Day 2. Un-DOodling Self-Doubt
Let's start with some spirals.
Hi Friends!
Happy Day 2! You are doing it. We are doing it.
Yesterday you drew a 2025 More/Less list to kick off the new year with creativity and intention. How did it go? Judging by all the awesome artwork I see in the chat, it struck a real chord. And such a strong, fun, creative way to start the New Year. I salute you all.
Now, we’re ready to enter 2025 - and the rest of the 30 Days of Drawing - with our intentions set. Eyes, hearts, and minds wide open. Pens and pencils ready.
First, Some Housekeeping:
Grown-Ups Table (GUT) peeps
In addition to yours truly, you are going to get to know (and love!) a couple front-facing DrawTogether GUT Team members over these 30 days:
, our intrepid community manager, will kick off most of our group chats and answer your questions in the comments and chat. staffs the community email (you can email us anytime at community@drawtogether.studio) and can help you with any tech and membership Q’s. Thank you AAK & Kyle!How it works
You can always find the FAQ here. That should answer any questions about the posts, the chat, stuff like that. Additional Q’s? Please ask them in the comments so we can answer them for all members to see.
The 30 Days will be broken down into four Parts (subjects?). Each part will address a different big picture topic. I’ll start off each part with lesson (like I do today), then continue to explore that topic for a number of days by featuring different artists, artwork, inspiration, and of course that days drawing assignments. A new chat will start each day for you to share the days artwork.
It’s a lot like last year, but less huge weighty lessons every day - just one a week - and then little bites for the rest of the time. Always focusing on our themes of attention, and good enough.
Also, I reserve the right to change things as needed! :) NO RULES IN ART. (And I myself and trying to be “good enough” this time round. It’s a practice for us all!)
Now let’s fall back in love with drawing
We ALL used to draw when we were little. Why? Because we enjoyed it. It felt good. Unfortunately, for many of us, around the age of 5 or 6 someone came along and told us we were doing it “wrong.” And at that moment, drawing stopped being about the sheer delight and joy of creation and expression, and became all about a right and wrong way of doing things. We stop reveling in the process of creating and started worrying about precarious goal of achieving.
And that is when many of stopped drawing. And we started worrying about getting things “right” in the eyes of others.
Oof.
Well THAT worry - that focus on outcome instead of process - is what we are going to work on undoing in the 30 Days of Drawing - starting with Part One.
In Part One we are going to let go of the idea of making a “good drawing” and get comfortable with it being fun just to make something. To fall back in love with the feeling of making lines and shapes on the page. Simple as that. We are going to do that by making some wandering, exploratory abstract drawings that help us get us out of our analytical heads and back into our creative, GUT-led bodies.
Some people like to call these drawings radical and transformative acts of expression.
I like to call them….. Doodles.
Part 1. Lesson: The Doodle
Whenever I tell people that we’re gonna doodle, I always get a few “how does drawing circles and lines do anything?!?” Without fail, after a few days of doodling, those people change their tune.
We conducted a survey after 2024’s 30 Days of Drawing and found that doodling in the way we do it here in DrawTogether helps decrease anxiety, stress, and perfectionism. And for good reason. The simple act of doodling on paper helps us focus our minds, retain more information, and calm our anxious nerves. True story.
What is a doodle?
Generally speaking, a doodle is a casual spontaneous scribble or mark made without a conscious destination. The process of doodling helps us think. According to a study by Jackie Andrade, PhD, 29% of people who doodle find it easier to recall information than those who don’t. The same study found that doodling, coloring and general free drawing activate our prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain that helps us focus and find meaning in sensory information. So doodling makes us feel pleasure and gives us a reward. Contrary to many bosses’ strong held beliefs, doodling does NOT distract us in meetings or on zoom calls. Quite the opposite. It helps us focus.
Doodling helps us PAY ATTENTION. (Theme alert!)
Is there a difference between a drawing and a doodle?
In my opinion, the difference between a doodle and a drawing is the artist’s intention.
What I think is important for our purposes here in the 30 Days of Drawing - and for everything I do and teach with drawing in DrawTogether, the GUT, and beyond, is that when you draw in this doodley way, you feel free and focused, and you forget about the outcome. Our focus is on the DO in DOodling. We are all about the PROCESS.
So again, is there a difference between a drawing and a doodle? I mean, sure - intention, process vs outcome, etc. But for our purposes in DrawTogether: who the heck cares.
What’s coming in Part 1. The Doodle
The Doodle Part is about a week long. Each day we will create abstract drawings based on the work of some pretty awesome artists. These drawing won’t only be cool looking, but they will start to get us out of our perfectionistic, judgy selves, and into our drawing bodies. They will help us go of expectations and enjoy drawing again.
Sound good? Good. Ready? Let’s roll. Or shall I say SPIRAL.
Day 2. The Spiral
If you’ve drawn with me for more than a minute, you’ve heard me talk about spirals. Artist Robert Smithson (who made the earthwork in the photo above, titled “The Spiral Jetty”, which was just added to the national register of history places!) and artist Lynda Barry (who starts her workshops with drawing spirals, as in the still from the video below) are two of my favorites.
Spiral drawing dates back waaaay further than these artists, tho. Since people have been drawing, we’ve been drawing spirals. This 12” triple spiral engraving below was carved into the walls of a cave in The Brú na Bóinne area in Ireland around 3,000 BC.
Spirals are pervasive throughout art and nature. Shells? Spiral. Daily petals? Spiral. DNA? Spiral. Even our own galaxy, The Milky Way, is shaped like a spiral. Inside to out, spirals are everywhere.
It’s no wonder that spirals are incredibly relaxing to draw.
During the height of the pandemic, in live DrawTogether classes for kids we relied on drawing heart spirals to ground us in our bodies most mornings, and I dedicated an entire DrawTogether kids video to the DrawTogether heart spiral drawing practice.
Louise Bourgeois, The Spiral Drawer Supreme
You may know artist Louise Bourgeois from her giant spider sculptures (inspired by her mother, a weaver!) or her hanging sculptures or many boob forms. (So. Many. Boobs!) Or maybe this is your first time hearing her name! Regardless, we are starting our Part 1 series on DOODLES inspired by the spiral drawings of Louise Bourgeois, who died in 2010 at 98 years old.
Louise drew throughout her life. And often she drew spirals.
Louise was born in Paris. Her parents were tapestry restorers, and she learned to work with her hands at an early age. In art school, Louise studied the figure and patterns and design, then in her 30s - when she’d left home and moved to New York - shifted her practice from observation of the outside to observation of the inside.
Louise’s family home growing up had not been great, and she carried the trauma of that house with her, manifesting in terrible anxiety and emotional struggles. In shifting her practice from looking outwards for inspiration and in towards her own self, she began drawing abstract emotional and psychological landscapes.
Her art making became her coping mechanism. Drawing became her “survival mode.” And she began making the work that we know her for today.
Louise would go years without drawing, but she’d be writing nonstop. Sometimes the opposite. She kept journals and drew and wrote on loose leaf papers. She had terrible insomnia and would often draw and write at night. She called art making a “voyage without a destination…”
Spiraling OUT vs Spiraling IN
Louise said the movement of drawing a spiral outwards creates an experience of “giving, and giving up control, trust and positive energy.” While drawing a spiral inwards experienced “a tightening, a retreating, a compacting to the point of disappearance.”
Today, we are going to explore the simple, profound act of drawing spirals.
Today’s drawing assignment is below for subscribers, along with the links to videos of Lynda and Louise for inspiration, and access to the chat will be linked shortly.
Ready? Day 2 drawing - Spirals. Let’s DOodle it together: