I’ve been working through the Drawing Our Lives course on Sustainably Creative, and though I have not really drawn since I was a kid, I’ve really been enjoying it.
I decided to take the course despite not being much of an artist, because I felt like it could shake up my creative habits and help me improve as a writer – sort of as a form of “creative cross-training.” And, to be really honest, I do really like to draw, even if I will never be a “real” artist.
It’s sort of like bowling for me. I really love bowling, and I have never scored above a 72. Seriously. But that has never stopped me from going bowling. Hell, rented shoes don’t stop me from bowling, and that’s one of the grossest publicly accepted things ever. Yet in my creative work, I have a terrible perfectionist tendency. I have a habit of not doing things at all that I cannot do perfectly – and though I have made great progress in working though that tendency in my writing (and in my housekeeping, oddly), it’s still there in other areas. I wanted to find an enjoyable activity at which I could be a rank amateur – but in a safe space that would allow me to share and grow, even if I don’t improve much. I’ve really found that in Drawing Our Lives.
I highly recommend this course, even for armchair doodlers like me.