If I told you that I didn’t sketch for 5 days in a row* and have drunk a lot of hot water during the past week (ie. hot tea without the tea) you might start to wonder if I was alright. But… “I am going great!” (I am not a fan of that phrase so not sure while I used it.)

Anyway I have had a very big week – the biggest week for a long long time –  meeting my first book deadline and other stuff. And at the same time I decided to go on a strict regime in terms of what I was eating and drinking. There is no doubt that all the water I drank and the reduced black tea (and snacks) have helped me enormously. And in the middle of the week I got a new inspiring book.

* Just to set the record start I did actually sketch 3 coffees in those 5 days, so once again even when I think I am not sketching ‘at all’… I still am.

Anyway here are all the pages from a very busy work week, and lean sketching week.

A new sketchbook and my usual palette sketch on the title page.

A ‘text-only’ start to the book – my Sunday notes. I don’t always write in my book on Sundays (somedays I like to rest my left hand totally) and I don’t always share them either. I used to feel that a spread without a sketch was incomplete. Now I like the white space of a text page.

My coffee spread for the week. Note: If you are reading my notes… Yes! I did chat with Brian Goulet last week and the interview will be published soon. Needless to say, I had a ball!

Day 1 of my sketching diet. The rule is to draw everything I eat or drink in a day and, if at all possible, to draw it at the time. I had to be very inventive this week as to how I recorded this due to my deadlines.

If you are wondering about my sketching diet – there is more here.

Two very quick sketches while out and about.

Day 2 – must have been busier and harder not to snack! In the evening I went out for a walk but I was a bit distracted with too many things on my mind and my phone buzzing (I really should switch it off when I go for a walk!) to be able to control my water. I felt at the the time that my sketch was too wet, but as always, I just let it to dry. I actually really love the way my control of the water (or lack thereof) is often a good expression of what’s going on at the time – it can sometimes be too excited/distracted in a good way, and other times… in a not so good way. This occasion was mainly just pure distraction!

Day 3 of my sketching diet and already feeling that I was achieving the goal of this sketching exercise. I have mentally changed my attitude to food and drink and was surprised at how easy it was.

And a new exciting book on Soviet Bus Stops arrived. It was very cool that I was able to connect with a lot of my Russian IG followers by posting this.

And well… this spread makes me smile. My practice of writing my morning readings from the Bible in a column on the left side of the page is perfect for a series of days when I don’t sketch. Rather symbolic of what is most important in my life.

As for the text in the purple sticker … this is not a phrase that I would ever say, but it was one of the Moo stickers with my order and chosen for the colour match to my coffee sketch. I don’t always have the answers for things but I have somewhere to look.

And just before I go… although it has been a mega last few days, I am really LOVING working on my book. It is just so exciting to be downloading so many of the ideas in my head so that I can share them with you in a printed form!