38: Mothering Two Kids and My Craft
How becoming a mom made me question and change my career path
Motherhood and my sketchbook are so intertwined, it is hard to know where to begin writing about the relationship between the two. When I first became a mom, I had a small design business that was very stressful to keep up with while sleep deprived and nursing, so the work I created during that time feels somewhat like a blur. I had baby Ian (who is now nineteen) on my lap while at the computer creating print files for books and invitations. I was always distracted and always nervous that I was missing something—either missing out on precious moments with Ian or missing an important email. The days and years seemed to pass so quickly. When I had my second child almost four years later, I was even more sleep challenged, seeing a sleep doctor, not eating well, and dreading having to work with clients who just wanted to take more of my time and already compromised attention. I was at a crossroads, feeling like I desperately needed something of my own while also not wanting to miss a second of my kids’ lives. I would watch them sleep and feel sad as each day of their childhood passed while I was also feeling confused as to what I wanted to do with my creativity. I had worked since college and had no intention of pausing my design career.
In my confusion I picked up some pens and a sketchbook and started to doodle. The lines and marks were literally doodles like the aimless drawings I’d made in high school. Then my doodles began to get enclosed in big letters and I made all these different alphabets. I didn’t know what I was doing, but my nervous energy had an outlet in these daily pages. And the greatest part was I could work in my sketchbook while my boys played Legos or while we were at the playground or while we waited for food at a restaurant. I was able to work it into my life: five minutes here, twenty minutes there.
As I describe in Draw Your Day, there was a moment when the doodles transformed into little tidbits about our time together, much like diary entries. The sketchbooks then became a daily record of motherhood, documenting in words and pictures my joys, frustrations, explorations, and fears around being a mom. I pushed myself and processed things by putting pencil and pen to paper, the excuse and justification always being that the sketchbooks were so much about my life with my boys and husband that they would turn out to be a gift to them—our memories and experiences fixed on these pages.
So you could say that becoming a mother was the catalyst that changed my career from designer to all of the other things that I call myself now: artist, teacher, and author of books about drawing—titles that have come a bit as a surprise and have taken on a life of their own much like my kids have.
At one point when I was compulsively creating a page a day in my sketchbooks, I thought, Why am I doing this? Yes, I was producing these visual diaries for me and my family, and yes, through the daily practice I was getting better at finding my groove and drawing style, but why was I so hyper-focused on it? Was the attention to my sketchbook really serving me and my boys? My mother told me to just keep doing what I was doing and the why would work itself out. This was shortly before I got my first book deal. Mothers sometimes know, and mine certainly did. And I like to think that the focus I gave my drawings was a lesson to my kids that you can do two things at once. I could be there for them while also growing and changing as an artist.
As I work on edits for my next book, which is all about drawing adventures big and small, I wonder if this project will be the perfect closure to my own adventure as an artist mom and the perfect transition to just artist. The book is a culmination of all of my thoughts around my sketchbook art, and when it comes out next year, my younger son will be in his last year of high school. Could this mean the end of something and the start of something new? My kids both now create in their own ways, so they can proceed to tell their stories as I continue to tell mine.
Mother’s Day brings up lots of feelings for everyone, and I hope that whatever the day means to you that it’s a good one filled with love.
Class Announcements
Join me for my next free class with Derwent, tomorrow, May 10, at 2pmEST
Sketch and Paint Citrus Fruits with Derwent
colored pencils. From initial sketch to a fully rendered round fruit with color, shadow, and light, we will go over all of the stages of the process together. There will be a variety of whole fruits and cut pieces so that we can draw and paint the inside segments of the items as well as the texture of the rind/skin. If you do not have Inktense paints, then watercolor paint will work just fine. Register here.
Here is a link to watch the replay of my previous class with Derwent: Sketch and Paint Your Coffee with Derwent.
In the next few weeks I will be sharing a link to sign up for my next weeklong retreat with Uptrek in Tuscany in April 2025. I am so excited to share more!
My next special guest who will join us at our Draw Your World meetup on May 28th (link and detials will be shared in the subscriber chat) is my friend
She will be leading us in an exercise about drawing upside down to better see shape and form. If you would like to join in these meetups, consider upgrading your subscription.Ambassador and Affiliate Codes
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A new affiliate of mine is Soumkine in Paris. Their stationery, journals, and sketchbooks are so beautiful. Click here to shop.
All Canvas lights and accessories are 10% off with my discount code: SDB10.
Sam, this really spoke to me this morning as I am figuring out the place art has in my life now. I also have turned a new page and as a new grandmother I am finding a way to make it a part of my life with my granddaughter. In fact, I just finished a sketchbook for her with images of her early days (the first two pages are actually from the class with you and Ohn Mar in Oct 2022 in Brooklyn with my expectant daughter…that is the sketchbook that went on to be Naomi’s own!!) to later pages of her favorite foods, hats and animals and the sounds they make which we play during our almost daily video chats. I anticipate making art books together with her in the not too distant future. What a joy art brings.
Lovely message!!! Thank you! You are certainly more than an artist. Putting kind and encouraging words out to the universe is so appreciated.