Something completely different…. tomorrow is the first of May and that means that the Every Day in May challenge is starting. I haven’t done this for years but it was very important back when I first started posting online.

Started originally by French Toast Girl, the idea was to do something creative every day for the month of May. The first few years that I was online,  everyone in the Everyday Matters(EDM) group did a different thing (I drew everyday objects in 2008 and in 2009 drew people – I remember clearly Alissa Duke did a wonderful series of souvenirs from her overseas trips). The daily discipline was great.

Then in 2010 a few of us in Sydney were chatting and decided we would draw the same things – using the EDM list for inspiration. There was only a few people doing it, I managed the list manually on my blog – wow – those were the days! It was so much fun to see everyone drawing the same thing each week, and the great thing about the EveryDay Matters list is that a lot of them are prompts rather than specific objects so you have the chance to be creative. The above image is my collection from that first year in 2010.

But in subsequent years, thanks to Wendy Shortland and then others, it has become bigger and bigger – the flickr group is still there but of course there is now a facebook group..and lots of lots of people in that. And here is the list for this year. If you are looking for something to get you drawing then I recommend it. I am not sure how much I will be able to do, but so much feel in the mood to join in again when I can!
So please join Flickr Group or the Facebook Group

Here a few that I drew over the years (some of my old work!!!)

Boring stuff: It is amazing how much fun drawing boring stuff can be!

 Old Stuff: Trying to make the challenges meaningful to you and even re-visitng your childhood!

Personal Choice: I love the decisions that people make for some of the challenges. This fear of mine is still current!

Tea: Trying to make any challenge I can tea related! Groan- not funny I know!

Combining unrelated things:  Building up double page spreads in my book over two consecutive days

Strange Behaviour: One year, my friend Eza and I walked around the cafes in Crows Nest looking at all the salt and pepper shakers in order to decide on where to have lunch – all for the cause of art.

Mixing it up: For me back in 2010 is was all about changing the layout of the pages as well as the objects themselves

Trying to be clever: Sorry but there is no way I would sketch my bed and share it with the world…

Historic Records: Wow, look at how small my sketchbook collection was in 2010. I hadn’t reached the stage of end stacking them back then.

Well, this post has been a lot of fun to put together for me – a real walk down memory lane. I am getting sentimental about the old days of the Everyday Matters Group in Yahoo Groups (that was a clunky platform – I don’t miss that!) and remembering how much fun it was to be drawing the same things with others every day. (Of course, I didn’t do it literally everyday- on Saturday I did two days challenges, so I could maintain my Sunday day of rest and worship)

So will you be joining????

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