Since I began convalescing, I’ve had the opportunity to revive my passion for drawing. I did this via a challenge that I set myself this time last year, which is – simply, to draw something every day. This is much harder to do than you think.

Check out these works so far.

Why do it? However well-practised I am at writing, there are days when emotions, dimensions, perceptions materialise that cannot be encapsulated by the written word, for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps they are repressed feelings, or I just haven’t found the word to describe them. Perhaps they’re simply beyond language. I need to reconnect with my surroundings, make another form of expression integral to my life, and increase my appreciation of others.

There are scientific reasons, too, for making art.

For me, it’s also a way of enriching my writing, and it may even contribute towards an illustrated book in the future. My drawing and my writing always went together when I was a child. (I have fond memories of my religious knowledge teachers giving me lined textbooks with blank inserts to draw on for the Bible stories that I was tasked to write every week.) I see no reason why the two shouldn’t meet again.

Let’s not treat this as a sneak preview of my next book though. I’m not making a commitment to one just yet; it’s early days.

For now, keep an open mind, and enjoy the drawings as they are.