Day 1. More/Less
Let's kick off 2025 with some simple (drawn) resolutions
Hello my friends!
HAPPY NEW YEAR. I’m so happy we’re staring the year off together.
This is our Day One. The first day of 2025, the rest of your life, and, to be more specific, the 30 Days of Drawing with DrawTogether & the Grown-Ups Table crew.
WELCOME.
We are kicking off our adventure with a classic New Years drawing ritual: The More/Less list. We did this last year and we all adored it and found deeply useful. The More/Less list was created by my dear friend and oft-collaborator, illustrator Julia Rothman. If you don’t know Julia’s name, you definitely know (and love) her work. She has published a ton of books, products, wallpaper, and was even a visual columnist for the New York Times.
To help us all get the most of drawing the More/Less list, I asked Julia a few questions about the practice. After our conversation below, you’ll find our Day 1 Drawing Assignment, which is for members of the DrawTogether’s Grown-Ups Table (meaning: paying subscribers.) Subscribers also the official assignment with guidelines, etc, get a link to the Group Chat where we share our artwork and support each other, and get the chance to be featured in the daily 30 Day Gallery (woohoo!)
Alright, without further ado… let’s start.
Julia Rothman’s More/Less list
Wendy: Hi Julia! Thanks for kicking off 2025 with us. Can you tell us about the More/Less list? We’re all excited to do it with you again this year.
Julia: Me, too - and sure. The More/Less list is a casual way to imagine your upcoming year. I have been doing it for seven years now, always at the very end of the year. It’s sort of like a resolutions list, in that I'm envisioning what I want more of in my life, and what I'd like to do less of. I try to keep it to the things I can control myself. The list can be written and/or illustrated with small drawings representing the items. Then I hang it by my desk as a small reminder of what I’m going towards in the new year.
Wendy: How did you get the idea for this illustrated list?
Julia: I’m not sure how the idea came to me. It was the end of 2016 and maybe because I was doing a lot of work on myself and trying to be more intentional, I wanted to create something to guide me for the next year. I woke up on the 31st and wrote More and Less at the top of a piece of paper and drew a line down the middle. It was a spur of the moment idea and worked. When I shared it on Instagram, people really responded and started making their own lists. That was so cool.
Wendy: Why do you think the More/Less list has been so widely embraced? What makes it different from other resolutions or reflections people do at this time of year?
Julia: I think resolutions are daunting when there are hard lines. This isn’t a No/Yes list or a Must Do. It’s sort of like, I’m going to try to do more or less of something. Some of the things on my list, stay on my list, year after year. I am always working on them and that's okay. Or they may disappear one year and reappear on the list a few years later. Some things I know I’ll be working on my whole life!
Wendy: Any tips or tricks for us?
Julia: A big tip is don’t worry about making a “good drawing” or nice lettering for this. This list is only for you. And you don’t need to share it with anyone unless you want to. It’s ok to draw symbols or abstract shapes to represent ideas, as long as you know what they mean.
“Don’t worry about making a ‘good drawing’ or nice lettering…”
If you want to take this further, you could make a series of specific lists. Instead of a general More/Less list, you could focus in on something. Maybe you want to make it particular to your creativity. So things on your list relate to that only. Maybe you want to make your list about your career or your family life. You could make multiple More/Less lists and expand the idea to all aspects of your life. I made one just for Art making this year:
Wendy: What is one more and one less on YOUR list for 2025?
Julia: More community and less assuming.
Wendy: I love your work - we all do. What can we see that’s new of yours? Any recent or upcoming books or projects that will inspire us?
Oh thanks so much! I have just put out a new children’s picture book called Work with collaborator Shaina Feinberg where we interviewed 28 people around the world about their professions from a wildland firefighter to a ferry captain to a professional surfer… all kinds of things. We wanted kids to be introduced to professions they wouldn’t normally learn about. The criteria was people who loved what they do and were also giving back to their communities somehow.
I have also been busy at work trying to finish the sixth book in my Anatomy series. It’s about Insects and I think will be the best one yet. I loved painting all the bugs and learning about their tiny worlds.
And if you like doing the More/Less list, I’ll have a guided journal coming out in the Spring that’s a place to record your More/Less lists that focuses on all aspects of your life.
Wendy: Can. Not. Wait. Julia, thanks so much for helping kick off the 30 Days of Drawing - and our year - off right. WE LOVE YOU!
Alright, friends, what follows is for member-subscribers: the daily drawing assignment, and access to the community chat where we share our drawings and support each other and hold ourselves accountable, all that fun stuff. We’ll also talk about doing some IRL local meetups if people feel so inclined, and you get weekly drawing lessons and assignments for the rest of the year, too, so you know what to do…