Hello all, thankyou once again for visiting this site, and my blog. Its been a while, and I have somewhat failed in my weekly blogs – it seemed such an easy idea – a blog a week, but my goodness, Self Doubt has been sitting quietly by my side the past few weeks (as it does with so many creative people – perhaps we can organise a Self Doubt group for them to play whilst we work away). However, I think perhaps we also need to embrace it rather than constantly dread it’s company as perhaps it’s presence is what pushes us to keep creating and striving to improve our skills and techniques, so I’m attempting to turn over a new leaf myself, make friends with my self doubting compainion in order to push my work forward.

I  often try to think of this little thing of Self Doubt that sits beside me as a l character, small, timid and has a yearning to make everything ok, but doesn’t know how, so lives in the shadows, scared to show it’s joy. I think too that there’s a touch of Edward Gorey’s “The Doubtful Guest” character in there too (if you’ve not read this book, or seen Gorey’s work, I highly recommend you look him up, his work is so witty, clever and possesses a dark, gritty humour). Seeing my own SD as a character makes it easier to understand, empathise with, and to ultimately usher out the room so that I can work.

But, surprisingly Self Doubt has gone for a walk in the sunshine today  without being asked. It normally doesn’t like sunny days or happiness and it is normally I who ventures out to escape it, so the reversal is rather encouraging. Perhaps Self Doubt is transforming itself into a jollier character, wouldn’t that be nice.

And so with that nice reprieve, I have enjoyed a morning of sketching and drawing and hope that you too have had a wonderful creative morning, undisturbed by your own SD companion. If you too really struggle with it, picture it embodied as a character, you never know, you too may make friends with it.