My Passions - Throw me a Graphite Pencil and I'll Draw you a Pretty Picture

Passion   /noun

1. Strong and barely controllable emotion.
2. An intense desire or enthusiasm for something.

Now a lot of people may have thought the first of my passions would be writing but not really, not this time round anyway. I have been drawing since before I could write, it was something that seemed to come natural to me when ever I put a pencil in my hand, and from that moment I didn't stop I drew all the time and really I haven't stopped. My drawings have changed over time, the quality my technique but something has always stayed the same, my love to draw remains and I love it even more when someone wants to me to draw for them.

I could start a drawing at ten o'clock at night and sometimes not stop until it's complete around 5 in the morning, then it'll be time to get up for college so I would be walking round college like a zombie for the entire day, but I'd have a drawing done by total zoning out. That's what I've always been able to do when it's come to drawing, I would completely go into my own world and I would be in a room full of people and I as I drew it would become only me, that's what I loved about drawing. It was something I could do and be completely free from everything, just me, the paper and my favourite pencils.

When I go through my old drawings I would feel a little sick because I see just how bad it was, but it was all a learning curve for me, for me to figure out my drawing style and discovering how I best work. Here are some of my better early work.

Drawing was always something I loved doing for myself or for others on my own decision, but I got to a point once when I was drawing for others, commission pieces that were too much, not the actual drawings but the amount and sometimes the buyers, and I got to the point where I actually said I don't want to draw anymore, it wasn't fun anymore for me, I'd actually began to hate it. The one thing I enjoyed most in my life the one things I'd always thought was the only thing I was good at was affecting me in a way I didn't believe it ever would. So I stopped, I put my pencils away and I packed up my paper pads, I was done.

I don't particularly know what happened but one day I picked up my pencils and dusted off my papers and started drawing again but this time I toke it back to how I used to draw, I forgot about what others would think, I stopped thinking about what others would like, I began to draw again for me. I don't do it as much as I would like but I do little bits here and there and I enjoy it more now than I think I've ever done.

Here are a few of the pieces I did after that period of stopping.

Now if you've had something in your life you have been doing for so long and you had got to a point where you hated it and didn't want to do it anymore, it hurts. Drawing was and always has been a part of me, not just something I did, it was more than that, it was who I was and suddenly it wasn't but I'm glad it happened because now with two children and many other things on my plate when I do find the time to draw, I treasure those couple of hours and I put all of myself into that drawing.

Here is a portrait I drew of my daughter Mia, who I always said I'd never draw but I did and was pleased with the outcome, especially after having a break from drawing.

I will surely be adding Robyns portrait next to this one of Mia soon, when she sits still enough to get a clear photo.

Would a personalised portrait be a good idea for a GIVEAWAY once I've hit so many followers?