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You Didn’t Think It Was Going To Be That Easy, Did You? You know, just for a second there, yeah. I kinda did.

Remember my good news last week? Not so good now. Turns out my surgery is going to be delayed because somebody didn’t order the MRI I need beforehand. Which begs questions such as ‘who messed up?’, ‘how the flip heck did I get a surgery date without it?’ and ‘will it go ahead before July?’, because that’s as long as the pre-op is valid.

To say I am furious about this appalling carelessness after three years of waiting quietly and patiently is quite the understatement. I am… really very cross.

A bit more good news though; despite ending last week a small, spitting ball of fury (and despite DPD doing their usual bang up job and failing to deliver on the right day) I managed to acquire and set up a new laptop. After spending the requisite couple of days wrestling it from the grasping clutches of Microsoft, it’s now much easier for me to work on my website. Hurrah!

The first new feature I’ve added, as promised, is a gallery of all my drawings for #the100dayproject. You can find a permanent link in the main menu above. I’m so pleased to have started something I’ve had on a ‘back burner’ for years and I will add more to the gallery as I continue.

This is one of my favourite drawings so far and I thought some of you might be interested to see a few ‘work in progress’ photos:

Would you like to see more work in progress photos, generally? Let me know if you’d find it interesting and I’ll attempt to remember to take some…

This is Marissa Paternoster, who you might know from her bands Screaming Females/Noun or her collaborations with other musicians, including Garbage. Fangirl squeal moment: I shared the finished sketch on Instagram and this happened:

Pleased ‘weasel. Especially as Marissa is an awesome visual artist as well as a brilliant musician.

Bonus Music Video

Anyone who knows me even slightly will have read the title of this entry and skipped straight here to see if I am really a fan of Taylor Swift. Newsflash: I’m not. But I think this is one of the best covers of Anything. Ever.

You should go check out all things Marissa Paternoster, Screaming Females and Noun. Do it now, you can thank me later.

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Look at me keeping up with #the100DayProject like a champ! And not keeping up with social media at all… Oh well, if something’s got to give it’s better that way round. Here’s another update on my 100 Days of Women in Music, which I’m also using as a hashtag for the project on Twitter and Instagram. I’m so pleased that I’m still enthusiastic about the whole thing and I’ll definitely be carrying on and seeing where it ends up after the 100 days.

I’ve now finished eleven drawings, an average of one every three days, which is pretty good going. Here’s the one I was just starting when I last blogged:

I loved doing this. ‘Mama’ Cass Elliot, best known for being in The Mamas & the Papas in the mid 1960s. She has been one of my favourite singers since I was a little girl. Even before I developed a love of California folk-rock, I saw her playing a character called Witch Hazel in the 1970 film version of an unhinged US children’s show called HR Pufnstuf. Don’t do drugs kids, there’s no need! You can safely experience all the thrills of not knowing what the flipping heck is going on or why by watching the video clip below…

I actually did a really quick sketch of her character for Inktober a few years ago.

After that I struggled a bit. I did two sketches I wasn’t entirely happy with, but I’m taking a deep breath and sharing them anyway because as well as commitment, this project is also about about sharing your ‘process’. I’m not unhappy with them exactly, but I think the shading on both is a little overdone, probably because I found myself thinking about how many drawings I might manage in the hundred days and subconsciously rushing to finish.

  • Kathleen Hanna
  • Ani DiFranco

That’s part of the reason I committed to black and white ink drawings though, at least or this first bit of the project. There’s nowhere to hide. I’d already planned to do more than one picture of both, and I’m still improving my rusty people-drawing skills, so I’m happy as long as I’m generally going in the right direction. This week I had a stern talk with myself, slowed down, gave myself lots of detail to faff with and waddya know… I’m much happier with this!

Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Note to self: no more 1980s fishnet gloves. I was seeing those in my sleep. I’ve drawn a lot of dark hair recently too, maybe I’ll go for someone bald next? I have a couple of candidates for that.

