A Wild(life) Month

A stretchy challenge

How are you, you gorgeous creatives??

Over in Hedgerow (just between you and me, I’m opening the doors for a sneaky couple of days next week!) we are at the beginning of a month-long challenge. 

It may not seem like a big challenge, but it is. 

What is it, you ask? 

Sketch for at least ten minutes every day. 

Doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? 

But I can assure you, for most of us, it is a bigger challenge than we think.

Why is that? Well, because, again I am generalising and saying for most of us, the things that we really love to do, that light us up, that give us connection to our animal bodies and the wider world, usually creative things, are often the first things that gets dropped on any given busy productivity focused day.

I am a full time artist, and this is me waving like a maniac saying I do this too 👋. 

I will pretty much always prioritise admin, education, writing, social media, all the things that make me feel like I am being productive over actually making art. 

Isn’t that bizarre?

And yet I am also the same person that will plead with you to make time for the self care and self compassion act that being creative is.

Yeah, it is hard to untangle from that capitalism, industrialised, patriarchal system we have all been brought up in and have to live and function in (even if we think we have stepped out of the machine, as it were. We have practised it so well, it is ingrained.

So yes, 10 minutes a day, every day, is a challenge. It is a good and stretchy challenge though, not one to beat yourself over the head with! And ten minutes every day is over an hour a week that you might not otherwise have done, which is more than 50 hours a year, just from sketching in the margins! And you know what? 10 minutes is also TEN WHOLE minutes of skill improvement. Aaand it is all additive, exponential, a snowball of skill building, observation building, joy building. Aaaaaand how many sentences will I begin with AND?

I already have a 15 minute a day practice that I am fairly consistent with, but I wanted to really stretch myself this month, and come back to my passion. I wrote a little more about that this week over on The Wild Forgotten, and there is a little video of me chatting to you while I work as well. SO my challenge this month, beautifully stretchy, is to try and get as many 20 x 25cm (8 x 10 inch) finished graphite wildlife portraits done as possible. I have set myself a 4 hour time limit for each one, and will try to stick to that (for my own sanity too! I am going to put them up for sale with a lovely black matt on them, and donate 20% of the sales to a fabulous wildlife rescue charity in Tasmania called Raptor Care NW. They are a small outfit doing big things for individual raptors injured and in peril, and I really admire them and the important work they are doing.

I am sharing a lot more about my process in Hedgerow, but I will also keep you in the loop here because HOLY WOW am I having fun!! So far two of these are from my own reference photos, taken on the weekend (more about that on The Wild Forgotten too), and it feels so special to me to be able to lovingly render beings I recently spent time observing in awe.

If you would like to play along, try sketching just for ten minutes every day (or most days!). Tick them off on your calendar, or make yourself an accountability sheet - and share with me how you are going, what you are noticing, and how it is lighting you up!

We need your art, so let’s get sketching and bring even more connection and beauty into this incredible world!

PS Get on the Hedgerow Waitlist to be the first to know when the door open!