I wrote recently of being in a slump, where I wasn’t feeling like writing or sketching. Weeks of Covid Lockdown have done that to me, to some degree. Then one day I felt like continuing the novel I’d deserted, just a few pages in. With any genre of writing, but especially with a longer piece, it is necessary to write then leave it alone for a while, returning with fresh eyes, as one can become too close to the work. I read through those pages, adding something here, and removing something elsewhere. I was happy to be writing again.

However, I found myself in a dilemma, for when the writing was going well, I kept wondering about the sketch I had meant to do before the writing block ended. I mean, really? It wasn’t as if I was planning to produce a work of major note, but only a realistic interpretation of a statue. I wrote a blog some time back I have a thing about fountains, which are statues of a kind, and decided it was time I produced another drawing of one. I love drawing the figure, and a statue makes a perfect model. Often, when I have seen statues when travelling in Europe, I photograph them in order to draw them later. But seeing as I can only armchair travel right now, I found an image online which would have to do. So, I started sketching.

But… I couldn’t get the storyline of my new novel out of my head. So, down with my pencils and onto my computer to continue the thread. Normally I would have finished a sketch, like the one above, in an hour, but this one, with the to-ing and fro-ing between each medium, took three days. I decided not to ‘finish’ the statue sketch as I had become a little bored. You got it! I couldn’t get the new novel out of my head!

Sorry that you won’t get a peek at my new novel just yet, but don’t worry, you will in time.

For the statue sketch I used B, HB and 3F pencils and for the sky, Faber Castell polychromos light ultramarine blue pencil.