Bonus Music Video

Seeing as I shared the Witch Hazel clip, I think it’s only fair that this week’s video is Cass singing live. Not the best quality visuals but that voice still give me goosebumps.

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Quick update on my sketches for #the100DayProject. The first four drawings I did are on my previous blog entry, which I utterly failed to publicise, because… well, I’m a bit rubbish at that sort of stuff. I’m doing 100 Days of Women in Music (which I’m also using as a hashtag for the project on Twitter and Instagram).

First up last week was Joan Armatrading. Took me two attempts, but I was really pleased with this in the end:

Over the weekend I did Shirley Manson, lead singer of Garbage. I fancied doing something a bit looser/sketchier and managed to get this finished over a couple of sessions.

I was speaking to a friend in the US on Sunday night (at about 1am, when Luce and I had celebrated Valentine’s Day with a disgraceful amount of Belgian beer) and I asked who she’d like to see me do next. She suggested Joan Jett, so I embarked on this.

I stupidly pushed myself to get it finished on Wednesday, so of course my back said “no” and it ended up taking me most of the week… Will I ever learn? Probably not. But hey, Joan looks good and it really boosted my confidence.

Yesterday I started on someone who has been one of my favourite singers since I was very small… as well as being in a really well known California folk-rock group, she played a witch in a US children’s show in the 60s. Any guesses? Go on, I’ll be *thrilled* if anyone gets it right!

Bonus Music Video

Only one song it could be this week…

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Ten days into #the100dayproject and I am having an absolute blast! After much umm-ing and aah-ing, I finally decided on 100 days of Women in Music.

Fondly (and humorously) known here at Poochweasel Towers as my ‘rock chicks project’, I’ve been wanting to do something like this for ages. Last year I indulged myself with a few days of graphite pencil drawing, but then last year went nuts and I never got any further…

Vi Subversa of the Poison Girls. I still want to be Vi when I grow up.

I like to set myself a challenge and I rarely draw people. I’ve chosen to start with ink drawings, even though I’ve been doing a lot recently, because ink is less forgiving than graphite so it requires some bravery and confidence. It also stops me faffing about with shading for days, just because it’s comforting… the whole idea is to get out of my comfort zone and improve my rusty people-drawing skills.

It’s also about making a plan and sticking to it. The idea of the 100 day project is to commit to something creative, work on it for at least 10 minutes a day for 100 days and share your process online. I started by making a list of 100(ish) women who have been influential/important to me, musically. It’s a very personal list, so there will be a lot of punk/post-punk, Riot Grrls and alternative/indie in there and it will most certainly reflect the fact that I worked for Our Price Records in the 1980s.

My first couple of drawings were a bit small and tentative. Here are PJ Harvey and Poly Styrene. I started Poly on a similar scale to PJ, then made the decision to start again and concentrate on her face.

At that point I realised I’d been putting unnecessary pressure on myself by trying to produce a finished drawing every day. I already do a lot of quick sketches and I reminded myself that this was about working on something every day and sharing the process. I won’t end up with 100 drawings, but this is only the start of my Women in Music project.

Having decided that doing larger, more detailed drawings was a good decision, I embarked on Joni Mitchell (a young Joni; I’m going to have to draw several of these women at different ages). I was much happier with this:

A couple of days ago I finished (legendary rock drummer) Patty Schemel. I think I’m already seeing some improvement and I’m starting to feel confident again. More importantly, I’m having fun!

Today I’m finishing Joan Armatrading, I’ll share that one next week. Now I’ve just got to keep on going. 10 days down, 90 to go… If anyone else is doing the challenge, I’d love to see what you’re up to. Come and talk to me!

Bonus Music Video

If you’d like to know a bit more about Patty Schemel, I love this (4 minute) video of her talking about how she started out as a drummer. And here she is hitting stuff: