Creative Sprint IV

These are the creations from my final week of Creative Sprint. It is over. Hurrah!

Day 23: Interpret your favourite song lyrics.

I have many favourite songs, so there were many, many options for this prompt. Yet my thoughts went straight to Nick Drake, because of the poetic, sometimes visionary nature of his lyrics. ‘Three Hours’ was my first choice, but I wanted something that wasn’t going to be too difficult to draw. I considered ‘Fruit Tree’ and ‘Pink Moon’, but it was the simplicity of ‘Road’ that caught me in the end. (I would have darkened the colours if I’d had time, but other than that I am quite pleased with this piece.)

You can say the sun is shining if you really want to
I can see the moon and it seems so clear
You can take the road that takes you to the stars now
I can take the road that’ll see me through
I can take the road that’ll see me through

Road, watercolours pencils and felt tip pen on watercolour paper

Day 24: Make something that incorporates or is inspired by a smell.

As it is spring, all I could think of was flowers (though I did consider attempting to photograph the smoke of burning incense dancing in the air). After flipping through A Victorian Posy: Penhaligon’s Scented Treasury of Verse and Prose, a pretty little book I picked up in an antique shop several years ago—which is actually scented with perfume!—but not being particularly inspired, I turned to one of my all-time favourite books: Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee (1978). The book itself has a most delicious fragrance of almost forty-year-old paper, and that smell takes me back to when I was a teenager, when I explored its pages often. Towards the back of the book is a section on ‘Faery Flora’, where I came across this page about Wild Thyme. The thyme in our garden is in flower at the moment, and as it is so very pretty, I thought it was a sign. Hence, with thyme- and nostalgia-scented fingers, I took this photo.

Wild Thyme

Day 25: Break something and make something new with the parts.

I could not break something deliberately, unless it was a stick or a leaf—something organic—so this is the best I could come up with.

My Green Heart is Broken

Day 26: Create something you can wear on your body. Bonus: get a picture of yourself wearing it in public.

I really struggled with this prompt. If I’d had more time, or different materials, I’m sure I could have done much better. But I wasn’t feeling well, and I couldn’t think straight, and I didn’t want to do anything difficult (or go out in public). So I put a rather spectacular flower on a necklace, and wore my cardigan of weeds. That is all.

Orchid Rockrose Necklace

Day 27: Make something inspired by another Creative Sprinter.

Another Sprinter, Unicia R. Buster, had posted a photo of herself with peacock-inspired face paint on (for Day 26), and I could not resist transforming her into the goddess Juno, whose sacred bird was the peacock.

Many thanks to Unicia for being my inspiration, and kindly allowing me to post her image here. You can see some of her fabulous line drawings on her website: Afros 365.

Photo by Unicia R. Buster

Juno, watercolour pencils, coloured pencil, white and gold gouache on card

Day 28: Make a monster for #Monstober!

I was busy volunteering at the Norman Lindsay Gallery & Museum, as I do every now and then, so I didn’t have time to ‘make’ a monster. Luckily, I met this adorable little monster, one of the resident water dragons, who kindly agreed to pose for this photo.

Water Dragon

Day 29: Ask someone you respect to look through your past month's work and select their favourite one. Revise or refine the work they selected for today's task.

My mum liked the fragrant mandala I made for Day 20, so I repeated the process, making the design tighter, and adding a couple of new ingredients to the mix. It’s definitely an improvement on the first one.

Fragrant Mandala II

Day 30: Create a trophy or other award for yourself!

I prefer the idea of a souvenir (which means ‘remember’ in French) to that of a trophy or award, so I created this image, collaging most of my work from the past month to remind me, not just of what I have achieved, but also to keep being creative.

Remember!