REVIEW: "Draw every day" - a creative kick for any person

365

The entire book is based on Natalie's 365 experiment. The essence of the experiment is that she decided to draw one small picture every day. What for? In order to prove to oneself and others that waiting for inspiration is an empty idea, and one should not sit and wait, but go and do it.

Despite my limited experience, I have never been a proponent of inspiration theory. I have noticed more than once that when you start to do something, even if you don’t want to and cannot, in the process something starts to work out anyway. So it is with Natalie, but only her experiment is very clear and in practice shows that this theory is correct.

Each page of the book contains pictures, and each of them is better than the last. In addition to drawings, Natalie also shares her thoughts, which will be very useful for representatives of the creative and design professions.

Describe the events of the day right on the pages of your notebook. When you have time, you sit down and sketch what you wrote. Just make notes on the sheets for yourself what you saw and would like to sketch, even from your own photographs.

Natalie also says that nothing prevents you from doing the same project. Moreover, just such a project will be the best proof to yourself that you shouldn't wait for inspiration. You can take as a basis the author's project or come up with your own. Here's what she advises to do:

Think about the format of your work.
Start small.
Outline a page of your notebook into seven strips - this will be your template for miniature sketches from life or a comic book layout.
Experiment.

You can think of dozens of topics: sketches of learned foreign words (by the end of the year, your vocabulary will be replenished by 365 words), collages of how the road you go to work changes every day, or sketches of people around you. It will take you no more than 20-30 minutes every day. Agree, a trifle.

Tips for creative people

The book is interesting not only for the experiment itself, but also for the advice that Natalie gives to creative people. First of all, don't be afraid to show your work. You should not bring everything to perfectionism. Thus, you will learn to listen to criticism, and this skill is also very important.

Enjoy the process! There are days when you just don't feel like drawing / creating / working. Do not want? Take a break, do not prove to yourself that you can create without stopping.

Go to exhibitions and be interested in the work of your colleagues. Do you think that only your works are brilliant, and all the others are just a pimple on the body of art? Well, perhaps you are wrong, and you should reconsider your position a little. The creativity of others is a great source of inspiration for you.

You want to take some of your works, crumple them up, throw them away and never see them again. Resist this temptation. Once again, turn off your inner perfectionist and save even gruesome work. Perhaps in the future you will find something special in them.

Conclusion

There is not so much text in the book, and if I continue in the same spirit, I will simply retell its content. However, this is what I liked the most. Despite the fact that there is really not so much text in the book, every line of it is saturated with useful information, and not only for artists, but also for people of any creative profession.

Draw Every Day you will find tips on how to overcome lack of inspiration, how to approach Experiment 365 correctly, and finally, you will understand how to create correctly, even if you thought you already knew about it!