From our early childhood a lot of us were given the tools, time and support to start drawing. However, as we have grown into adults a lot of us can admit that we don’t make the time to draw.. What would be a reason to draw? How do we even start drawing and why should we start drawing? Drawing invites us to simply explore a material and encourages a self-awareness of ourselves and the world around us. Some even say that it’s a great way of relieving stress, that it’s a great past time, or… drawing can even bring more value to life.
Keeping a sketchbook can be a very simple and effective way of building a creative habit in our lives. A fully completed sketchbook can become a luscious visual diary for us to explore, express and to reflect. It can also act as a time capsule to remind us of certain chapters in our lives.. like places we used to visit or routines we used to have. Drawing becomes a marker for the different paths we used to walk or the places that once were. It has this ability of capturing how life, and things change .. further enriching our understanding of life and how it unfolds.
In this article I will be sharing a month long guide on how to build your own sketchbook and what to expect! Before we delve into this guide I would like you to grab a pencil and paper and make a really bad drawing, make the worst drawing that you could ever make … Now, hold onto this drawing and make sure to date it.
Step 1) Get yourself a sketchbook, whatever size big or small.. Consider your materials.. pencils? pens? Markers? Something that you can easily carry around with you. Don’t overthink this.. pick only one material to avoid overwhelming yourself. Stick with basics!
2) Now it’s time to start drawing, set aside 10 minutes each day to practice some very basic 1-2 minute sketches and loosen up.. make the bad drawings !! This will prevent you from developing a fear of the sketchbook and avoiding “perfectionism”. Look at the world around you.. start with a few objects close to you, like a cup, or things scattered on the kitchen table, start by loosely drawing.. only allowing yourself less then 2-3 minutes to complete. Practice forming this habit for 10 minutes for 7 days.
3) Now that you’ve developed a very basic habit of sketching for 10 minutes every day the empty page should no longer feel as daunting. We can start experimenting with wider scenes, like your bedroom or sitting room, any settings that have a wider composition with things occupying spaces. With the same idea in mind we are still only spending 10 minutes on these sketches for 7 days.
4)After spending two weeks of building the habits from step 2 and 3, we should be feeling more confident in our abilities, and perhaps a little less self-critical? For this step we will be actively bringing our sketchbook everywhere with us like out to public spaces, parks, cafes, restaurants, down side streets or by the sea. Let’s visit the places that mean the most to us and the places we are curious to explore with our eyes, pen and paper. In the same way we are still only doing 10 minute sketches and maintaining that daily habit of drawing , however if you feel like spending longer on the drawings don’t limit yourself!
5) The world should be opening up to you more visually, keep moving around to different locations and make it an involuntary act to draw wherever you find yourself. GET OVER PEOPLE STARING, people become curious when they see someone drawing in public, some may even start conversation which can be a really nice opportunity to connect with people who are curious about to what you are doing.
6)By completing these steps you will have a collection of drawings that have developed over the course of 4 weeks. Reflect on your drawings and celebrate your progress over perfection. There may be a considerably higher amount of imperfect drawings over more satisfactory drawings, however this is all part and parcel of making and engaging with art.
Now that you have completed this guide I would you to look at these children’s drawings and examine what is it that they are doing with the line in their drawing.. is there something that can be said for the way that they draw? What are these irregular lines communicating? are they sharp and sudden, wobbly and crooked or erratic and all-over the place? How quickly or slowly did the pencil move to achieve these kinds of lines?
Image 2)
Now compare it to your very first bad drawing, are there any similarities between the children’s drawing and your own “bad drawing”? Ask yourself this question..
Through this article my aim was prove that we have permission to draw and there are steps involved to create a habit of drawing, just like we would draw when we were children. No matter how “childlike” our drawings may seem, they still have intention and have been created by us. The key is to honour every drawing, even if it’s our really bad drawings, and to embody and to embrace our own curiosities like as a child would with a pencil and paper.
