On This Day, Anyday....any day, any month, any year!

This 30 day project was our way of keeping in touch during the first Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020. With everyone in mind, those restricted to stay at home, essential workers that need a project to escape to, groups of friends keeping connected through the love of art,  whatever the circumstances, we asked you to engage and enjoy the process. We added a new art task to the list on this page every day. All of the tasks are now listed together, you can still access these on a daily basis, or print off the whole list and tick them off day by day.

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All you need to get going is some paper (either a sketchbook or a series of sheets of paper that you can later combine together into a sketchbook) and anything that will make a mark on the paper: pencil, graphite, ink, crayon, ink pencil, charcoal, paint, pastel etc. etc. You can work on the plain surface or prepare some papers with collage or pre-paint the surfaces. We recommend that you prepare all 30 sheets before you start – that way if you are short on time you don’t need to waste time finding and preparing a bit of paper. We’ve also included a glossary of terms and drawing/mark-making top tips, just to help you dive straight in, no excuses, whatever your materials or level of experience, this project is for you!

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We want you to record what you see, in a specific way, on a specific theme, every day for 30 days. You may all be at home in different corners of the earth, in a town or in the country, at the coast or in the city. You may be sitting at your kitchen table having a coffee, sitting with a family member, laying in bed, walking the dog, out running, sewing a blanket, doing a crossword or baking a cake. Whatever the multiple facets that make up your lives, let these simple drawing exercises become part of your day, to help record your observation of that specific day. We ask you to be adventurous, to use observation, to draw directly from what it is you see, so that you make a direct image of each day, a record, a memory.

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A useful way to plan your composition or to identify exactly what it is that interests you, is to make a series of small, thumbnail sketches over a double page spread of your sketchbook or loose sheets of paper. Start off with graphite or charcoal, to understand the tone* within the composition. You could also develop some colour sketches before you start if you like. Keep your sketches in the same format* as your paper (I.e. square, portrait, landscape) so that you can transfer the composition you select for the final piece. This will enable you to become familiar with what you are seeing.

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If your viewpoint is not pleasing or interesting to you, change it, look around to find something that you do engage with. It may help to cut yourself a viewfinder with a hole that corresponds to your paper format, this will help you to find your area of interest. Every time you do one of the tasks, you will gain confidence in what is being asked of you and how you respond to the task. Do not stop, keep working your way through the days and you will begin to see a difference from when you start to the final day, this is how you will progress, from experimenting, observing, making marks, recording. Your sketch book can be added to with different papers, surfaces etc. so please do not worry if you run out of pages, just add some more!

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Your sketchbook or loose papers do not need to be clean, tidy and organized. Use them to write in/on, draw in/on. Take notes or scribbles, snippets of something you heard on the radio, references you want to follow up later, stick in small objects.  Record any observations of your day and how you felt about the challenge of recording what you saw. Let it become an extension of yourself. It is good to see evidence of your trials and how you work through the process of seeing.

A small piece of paper can contain a wealth of information, you may draw or paint in a detailed, meticulous way recording every minutia, or you may work in an expressive and vigorous way, you may like to use graphite, charcoal, chalk or oil pastel, you may use acrylic paint and combine it with the above. Your way of recording may be illustrative, or more abstract, it may be subtle or dynamic, whichever way you use your hand and eye we ask you to be representational, to challenge your observation of colour*, form*, tone* and texture*.