Illustration - a challenge

I have some poems I have written that I would like to illustrate. However, the process of illustration - producing an entirely original image - is a great challenge for me. Particularly when I feel my basic skills need so much work. Nonetheless I've decided to start working towards that goal and making potentially relevant sketches from life or images, composites, collages and anything else that may help the process become easier for me. There is no time frame - it is all just for fun which takes the pressure off. This is my first little brainstorming sketch for a poem titled 'The Red Room'. The patterned background is a photocopy. All else is ink / watercolour.

Making a Start...

As a child I wanted to be an artist, as a teenager I thought I was an artist, as an adult I've talked a whole lot about it but done next to nothing. It's time for change...

This blog, like any new project, seems at once overwhelming and exhilerating. Ironically, I feel very shy, stepping out anonymously into the web in an attempt to live a more creative life. That is the goal - to create and to live creatively. To draw, to write, to paint, decorate and explore. To celebrate art and creativity in all of its forms and to inspire such celebration in others. And so here, through this blog I will share my stumbling efforts in the hope it will provide the impetus to continue.