The experiment that was every_day_art  is over. Technically it should have ended a few weeks ago, but somehow I just forgot to stop.

A debate could well be had as to whether or not I succeeded in my goal. Taken literally, I quite definitely didn't, as far from posting every day, I seem to have managed around 160 posts in the year, which is just less than half. Probably more like a third. There are definite points of concented activity, and lean times as well, so that's in no way spread evenly. January was the only month where not one day was missed, and I think July had only a few posts for the whole month.

However truth be told, I was never really going to stick to this by the letter. I'm just not like that. As long as I felt the spirit was still there, the project was working and in general I felt that all year and I still do. I've put a lot of things up here that would ordinarily never see the light of day and a few things that are gone never to be seen again; I've gained confidence to display my work, and take the good and the bad in the way of comments from people, and for that I thank you all. Everything I got from every_day_art , I got from you.

The unexpected artistic turns, and knowledge of what works and what doesn't I've already talked about, but there was one more change that I wasn't expecting. When I first started this, I went to great lengths to disassociate the project from not only my main LJ, but also my portfolio website. I didn't want people going to my site and seeing the crap I was putting up here every day. Well, once it became less of putting something up every day, and more of putting something up when I had something to put up, that became less of an issue, and I found myself pointing people who asked to the blog as well as the website. The URL for this is a bit of a mouthfull though, so over the last week or so I've been investigating moving the blog to my own domain, where it can become something new - colourlines  - my online sketchbook.

So, Colourlines now exists alongside my website at blog.mcchrystal.net. It's had all the posts from here uploaded on to it, but I'm probably going to do a quality control exercise at some point soon since it's to be more of a permanent fixture. For those who'd like to continue to follow it here, I've set it up as an RSS feed at colourlines . I think you can post on wordpress with an OpenID login if you fancy upgrading to that, you can use an existing wordpress login if you have one, or create one at the page. Otherwise I think I'll still see your comments against the syndicated feed.... I think.... I hope...

So all that remains is for me to thank you once again, from the heart of my bottom, for your endless support and enthusiasm (and in some cases cold hard cash) over the past year. It really has been a revelation, and a massive boost to my confidence. That I'm now able to release every_day_art into the wild as Colourlines says it all I hope.

Cheers
Neil

This is a lot more emotional that it should be.

...and I call it Nebulous.

I have no idea how this is going to turn out. The canvas is horizontal because of the amount of water on the surface, and the photo was taken by holding the camera over the drawing board, which is why it's a bit squint. I suspect all the richness will evaporate with the water, but we'll see.

It's a country road - by a vote of 9 to 4.

Which is all a bit academic now because it's either a nebula or an undersea scene now.

Country Roads....?

or


Cyclone?

Which is the right picture?

I just had these stunning cufflinks made by Mari Paavola, part of the a collective of stupidly talented people in Finland called Pahamuna. Go visit their site and buy stuff because it's marvellous!

This is stage 2. I didn't scan stage 1. It's been roughed out in pencil, the right lines picked out in ink, then the pencil lines removed. Next stage is colouring.