No. 24: When There Are No Words
An invitation to draw, scribble, and paint with me and my friend Gayle tomorrow afternoon.
When things are hard, my sketchbook is always my safe space. I have sections in all of my books about drawing through difficult times and grief, and how sometimes it is best just to simply scribble all the feelings out.
In my book Draw Your Day for Kids! I wrote:
Another way to tackle the blank page is to think about how you are feeling. Sometimes how and what we choose to draw is determined by our mood. Some days you will want to practice drawing things just as they are, and other days you might want to draw lots of marks and lines and abstract patterns instead. The benefit of drawing your day in any way you choose is that each time you sit down to create, you will wind up with a completely different expression and finished artwork. We don’t feel the same every day, so our pages should not look the same every day.
I have so much on my plate workwise, but in this moment of troubling events in the Middle East, I think it would do me some good to just make marks in my sketchbook, and maybe write out some thoughts and feelings as well. I am thinking of creating patterns of peace signs, or filling a spread with just one or two colors. This morning when I was considering filling up a few pages this way, I thought of this community and how it might be good to fill some pages together.
An Invitation
On Friday (tomorrow) I am inviting all of my subscribers to join me and my friend
an amazing artist and teacher who just joined Substack, for a drawing and painting session on Zoom. All you have to bring are a few supplies—a pencil or a pen is perfectly fine—and some paper. You can also bring along paints, markers, pastels, or any other medium that you enjoy using. Gayle and I will have no particular agenda, we are just going to spread some color around and have a nice time chatting. Please join us from 4:30 to 5:30 EST this Friday. Here is the link to register.I enjoyed this post from
about how carefree creative play using minimal marks can transform into something really beautiful. At the top of the post there are a bunch of helpful links related to the conflict in the Middle East as well.
My recent class with Derwent, “Painting Pumpkins and Gourds” is now available on YouTube. Click here to watch.
What a wonderful idea. My soul could benefit from some art time and sharing the hour will encourage me to follow through. Thanks so much for hosting!
This sounds like such a lovely idea right now. I hope you can record it as I realized after I signed up that I have a time conflict. Thanks so much. I find watching artists paint and chat to be very lovely.