In January I challenged myself to try and make at least one drawing a day. There were days I felt inspired and in the “flow” and where the pages turned and new sketches were eating the nakedness of the page. There were days in which the drawing challenge felt stupid: I am not an artist, why am I doing this? What is the purpose? There were days in which I didn’t draw anything.
But all in all it was a great thing to do. Here’s what I learned from this and why I would do it again:
- I had fun. I like drawing. I liked it as a kid and then I stopped, “because I am not an artist”, but I actually enjoy it for the sake of it.
- I learned that I am still drawing things the same way I was drawing them when I was a kid (an example is this post where I illustrated my MMM16 makes). So I tried to look at things and draw what I saw.
- I experimented with some new tools: oil pastels. I learned they allow me to do some quick sketches that are so fun. I tried blending them, and in the beginning this sucked, but I kind of got it in the end.
- I remembered the time I re-discovered watercolours or when I tried sketching with ink.
- I found myself to be more observant and more mindful of the things around me: a beautiful blood orange with sunset-like colours, half a kiwi, snow heavy on top of trees.
- Pinterest was a big inspiration for finding things to draw as well.
- I also learned that my own sketches inspired me to do new versions, for example I sketch of a bird I did in oil pastels and then in watercolour.
- It’s ok to sketch the same things a few times until you get it.
- There are some amazing artists out there whose work is inspiring to me, such as Minnie, or ‘SemiSkimmedMin‘, an artist from South-East London.
Do you draw? Why? Why not? Would you consider doing 30 days of drawing challenge?