How to change your world through drawing

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Remember how fun it was to draw as a child? Then no one cared whether it looked like reality or not, it looked like a real work of art, and, of course, whether it could be sold. Today we have learned to live "seriously", and personal creativity is rarely perceived as pleasure. We, with this attitude, miss a solid piece of life, filled with real interest and pleasure. I want to talk about drawing, non-professional and not for sale, just about my personal experience, and why everyone should try it.

Not so long ago I read the book “Let Yourself Create” by Natalie Ratkowski. The author talks about sketches, artbooks and travel notes, why they should be done, and what techniques can be applied.

I do not argue that what is shown in the book, as sketches and drawing flash mobs, were drawn by a professional artist and illustrator, in fact, the author of the book. So any sketch from the book looks cool enough that most people will say, "I can't do that," and won't try, or try and then say.

Even at the beginning of this book, Natalie writes that not all creativity is needed to make money, you also need your own personal piece of time in which you just enjoy. I was very interested in this topic, and I decided to give it a try.

Sketchbook motivator

To tune in to the theme, I decided to make my own sketch pad. It turned out not to be perfect, but mine, stitched and glued with love. At first it seemed that it would be easy - the detailed step-by-step instructions in the book leave no doubt about what and where to stick.

But, as always, questions arise in the process: for some reason the cover does not stick, there are too many sheets, the flyleaf is glued in waves, and there is no way you can fix it.

Supporting myself with thoughts like “this is not for an exhibition, but for me,” I still finished it. As you can see in the photo below, there are too many sheets, so that under the layer of paint they begin to warp, and the notebook does not close normally.

But it was not in vain: the notebook became a kind of motivator, because of which at first I was ashamed not to draw. After all, I spent enough time on him, and he himself, despite the "shoals", I like.

In addition, unlike a sketchbook, it fits perfectly in my small backpack, and you can carry it with you to sketch some pictures you like.

Time to draw

In the book "Let Yourself Create" the author says that she taught herself to draw for 20 minutes a day, which, with her experience, is probably quite realistic. For me, in 20 minutes, I only get some kind of indistinct crossed out sketch, which has little resemblance to reality.

I realized that 365 sketches per year are unlikely for me to succeed, since one drawing takes, on average, two to four hours, and even then, if the background is simply "marked", and not thoroughly drawn.

However, no one limits my work in time, and I can draw one spread for several evenings. Now only four spreads are fully prepared in the notebook.

I show my drawings to prove to you that skill does not matter. I like them because they contain some of my experiences and thoughts, because the result of my creativity reminds me of how cool the process was.

Why would you say no

1. Because it takes time

Yes, it takes away, and how. What else takes time: watching not very interesting films that you watch because you seem to have started, wandering through other people's pages on social networks (if someone loves such leisure or just hangs helplessly on them), conversations with someone who is not strong for you interesting. It all takes time and is not fun, but you do it.

I can call painting a deeper activity than the aforementioned superficial activities that will not leave any imprint on you. If you are fair to judge, a lot of time is spent on activities that can be easily abandoned.

2. Because it will get you nowhere

Of course it will. And not because your work will be bought for big money (although this is possible), but because you will start looking at the world a little differently, you will find a new exciting activity for yourself, and you will open that facet of yourself that you never knew.

3. There will be criticism

This can be, especially if there are no creative people in your family and there are those who are very fond of criticizing. Then you will hear that you are wasting your time, that this person does not look like a person at all, and the branches of the tree do not grow down, but up.

Only one thing will help here: arm yourself with the understanding that all this you are doing only for yourself, and answer all attacks in the same way: “I don't give a damn that it doesn't look like it. I do it for myself. Everything.

Well, now about what you will gain if you start drawing.

A different view of the world

When you walk the same road to work day after day, you stop noticing it, hanging in your own thoughts. You do not see beautiful pieces of life, you do not notice passers-by and pictures that are worthy of exhibitions. And they are everywhere.

When I was looking for a plot to turn, just coming home from work, it was a completely different world. In everyday life, to which he is accustomed, in all the trees, in passers-by, in the weather, in the sky, something interesting immediately appears that you want to capture.

I noticed how cool the metal figures look in the park, how wonderful it is when a child walking from the school of art with a packet of notes just spins around, looking up at the huge poplars, how brightly a woman in a red coat shuts herself off from the wind.

And it is not necessary to portray these pictures one to one. You can paint them with a comic strip, throw out the feeling of spring with a chaotic mixing of colors, or paint your mood with geometric shapes.

They say that artists see the world differently, but now I think it works in reverse too. Once you start drawing, you will see it differently.

Getting to the heart of things

What happens when you paint something from nature (from a photograph, a painting, it doesn't matter)? You concentrate completely on the subject. To draw something, you continuously, for several hours, look at this object / person / natural phenomenon.

This is akin to meditation, and in general it is. To draw a leaf of a plant, you peer into its veins, consider its shape, and get to know the subject better.

The same with human faces - the one whom you draw for a long time, necessarily begins to seem beautiful to you. This is a phenomenon of some kind, but it is so.

One more thing: if you do not know how to draw a body or a person in motion, like me, for example, the torment of drawing "wooden" bodies, twisted at an unnatural angle of arms and legs, are rewarded with the fact that absolutely all bodies after that seem perfect.

Two hours of trying to draw a dancing person in a complex perspective, and any figure in motion seems to be just perfect. You start to admire the natural harmony that is present in every body, canon (by modern standards) or not. Great bonus, right?

Creativity therapy

In the book "Let Yourself Create" Natalie Ratkowski talks about her friend who got into a car accident. During the recovery period, the woman painted landscapes of the Baikal coast in watercolors. Later, her neurologist said it was difficult to find a better way to repair damaged neural connections.

Of course, this is an exceptional case, but each of us has stressful situations, a load of unpleasant memories and thoughts, accumulated tension and other "charms" that have a bad effect on health and relationships with loved ones.

So, drawing actually helps to forget about it. As with any meditation, when you paint, you immerse yourself completely in the subject, and no harmful negativity penetrates into your world.

It is also work on yourself, help in knowing your inner world, which is often hidden in the "shell".