Hello.. someone out there.. are you with me?

Who wants to join us?

I'm calling out to all you out there to come and join me and Gina on a challenging exercise. Gina Perry is a wonderful illustrator who came back from her last conference all charged and inspired. This is what she had to say:

"During Laurie Halse Anderson's keynote at the 2008 NESCBWI conference last weekend, she gave us a challenge. Think you don't have time? She does. At least 15 minutes. Pick a time of day and mark it in your dayplanner or calender. She mentioned that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Also, pick a buddy or two to help you stay focused and on track. I challenge all of you who read this to join me."

So.. what do you think huh? Want to join us? She already started but I'm going to join her anyways. It doesn't matter if you don't post about it one day, not a big deal, the idea is to force ourselves to do something on a regular basis for at least 15 minutes a day, for 21 days... to challenge us to be creative, think outside the box. To experiment with new things, subjects, materials.

This is what I'm thinking, I'll start first with the exercise of drawing and sketching things I don't usually do. If you see my sketchbook is full of cuddly and soft characters, usually bunnies, dogs, cats, etc... So I'll start my excersise working on subjects I never do, like for example bugs. I never draw bugs.. don't know why really.

After that I might try and work on sketching at different and odd perspectives. I think I need to challenge myself there. From high above, really down below or from a character's point of view.

Another one will be to try different mediums. I love my watercolors and will stick to them loyaly. But I want to try out different things like pastels, acrylics, gouache but always trying to mantain my style.

After this I'll think of something else. But I find this opportunity to be a challenging one and if we are together on this then even better. Who cares if we screw up, we are just playing around and having fun together, right?

If you feel you want to join us, leave a comment saying so and I'll link you to Gina's blog and I'll post the people that joined on the sidebar so that it will be easier to visit all.

I will be starting tomorrow, but you can join us any day.

Come on then, pick up your pencil, pen, brush, mouse or whatever it is you like to sketch with and let's dare to be different!!