About Michael

Hello, my name is Michael Nobbs and I’m a full-time artist, blogger and tea drinker (not necessarily in that order) who has been blogging since 2004. I live on the side of hill near the west coast of Wales and like to keep things simple.

I am author of The Beany, a regularly published illustrated journal of my life, and the two little booklets, 75 Ways to Draw More and Start to Draw Your Life (both these booklets are free to download and make and are also now available as a free eBook. You can download a copy here.).

You can find out a little more about me by checking out this brief history of my life to date, but in terms of becoming an artist and blogger, that all began back in about 2000.

In 1997 I had been diagnosed with ME/CFS and had to give up work. After taking to my bed for a number of years I slowly began to be able to do more and eventually started a drawing class. In 2000 I began a more formal art education that finally culminated in studying for an MA in fine art.

Blogging has been an important part of my journey to both becoming an artist and learning to live the sort of sustainable life that has l slowly lead to a return to good health. In the early days I would blog about the challenges of trying to make art at the same time as dealing with a chronic disease that left little energy to do even the simplest tasks. Making small drawings and blogging about them became a sort of therapy and path to improved health.

In 2004 I also began to publish The Beany.

These days my art and blogging still revolves around drawing, continually learning to keep things simple and chronicling the day to day beautiful ordinariness of my life. I feel very lucky.

Contact and connect

I’m a huge fan of the internet and the opportunities it offers artists. I am easy to connect with in a number of social networks.

I’m on Twitter, where I post regularly about drawing and some of the wonderful artists and sites I come across online.

I have a flickr account where I publish some of my own work, including printable versions of some of the books I publish which can be downloaded and made for free.

I regularly record an AudioBoo micro-podcast from my studio, covering topics including the things I’m learning about working as an artist online, ways I try to keep myself motivated, and what type of cake I’m bribing myself to keep working with.

I have recently joined Facebook and hope to use it to offer little peeks at what I’m up to in my studio.

You can also send me an email via this page.