I also lack inspiration. My children ask me to draw things, and I do, to a standard that makes me happy, but I don’t ever sit in front of a blank piece of paper and think ‘hmmm, what can I draw today’. So to be given a task is for me an extremely useful nudge.

I also have a very strong block about drawing from my imagination - I have a reasonable eye, and can copy or draw from life, but don’t seem to be able to translate the images I keep in my head into actual drawings.

Also? I seem to have developed this mid-life ADD. Much of the time life is so stressful and fast paced and over scheduled that when I actually *do* have the time to draw I get antsy, like I should be doing something else. I think this is why photography has overshadowed drawing as a creative outlet for me lately, because I like the quickness to compose and snap, the instant gratification of digital media.

I’m really interested to see people’s drawings now.

Off the top of my head, I reckon drawing from the imagination comes from having drawn from the eye enough to have kept a ‘memory’ of the kinds of shapes and lines used. Each time you draw something, it’s a kind of reinforcement of that. Even when it goes wrong, that’s still a learning. Erm, basic message - the more you draw, the more skilled you get.

I want to find your Geography teacher and have a stern word with him or her, now. I do remember being similarly chastised for not using a ruler in my Physics and Chemistry diagrams. Rulers, pah.

Your mum is a superb example that you can learn at any age, though.

The only time drawing or art work of any kind was fun was when I did it by myself for myself. I used to doodle and collage a lot in my journals when I was in my early ’20’s. In those days of course I was usually stoned and should have been doing my homework instead.