I LOVE TO DRAW Archives - Page 2 of 2

December 6, 2014March 31, 2015

Giggles, Fun and Christmas Lights

Early this week I shared my new found love for what I have now learned is called #sketchnoting (I personally think it is so much more then a boring name like that. Don’t worry, I’m working on a new name, prettier and way more creative name for it). Even with a boring name my love for what I like to think of as writing with intertwined words and drawings continues….

Last weekend my 9 year old asked if we could decorate the outside of the house on Saturday. How could I possibly say no. So we brought the lights up from the basement and got to work. It was so much more then I could have expected.
Giggles, Fun and Christmas Lights

December 1, 2014March 31, 2015

40, Teary, Thankful and a New Happy

I started this post the day of my 40th birthday…over two weeks ago. I wasn’t short of words. I didn’t need any ideas. I knew what I was going to say. The post was simply waiting for a finishing touch, a picture, some word art, some splash of heck awesome.

So it sat… unpublished.

A Google+ post came into my stream. It was a post about Lynda Berry’s illustrated syllabus and homework assignments. The article shared how she uses humor, creativity and drawings to write her syllabus and homework assignments. It is just too cool and seriously, who wouldn’t want to do that homework.

Mt daughter’s drawings stared at me from the magnets they hung from on the fridge as I ate my breakfast. Their collages of words, imagination, fearless free thought, full of color, ideas, flowing, oozing with the details of their life, shouted their creativity.

I had been missing something lately. Something that kept me from doing more, from writing more, from creating more and it finally hit me…I’ve been missing drawing.

Suddenly it hit me. I knew what was missing. I knew what I wanted to do. So, I asked Olivia’s if I could use her sketch pad. I got out my favorite black pen and I began to draw (big step for me as I usually draw on the iPad, drawing on the iPad means I can fix my mistakes, I can make it perfect and hate what my drawings look like on paper). The drawings and words began to swirl and became entangled on the paper. My heart warmed and happiness flooded me as I felt my personality, my words and my story illustrated on the paper.

My daughters joined me on the floor, each with their papers and pens. We sat and drew together. We smiled and giggled and passed crayons to each other and admired each other’s drawings.

I knew in that moment…this type of writing, this type of drawing, this type of creativity filled my like none before. (Mommy BONUS…it also gave me a half way point with my daughters and our time together. It allowed us all to write and draw and create the way we love to do. It allowed us to spend time together, doing something we all loved.) I had finally found a creative outlet that was fun, artsy, free flowing, portable and most of all it made me feel like I have wanted to for so long… like an artist.

I give you the first of many, many _______(I am certain there is some fancy smancy name for this type of writing/journaling. I have no idea what it is called. I just call it my art…my happy)….
40 Teary Thankful and Happy

November 6, 2013January 28, 2014

No Swimming

My daughters are a constant source of inspiration for me. Their amazingly fantastic view the world around them makes me smile. The heck awesome places their imaginations take them to leaves me in smiling in awwww. The times I get to spend drawing and doing crafts with them… inspired and filled with ideas.

Like most of my doodles, this one stared with “Mommy come draw with meeeee!!!!”

It quickly turned into a paper crumpling grump, “I can’t draw fish!!!!”

And ended with a mini-fish drawing lesson and then it….well you’ll see! Continue reading “No Swimming”

December 18, 2012December 23, 2012

12 Days of Joy: Day 5

For the last few weeks I have struggled to find balance between writing and drawing. I often only have time for one, but I love both. I absolutely love that I have both of them as creative outlets. Today I bring you Moose. Throw in a holiday cupcake and some bubbles and…well…so much fun!!!

October 24, 2012November 4, 2012

Inspired Illustration Week#1

Everyday my daughters create something. They draw, they paint, they glue, they color. Their imaginations over flow with inspiration. They write lists, they author stories, they draw pictures of their day, they illustrate princesses and superheros. As they have grown I have worked hard to encourage their infinite inspiration and boundless imagination. It is a piece of them I want to exist and flow through them for the rest of their lives. In the last two months Olivia’s drawings have consistently become fantastic and left me more and more in awww of her ability to go to some other place and share it through her drawings (yes, total and complete mommy bias).

Suddenly I found myself looking at the world in a very different way. Maybe instead of writing about a memory I could draw too? Maybe instead of taking a picture or sharing words I could share an emotion or thought through drawings. Could I? Could I turn a vision, a thought, an idea into a drawing? So I found a great app on my iPad, bought a stylist and I began to draw….and draw and I drew some more. I began to study my daughters drawings. I watched the details they added. I took notes on their feelings. I remembered how they were inspired. And then I drew some more. Soon I started to find my own style.

After months of studying them and drawing my own pictures I realized it was time. It was time to share my drawings with other. Actually let other human beings (not just my daughters…who are totally bias. I could draw a wiggly lopsided stick figure and they’d say that’s beautiful mommy!!) I channeled a pinch of whimsy and a cup of sweetness and drew for someone I knew would love my art even if it sucked. With a million nervous knots in my stomach I hit the share button…

and when no one told me my drawing was awful I drew some more. Today I find myself with a brand new creative outlet.

I LOVE TO DRAW.

While I am still terrified to share my drawings with others I love it too much to let my new found love be effected by what others think. So today I start what I hope will be the first of many, many, many more inspired illustrations.

I owe this new found passion all to my daughters!