It was a silly accident, but having kicked my little toe quite badly the medical advice was to sit with my foot up and not move around too much. I had some books to look at, including one of paintings and sketches of the architect Louis I Kahn. Nothing like looking at someone else’s work to get the creative juices flowing. So armed with some coloured pencils and a partially used pad of coloured pastel paper I sat and drew what I could see out the window.

‘Icicle’ lights in the daytime, coloured pencil on pastel paper, 4 January 2014.

OK, quite a bit to improve on there, but I haven’t done this for a while.

Open window, coloured pencil on pastel paper, 4 January 2014.

I was more pleased with this second drawing, but some drafting errors were annoying, all the more reason to keep practising!