DRAW DRAW DRAW: Why Not?

Do you draw? Do you want to draw more? I often hear folk say “I can’t draw!”

Drawing is a skill that can be nurtured but all too easily a skill that can be squashed.

Drawing for 15 minutes a day gets me in the drawing zone. It also helps me: to relax, to reset, to connect with the environment and to develop a conversation.

As part of Mental Health Awareness week I wanted to focus on the benefits of drawing and have invited artists who draw to share the reasons why they do and to provide some tips.

Lorenzo Madge

The reason I draw is to solve problems.

Here’s a list.

To visualise something that only exists in my head.
To teach engineering students a ’non arty’ way of building a drawing
To make an image for someone that I like that I hope they’ll like
To see how a particular medium behaves in a new context
To work things out
To test myself when going out of my comfort zone.
To remind me of a place or experience.

What Sue Shields says:

Pick up a pencil and grab the back of an envelope. You don't need much. Then look or remember. Drawing reconnects us with our neglected mind’s eye. By the simple process of observation we begin to make sense of our immediate environment and by being present drawing can be as rewarding as a country walk or a yoga class.

This absorption in line pattern and tone, however rudimentary the marks, has the ability to relax and give clarity to worries and things unsaid. Try doodling whilst talking to a friend, try drawing what surrounds you. Please, pick up that pencil.

Draw To Escape: It Works

Over the past year drawing has been my form of meditation. A go-to place when all around seemed so intense, drawing provided a refuge. The result, a collection of drawn windows and sketches from A Welcome Walk are now on show at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro in Time-Lapse.

Drawing can certainly lead you to new imagined places. Where might drawing take you?

For more information about Sue and Lorenzo go to:

Sue Shields https://www.instagram.com/sueshields_art/?hl=en

Lorenzo Madge https://www.instagram.com/penzorelli/?hl=en