4.

This one I honestly did do today. It's just a body that I drew from Posemaniacs (if that tells you anything about the lack of distinguishing features). I didn't do an amazing job, but it's okay.
I should be seeing my Dad tomorrow. Haven't seen him in years.

3.

Random doodling done during some TV watching.
On the 3rd, yesterday, I watched Blue Valentine and watched Gala Darling's RSL webcast.
'Blue Valentine' is a fantastic movie. Depressing, though. It's about the ending of a marriage. It's set over a couple of days but includes a lot of flashbacks. It reminded me, in part, of 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (my favourite movie ever)...but more realistic.
The webcast was something too. A lot about being better to yourself and about yourself and also about being better to other people. She mentioned this quote, which I thought was really good and probably something to think about for a lot of us:

"As I began living my turnarounds, I noticed that I was everything I called you. You were merely
my projection. Now, instead of trying to change the world around me (this didn't work, but only for
43 years), I can put the thoughts on paper, investigate them, turn them around, and find that I am
the very thing I thought you were. In the moment I see you as selfish, I am selfish (deciding how
you should be). In the moment I see you as unkind, I am unkind. If I believe you should stop
waging war, I am waging war on you in my mind."
— Byron Katie

2.

To be fair, this is less a painting and more a drawing. Also it's old. Months old. I just haven't been feeling very inspired, as previously mentioned. This one is just...silliness. I like playing around with ink.

1.

This is...wonky. This is a charcoal experiment gone wrong.. Amazingly, despite the fact that I usually draw EVERY DAY, as soon as I realised it was Feb 1st and I'd said I was going to draw stuff all month, every single tiny piece of inspiration fled my mind.
Here is what happened to me on February the first.
I woke up at home in Carlisle, Johnny woke me up early to say goodbye and went to work and then I got on a bus and sat on the bus for nearly 8 hours until I was back in London. I then got on the Victoria line and changed onto the Jubilee line. About 2 stops on, the train stops and we're told there's a delay. Several times. Then we hear announcements from the platform that the line is suspended. Then announcements from the driver that we'll leave soon. Then he says we're leaving in a minute and will tell us when he gets more news, interrupting himself with a 'hang on a minute...' followed by silence and a few minutes later, him going 'bad news, guys. This train needs to be empty. You can get on the one after this.'
So we all got off of the train and waited patiently on the platform, the announcements changing from 'IT'S SUSPENDED' to 'THERE IS A TRAIN COMING FOR YOU.'
A man next to me in a leather jacket holding a helmet struck up conversations with people around as easily as if they were his friends and they talked and stuff until the train eventually did come and EVERYONE from the previous train joined EVERYONE on the new train and it was packed. Then nearly everyone inexplicably got off at Bermondsey and Motorbike Dude sat down next to a pissed off looking woman and accidentally brushed her arm and then apologised. Her face immediately softened and she said it was okay and then they started talking as though they'd been friends for years. I decided that either he just knew everyone, or he was magic and people just talked to him. The latter was confirmed when she asked him if he really had a bike or if he just carried the helmet around for looks. It was very unexpected because...is anyone on the Underground ever usually nice? I think he probably was magic.

'31 Paintings in March' and this particular blog.

Hello. It is I, Audrey Bishop and this is my new blog about/companion for something marvellous I will be doing in March.
Last year I did a month long project called '31 Paintings in March' or '31 Paintings in 31 Days'. If you haven't caught on, I did a painting a day for a month. I'm doing it again this year. This blog will also contain a drawing for each day in February as a warm up. Last year, the project drove me insane and I won't be posting a link to it here. Here are a few things from the site:

This was the image you would have been greeted with upon entering the site:

This is me in my family's bathroom covered in face paint, pretending badly to paint myself into existance.

This was on the home page, my apparent reasons for doing this and what I expected to gain from it.

"Why?
I love painting. It is my favourite thing in the world. I have been looking for some kind of creative project for a while and whilst this is not exactly an original idea, it seems just right.
What am I expecting to gain through this?
Maybe nothing. Maybe at the end, all I will have to show for it will be a bunch of paintings and a newfound hatred for my brushes.
Maybe at the end of it, I will have had a chance to concentrate and figure out how to fix some of the flaws I see in what I do."

At the beginning of the month, I was optimistic:

March 1st, 09: 'I have never had so many ideas. They're all swimming around my head, as if it is an undersized fish-tank-y thing.' 

 But by the 2nd day, that optimism was crushed already:

March 2nd, 09: 'Actually I got pretty upset over this. I don't usually paint every day. I usually don't even paint two days in a row. The idea of painting every day for the next 29 days freaked me out, to be honest. ' 

Obviously it got better because I actually completed it, but...clearly I was going mental.

 People posted links to my website in all different places and I stole from a post that my Dad made a comment from one of his friends to go in the sidebar of my blog at the time because I loved it. It remains the best thing anyone has said about anything I have ever done (in my eyes):

'[The 31paintingsinmarch project]..is a brilliant exploration of themes that reveals an intelligent stream of consciousness through a varied and engaging gallery of work. I was captivated, amused and driven to want to return....' 

(Dad, if you read this and know who said that, do let me know.)

 This year is to be different. This year:

• I am better at painting. By like a billion.
• I have made Bekki my assistant. My unpaid assistant. She gets to wade through my magical sea of emails. But it does mean I have more help with some things. Even if I don't think I've yet told her I'm doing this AGAIN. 
• I have a boyfriend who won't let me off the hook if I do something below par. And damn him for it. 
• I will be prepared. Last year I decided to do this about 3 days before the 1st of March. This year, I decided on the 25th of January.
• I feel more inspired and have more ideas. 

• It will be better because I say so and can't think of any more reasons. 

At the end of March last year, I held an exhibition. I probably will not this year. But if you have any other ideas for anything cool I can do to celebrate at the beginning of April, tell me! 

Audrey.

Preparing for last year's exhibition at The Papered Parlour in London.