The Sunday Spread: Art Therapy
Hi there. How are you?
Welcome back to the Sunday Spread. Each week I give you a glimpse into my sketchbook and drawing practice. Posted most Sundays.
When I woke up with a sore throat last Monday, I knew I was getting sick. I started taking “fizzy lifters” (Emergen-C) and tried to take it easy. By Thursday, my body ached, my head throbbed when I coughed, and my energy was zapped. I finally gave up on Friday and took my first sick day in recent memory.
My plans to record a new mini-drawing course over the weekend were abandoned. All I wanted to do and had the energy to do was sit on the couch. Besides watching TV and sleeping, the only thing that remotely interested me was drawing.
Drawing as Therapy
I spent hours on this tiny spread. It’s nice to have something to show for all those hours spent on the couch feeling awful.
I’m finally feeling like myself again, and my desire to draw has persisted. I’ve been more prolific in the last two weeks than I’ve been in many months. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been making with no expectation of sharing or monetizing.
I also think it has to do with the big feelings I’m grappling with.
We’re living with such uncertainty in the US and it’s affecting me in a big way. I’m feeling so helpless and afraid of what’s to come. Drawing is helping. (Writing Postcards to Voters is helping too!)
Pocket Sized Sketches
Here’s all of the recent drawings I’ve made in my small Talens Art Creation sketchbook. Click on the drawings to enlarge and look at them up close. When I look at these as a whole, they’re all quite different. I’ve really been allowing myself to play and experiment without any concern for the outcome. There are some new marks, shapes and ideas emerging here that I really like.
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Working Large Too
For the first time in recent memory, I’m working large (for me). I did a few 8.5” x 11” spreads last week and really enjoyed the freedom that the larger format allows.
Heck, maybe I’ll even break out of the sketchbook! Other than the drawings I made for my book, I can’t remember the last time I drew anything of consequence outside of a sketchbook. I’m on a roll, so I might just have to.
That’s all for now.
