Coming from a family of musicians, creativity and artistic expression is pretty much embedded in my DNA. Although I’m not exactly a rockstar on the guitar, I can confidently say that I’m a natural with a sketchpad and pencils. I can distinctly remember in my high school art class I picked up a set of colored pencils and, having never worked with before, drew a creepy, but a hyper-realistic portrait of Hannibal Lecture from “Silence of the Lambs”. The proud moment of seeing the grin on my teacher’s face at what I created was so heart-warming and invigorating as a student who hadn’t thought of herself as being talented in any area. For me, creating a drawing is a cathartic process, purging my thoughts and feelings into my work, and seeing the results come to life in different shades and hues. It’s truly therapeutic and why so many people see the health benefits from it.
I wasn’t planning on ever going to art school, but I certainly didn’t think that I would a creative rut so soon going into college. I was overwhelmed during my first semester trying to adjust to an entirely different environment from what I was used to and I lost all desire to sketch. Not even a simple doodle in my notebook during a boring lecture. Almost four years passed by since my last drawing when my brother decided to gift me a small sketchbook and colored pencil set in my junior year of college. I’d occasionally open the book to draw an eye, but I’d freeze to go any further than that.
When school’s closed last spring due to COVID-19, I discovered my sketchbook and pencil set in a box I’d forgotten to unpack. At 2 a.m. and unable to sleep from a tense day, I took a chance and started to draw. It wasn’t easy to shake off the frustration when I was having to erase over and over again, but soon, it was coming back to me over time. Sketching and drawing again made me realize that I was missing a sole part of my being that needed to be precise, detail-oriented, and experimental in my creativity, something I wasn’t achieving in my work and school life.
With any hobby or skill, it takes patience and dedication to get back the skills you hadn’t exercised in a long time. However, I do have some tips that can help your journey become a lot less intimidating:
- One Sketch A Day- Inktober
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You probably see every October a trending hashtag from your fellow art friends drawing once a day with a single word associated with the piece. Just as there’s writing prompt exercises every day for November, Inktober follows the same concept. I’ll admit I didn’t start on the first of the month, it’s still a great excuse to dedicate 30 minutes to an hour to sketch and interpret words into physical objects. It may feel intimidating at first, but as time goes on you’ll start to let go of self-doubt and allow yourself to create. There’s no rules or restrictions, just purely a month dedicated to you and your sketchbook.
- Purchase Only The Essentials
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It’s easy to get wrapped up in the Instagram videos of artists using all types of pens, pencils, and paints to make their art, but you don’t have to at the very beginning. Whatever medium you like to work with, start with a very basic set first before you go all out with purchasing supplies you might not use for a while until you get comfortable. Don’t think you need every brush or color of paints/pencils/pens, either. Sometimes just using basic colors and tools can encourage you to think outside of the box and, although time-consuming, help you figure out ways to make certain shades or textures with what you have. I personally think starting simple is key to the process.
- Start Small First, Then Work Your Way Up
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Just as I mentioned before, starting simple can really help to get a sense of where you might be in your art journey and what you want to improve on. In my art classes, the teacher would have us start the year with a week or two dedicated to drawing techniques. The best option I had at home was to simply look up drawing techniques to try on YouTube. Over time, my muscle memory started to kick in and I found myself drawing in ways I hadn’t in a long time.
- Finding Inspiration When You’re in a Creative Rut
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Inspiration comes when you least expect it— just ask Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love” in her Ted-Talk about artists and their elusive “genius” that seem to be near impossible for those who aren’t exactly on DaVinci’s level. These are Gilbert’s words that struck me the most when I was at my most uninspired:
“What I have to sort of keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about that is don’t be afraid. Don’t be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed, for just one moment through your efforts, then “Olé!” And if not, do your dance anyhow. And “Olé!” to you, nonetheless. I believe this and I feel that we must teach it. “Olé!” to you, nonetheless, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.”
- Just Have Fun!
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The way I was truly able to achieve any sort of breakthrough with my work throughout my journey back into making art was to let myself make mistakes and not be so hard on myself. When I was sketching and drawing randomly in the afternoon or late at night, those were the most profound moments for me because I was going with what was being created on the page before me. I didn’t have any initial thought as to what I would draw, so when I found myself making animals or flowers and using different combinations of shades and colors.
Allow yourself to enjoy what you do, even if it’s not what you consider the “best” work you’ve done. There’s a freedom in letting go of those expectations for yourself and just following your own artistic instinct and what you want to express.