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?

Just Zoe!

I have written in notebooks, journals, diaries and now my favourite Moleskines, from the moment I hit the age my emotions went bat crap crazy (puberty). I held a lot of emotions and feelings in when I was younger so it was easier to express myself to blank pages than to an actual person.

So now I've decided to join the blogging band wagon but I don’t want this to just be about me venting about my issues, I feel I've done that for too long.

I'm an artist and an aspiring writer, I'm a mother to a beautiful baby girl Mia and I'm finally in life where I want to be with the people I want to be with. So that’s what I feel I should blog about, my likes and interests. My hopes and dreams. My sketches and photographs. Sure there will be a few issues that will arise but I don’t think they’d be anything worse than the compulsion to blow raspberries at every adult now due to that being the only line of communication I have right now with my eleven month old daughter.

For me this blog isn't necessarily for thousands to read but more importantly for me to express myself, for me get out of my own head and to share. Because sharing is fun!!