Tag Archives for Drawing

Gratitude and Creativity: Starting Something New

I’m always starting something new. Whether it’s a drawing in one of my sketchbooks, writing a new blog post, or jotting down the first few lines of what I hope will become a poem.

 

Truthfully, not everything I start reaches completion. However, I’m choosing not to place any judgement on me or my rate of completion. What’s important is that when I have the mental clarity and focus to start anything at all, I do. I’m engaging with the creative practice that I established for myself to cope with my chronic illness and non-stop chronic pain.

To me, starting something, any of the things I listed, means that I’m leaning in to my creativity. Starting means giving myself permission and space to let go of the anxiety and stress tightly wrapped around being ill for so long and often being housebound. Even if it’s just for a little while, it’s a release of pent up negative energy. Similar to emotional and psychological energy, that at other times in my life I’ve been unable to let go of and paid a physical price for.

Having this understanding now is important. Years ago, creating art was a constant part of my life. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize its significance then nor did I know why my need to create was triggered, like I do now. I understand more every day that even a brief creative engagement is beneficial to my emotional and psychological health. Ultimately, it has a positive effect on my physical health too; so, I keep starting.

Back then, I never connected consciously with the fact that I benefitted from the meditative qualities inherent to becoming lost for hours within the lines and shapes I drew, the layers of colours I applied to paper and canvases, or the words I strung together; so I allowed it to fall away from my life. In a twist of fate, becoming ill amplified the need to have an escape I could easily access and I’m grateful that I chose a creative outlet.

A few days ago, I started something new in a sketchbook with black paper. I love the way graphite from a pencil and white ink look on a black page. The graphite lines are what I consider ghostly because they register so faintly on the page, while the white ink creates a strong contrast.

 

I’m anxious—in a good way—to see how this page will develop as I fill in the faintly sketched graphite guide lines with bright white ink. Even though, I know I may not finish it…

I’m curious to know if you ever start something creative just for the heck of releasing some energy 🤔

 

It’s A String Thing 289 to 297: Mid-Summer Catch Up

I’ve been participating in Adele Bruno’s weekly ‘It’s As String Thing’ challenges that she hosts on her website Tickled to Tangle, for a few months now.

However, I’ve been lax in sharing the tiles that I’ve completed for the weekly challenges since the spring. The last time I shared one of my tiles was almost 10 challenges ago. That was challenge 288 where Adele chose patterns for us to use that resembled spring flowers.

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InkTober 2017: Day 1 – Swift

Last year, I participated in the month-long InkTober challenge for 2016. It was the first time I did something like that. It required me to draw something every day and I put my twist on it by using the daily prompts to inspire mindful writing to pair with the drawing I posted. Drawing something, every day, was challenging but it was also fun. However, it was a challenging month – for a few different reasons.

The first was that, in my opinion, my artistic skills were not very strong so it was an opportunity to improve. Mustering the energy to complete the challenge each day was often difficult because of my health. Some days it was exhausting to divert energy from coping with my pain to concentrating long enough to draw – and write – something then post it online, but I got it done. It was also difficult to figure out what to draw each day, even though the challenge provides a single word prompt for each day. The words from the prompt list (e.g. fast, noisy, collect, hungry) were sometimes difficult to depict in a line drawing, but I managed to figure something out each day.

I ended InkTober 2016 feeling that I accomplished so much, that this year I’ll be using the challenge in the same way. Today is the first day of InkTober 2017 and the prompt is ‘swift’. Here goes…

The first thing that came to mind when I read the word ‘swift’ was a horse: a wild horse. I envisioned a wild horse running across unending green prairies. There was just one problem. I had no idea how to draw a horse in motion the way I could see it in my imagination. So I went searching online for a photo that might help me figure it out. Thankfully, I found something better. On Pinterest, the treasure chest of everything DIY, I found a quick visual step-by-step tutorial for a galloping horse. About 30 minutes after drawing a few basic shapes and lines, I had drawn the horse I wanted.

Looking back at what I was capable of drawing last year and this drawing for my first entry of InkTober 2017, I feel that my skills have grown. I’m looking forward to seeing where I’ll be in 30 days…