The Start

I have always enjoyed drawing. Art was one of my favourite subjects at school and I've always drawn or sketched. However, recently I have not drawn as much as I would like. I recently became a dad and drawing for a hobby seems a selfish pastime. It would take time away from helping to look after my daughter and put more pressure on my wife. But I have missed my artwork. I decided that I do need it as a creative outlet, which doesn't have the pressures of my work-life. I am a teacher and teaching from home has had its challenges, but I have learnt a lot over the past year. I've made countless videos to support my students and have suddenly become a fairly proficient video editor.

So I came to a decision. I would draw, but I would draw on my computer. I convinced myself that a graphics tablet would be a good investment, as it could also be useful for work, and decided that if I drew on the computer screen I would be able to draw faster, change mistakes quickly and produce pieces that I could keep forever and not have them take up any physical space in what is now a very cluttered household with all of the trappings that come with a newborn. I would also be able to record myself drawing and create videos of the drawings coming together.

I would like to point out here and now that this is only for me to exercise my creative outlet. It is at this point that I got a little carried away. This website is a prime example of me getting carried away. I decided to post the videos to YouTube. When you start to post videos on YouTube they suggest videos to you to make your channel more popular. It makes sense. They get more money from advertising if they have more interesting content and people spend more time on the site. I am also aware that some people make a lot of money from their successful YouTube channels. I don't think this will happen with my channel, but you can always hope. So after watching these videos on branding and gaining subscribers, I decided it wouldn't hurt to try. I had a logo already affixed in my head that I was going to use for the YouTube channel and adding a subscribe button to the video only took a few simple steps. I then stumbled across this website:

How to Get Free YouTube Subscribers (the Real Way)

https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-get-free-youtube-subscribers/

And this is where I went mad. Using the points that Paige Cooper suggests, This website blog now exists (point 6). This website is great, but it also suggests ways to make this site gain more followers. So I now have this site, an Instagram and a Facebook page dedicated to this. Suddenly this little art video project has become a giant task.

These are my first drawings. They depict the clock at Hillsborough stadium, a place that is dear to me as a lifelong Sheffield Wednesday fan.

For me this is the iconic image of the stadium. It is a feature that is commonly lost in newer stadiums and, for me, depicts the history and the grandeur of the club. I really enjoyed studying the detail of the spire and noticed the 1867 in the metalwork for the first time while completing this drawing.

I'm still undecided on the colour version. It was my first attempt at adding the colour. I personally prefer it in black and white, but I think the colour might be more appealing to a wider audience. It would be nice to know what other people think so feel free to comment and let me know if you have an opinion.

Here is the video of the drawing. I only recorded for the black and white version because I really didn't know what I was going to do when adding the colour. It went through many changes and I hit the undo button a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkFx299UE8M

Anyway this is my little project. I hope you like my drawings and my videos. If you have got this far I'll hope that I have found this interesting. Let me know what you think of my art. I am also open for suggestions. I'm thinking of drawing other iconic features of football stadiums, so any suggestions I will consider them for a future project.