I am using Flickr to show my art together with some photos.

When at school nearly 30 years ago, I was all geared up to go into some sort of artistic profession - Graphic Design preferably - but then computers came along and I got diverted. I am now a web designer/programmer for travel booking software.

So fast forward to my birthday August 2012 and I set myself a challenge, to try and spend a year learning something new.

After lots of deliberation and the elimination of lots of options (including playing the piano, languages or even politics) I decided to pick up the pencils again and start drawing.

So far I am very pleased with my choice. I started with the basics - objects around the house etc, but then discovered Julia's Portrait Party here on Flickr.

This moved my goal to being able to capture likeness, scaling up drawings from photos and general technique. All of these I am reasonably happy with now though I am trying to get quicker and add a bit more feeling into a drawing rather than make them photo realistic.

Next is a move to colour, I have an underused pastel set, but that takes time so I need to pick my moments.

I also want to try other scenes like buildings, landscapes but there is plenty of time for all that.

Check out Julia Kay's Portrait Party for a wide array of great artwork from some very talented people.