try to do 1 hour per day, but sometimes you just haven’t got the time!) and I am actually seeing progress!

I can now read sheet music, which I never had any idea on where to start in learning how to read music before. So that’s as big achievement for me. Also, I can now play quite a few songs with sheet music and I’ve been learning how to play some piano songs I’ve loved forever with the help of some easy YouTube tutorials.

One song I’m super proud of myself for learning (it’s only the super simplified easy version) is Yiruma – River Flows In You. I’ve added the video I learnt from below! Totally recommend this channel for beginner piano tutorials!

I’m definitely going to continue learning and practising the piano because I absolutely love it and I feel like it’s helped me with my mental health too. Music is something I’ve always used to relax and just tune out of whats around me, so being able to play it means the world to me! And I never imagined I would get as far as I have with my learning, and I’m not embarrassed to say I’m super proud of myself for sticking with it!

There are some things to remember when learning to play a new instrument or skill in general; first up, don’t give up! We all have bad days and good days, so even if you’re having a bad day and just can’t seem to get into a groove (pun intended haha), keep trying! Because the next day, you might be able to do whatever you struggled with without any issues!

Schedule away some time everyday to practice, so you know you’ve got time to work on yourself! This has really helped me to keep up with my lessons and progress, because if I didn’t put a reminder in my phone, I’d completely forget to practice.

Learning a new skill won’t happen overnight. It takes patience, practice and time!

Finally, BE PROUD OF YOURSELF. Making the decision to learn a new skill, no matter what it is, can be nerve racking, but so worth it! So be proud of the little things, for me learning to recognise a note on sheet music is huge for me, because I never imagined I’d be able to read music.

Here’s me playing River Flows In You based from the video above! Please be nice, I know it isn’t perfect (and I didn’t have the cables to record it any other way so the quality isn’t great..) but we all gotta start somewhere!

 

Another thing I’m super proud of is that I’m beginning to be able to play with both hands consistently without looking at them both constantly, which is pretty incredible coming from someone who would play the right hand from music tutorials with both hands..

Alright, I think that’s enough waffling on from me for today haha! Let me know in the comments what instrument you play or would love to learn to play. Also, when I’m confident in my keyboard/piano skills is that something you would want to see? Let me know!!

Have a great day everyone! And Happy May Day for Monday!

Love,

p.s. Here’s me playing the extremely simplified version of ‘Comptine d’un autre été’ from the same YouTube Channel shown above!