Penhaligon’s is a boutique English perfumery, which was established in the 19th century and is based in London, with the original shop on Jermyn Street in St James.

I bought these tiny bottles of bath and shower gel quite a while ago and because they were so pretty I’ve been reluctant to use them.

They’re now out on a bathroom shelf to make sure they’re not wasted but before I start using them I wanted to photograph some of the pretty labels on the bottles.

There were 6 different bottles and labels but I seem to have focused my attention on the 3 labels with the fancier, more elaborate designs.

I took a lot of photographs while I was trying to get these shots. I prefer using natural lighting and when I took these it was early evening and a little bit dull outside so it took me a while figure out how to get a pleasing result but I think I got there in the end!

Exploration

Based on an idea from Keri Smith’s ‘How to be an Explorer of the World’, here are 8 simple line drawings of objects in the room where I am sitting. Things that were right in front of me, and/or things that I hadn’t really noticed were there wehn I first sat down.

In case it’s not too clear they are:

• a tape measure,
• a humbug sweet (hard mint candy),
• a hair (kirby) grip,
• my empty tea mug,
• a rubber band,
• one of my house keys,
• my Oyster travel card, and
• a pencil sharpener

‘Art’ Kit

I thought I’d write briefly about my current art kit – the things I’m using for my drawings. I feel a little bit like a fraud talking about my ‘art’ kit because I don’t really class myself as an artist but it seems like as good a term as any.

I’ve started to get back into drawing a bit more recently. My past attempts have been short-lived. This time I’m doing better and have done a little bit of drawing every day or so for about 6 or 7 weeks.

Sometimes the drawings are rubbish and other times I’m quite pleased with them. None of them have been perfect but that’s not really the point for me. I share some, I hide others but I’m drawing.

Keeping it Simple

Anyway, one thing I was conscious of when starting to draw again was the risk of me going out and buying lots of new art materials. The problem with this is that I love stationery in general and I know I could spend so long trying to find the perfect book, a set of pencils, maybe a pen and some paints that I’d never get on with actually making any drawings.

This time around I decided to NOT go out and buy loads of things. I did buy a few books about drawing (and made a point of reading them) and I’ve joined a few online groups, all for inspiration, guidance and encouragement (it’s nice to have other people doing the same thing as you to cheer you along the way). However, I haven’t bought any pens, pencils or sketchbooks.

Sketchbook

Instead, my current art kit is a plain paged A5 notebook that I already owned. I used a craft knife to cut out the first few pages that I’d written things on and it was ready to use.

Pen

At the moment I’m drawing in black ink, with no colour or shading (other than what I might add digitally). I’d never really drawn with pens in the past so I was interested to see what I could produce when the lines can’t be erased.

The pen I use is a Zebra Jimnie Gel rollerball pen. It’s definitely not my favourite pen to write or draw with but we have a lot of them lying around at home so it was the first black ink pen I found when I started to draw.

I tried a black Sharpie (again, one I already owned) but I found the nib too fat. And once or twice I’ve used a Pilot V5 Hi Tecpoint liquid ink fine liner with a 0.5 nib (another pen lying around at home) for more detailed bits of drawings.

Apart from avoiding the over-excitement of buying new stationery and using that as a distraction from the actual drawing, I was also conscious of the possibility that I may lose interest in drawing (and have wasted lots of money in the process).

Testing my commitment

So by just using the materials I already own I’m kind of testing my commitment to drawing. If I fill this book I’m using, I’ve got a tiny sketch book to use and if I fill both books then I think I can be pretty certain that I’m reasonably committed to doing regular drawing.

Once I reach that point I may go out in search of a nicer pen or a new book as a reward but until that time comes I’m keeping things simple and keeping the focus on the drawing bit of drawing rather than buying new things!

What are the most basic tools that you need/ use for the creative things that you do?

In Postman’s Park again.

It was lunchtime in the City, the sun was shining and there was hardly anyone to be seen. Where was everybody?