Well, a new month has arrived and that always gives me a bit of a boost...'This is the month! This is the month I will get my s*** together!' I can start with good intentions anyway. I'm in complete denial that the year is nearly over. It has been a particularly tricky year. But less of that, I've decided to set myself the ludicrous task of doing not one, but two, Inktobers. The official Inktober was started several years ago and now has a huge following of super talented artists. Let's hope I don't contribute to bringing the standard down! I'm really looking forward to following #inktober2019 on Instagram. I also decided to do my own African Inktober. This is a way of disciplining myself into getting some drawing done from the wealth of material I gathered from our trip to Zambia in August. I've set myself some rules

Rule #1 Work ahead of schedule

I have to do this to stay in it, to get to end and to stay sane. From past experience with these kind of things it never gets finished unless you work ahead of schedule. Life is crazy and unpredictable and the reality is that I am fairly unlikely to be able to sit down and draw and paint every day for a month. It's nice to think that that's what a professional artist does but in honestly it's a round of marketing, emailing, doing other work, running a household and having three kids. So, in reality I have taken full advantage of being sick all weekend and I'm a week ahead of schedule. Round of applause for me!

Rule #2 Keep it relevant

I could let my imagination go mad with these prompts and try to do clever, illustrative images. But what I need are motifs for pattern making and prints for children. After all that's what I'm offering and what I most enjoy creating. So I'm steering away from drawing people or scenes and keeping it simple.

And that's it. Wish me luck. There's a heap of other things coming up as well. Not least preparing something for the fabulous Illustrators Australia 9x5 Exhibition 'Grow' in December.