Get Your Sketchbooks Ready.

30 Days of Drawing starts in 3...2...1....

Hello, my most creative friends.

We’re two days out from January 1, AKA Day One of the 30 Day of Drawing, 2025 edition. This is the perfect time to….

Here’s a free pro tip: Don’t let anyone sell you a 12 dollar rubberband. A 5 cent binder clip makes an excellent pen holder/trapper keeper for any sketchbook. It’s true!

Now, if that doesn’t make you trust me and want to join me on this drawing adventure, I don’t know what will.

Well, that and this Mary Oliver quote:

Really twists the knife, huh?

If you’re feeling a little daunted by starting “Another Big Thing” this year, don’t worry. Me, too. Who has the energy for RA RA RA right now. This is 2025. We’re taking it slow. We’re taking it easier on ourselves. We are all about the little achievements. Leading with love. Ease. Pacing. Joy. And good company.

It’s allllll about the good company.

For folks still on the fence (and for those of you who are ready to roll) here’s a little more about what you can expect in the upcoming 30 Days of Drawing.

Themes for 2025:

This is our third 30 day adventure together, and every time I learn something new. Want to know what I learned last time? More is not always better. Last time I gave you all a giant lesson every day with multiple artists for reference and in depth assignments and… whew. It was epic. And there is a time and place for epic. And there is a time NOT to be epic. That time is now.

Less is often more. Drawing not bench-pressing. We are here because we are interested in becoming more creative, in touch with ourselves and the world - we want to feel alive - to breathe and experience that easy and light feeling of being in sync with the world and each other. And so, this year we have two themes guiding us. And one of our two themes is… being GOOD ENOUGH.

Letting go of our need to do THE BEST ALL THE TIME will help keep us drawing through all 30 days. And leave energy for dancing. :)

Our other theme is ATTENTION.

My spidey-sense tells me our attention is going to be pulled in every personal and political direction imaginable for a while. Instead of getting overwhelmed and burning out and shutting down, let’s practice being deliberate about where we put our attention. Because here choose to put our attention grows - inside and out.

So what does drawing have to do with attention?

Drawing - the way we approach it here in DrawTogether - brings us into the present, into our bodies and breath. It helps us become more curious, and let go of perfectionism and unhealthy expectations. It helps us process our feelings. It helps us slow down and look closely at the world. Drawing teaches to see again. (With our “art eyes”, as I call them.) It helps us express and share ourselves. And ultimately it leads us to connect with people. And isn't that the whole damn point of it all? We are here to connect. End of story.

Everything starts with attention.

After drawing for 10 minutes a day for even just a few days, you will notice your attention begin to grow in the direction you want it to. You will find yourself slowing down. You will notice more. You will become more curious. I swear upon my binder clip.

Drawing is like breathing for artists. It’s the foundation of it all.

And attention is the foundation of drawing.

Attention and Good Enough. Those are our themes this year.

Alright, now that we know what we’re focusing on, here’s how it all works:

How it works:

HERE IS A LINK TO THE FAQ I PUBLISHED LAST WEEK.

You need to subscribe to the DrawTogether Grown-Ups Table to get the full benefits of the 30 Days. The monthly price is going up, and the annual gets you continued lessons throughout the year to keep up your practice, so I really suggest doing that. Also, it supports my work, the awesome Grown-Ups Table crew, AND DrawTogether Classrooms. So thanks.

We start on Wednesday, January 1.

General how to: I give an assignment every day (sometimes with a lesson) and then we all draw for 30 days, 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes WITH A TIMER. (There’s a science-y reason for that.) Then we share our drawings with thousands of other artists in the chat daily for support and accountability. (Honestly the chat is the best part of this whole thing. Ask anyone. It’s the Zumba class of art school.)

Daily Structure: The 30 days will be divided into 4 sections (not all the same number of days.) Each section has a different topic. At the beginning of the section I will send a deeper lesson on the topic, and an assignment. Then each day after that I’ll send a mini-bite with inspiration and a new assignment. Every day a new chat thread will be started by me or one of the GUT crew members. That’s where we share our daily drawing and cheer and support each other. Make sense?

Exactly HOW to do all this is explained in the FAQ I sent out last week. Scroll down to the FAQ part.

Subscribe to participate: Only subscribers will get access to the assignments and the community chat and all the other great community engagement that makes this experience really unique and special. Some assignments will exclusively for subscribers. Your subscription goes to help make this all happen, so please do support if you can. And if you are experiencing financial hardship and are unable to subscribe but want to participate, we have scholarships set up to help out. Email us at community@drawtogether.studio. No artists left behind.

And remember the monthly price is going up, so best to do the yearly (and support an artist. Every time an artist gets a sub, an agent gets their wings.)

Join with a friend!

If you want to do this with a friend, then you can invite them/give them a gift subscription here.

Join with a group!

If you want to do this as a group, we’ve set it up so you get a group discount. If you want to do it with a HUGE group, like a whole class or community group or your own list of subscribers, email Community@DrawTogether.Studio and we’ll hook you up with an even deeper one.

Alright get those materials ready.

I am going to include a tiny selection of all the awesome artwork that members have shared in the chat over the past two weeks. GUT members were trying out new mediums inspired by this bonkers field trip I took to buy art supplies in gay Paris. Now that, my friends, was epic.

Can’t wait to see you on the 1st.

xoxo,

w

Grown-Ups Table Member Art Gallery

Here’s a small selection of all the amazing artwork members shared in the chat as you try new mediums! I’ll start with sharing a drawing I made to honor Mme. Pelicot, using new materials I bought at the Sennelier store in Paris (I rarely share my own work in the round-up, but I’ll celebrate her every chance I get.) The following wonderful drawings are by GUT members experimenting with new mediums. Seems like you all were delighted by what you discovered!

Wendy MacNaughton: I tried out a lot of the material I brought back with me from Paris to make this drawing - fountain pen, ink, synthetic brushes, paint. Love them all!

Jamica: These were made with one of those children’s art supplies called tempera paint sticks! Their chunkiness means there’s no accuracy at all but they are quite fun to use in sketchbooks - they don’t stick and they dry quickly! They’re apparently egg tempera :-)

Catherine Stifter: Watched a YouTube tutorial and pulled out the box of watercolor pencils that I've never known how to use and so tossed aside. It's an inexpensive set and I'm playing and learning!

Ilse van Hofwegen: I tried my new printing press (woodzilla)

Danny Noble: My friend Karrie Fransman (go find her amazing work!) introduced me to these Dr PH Martin inks. They're so vibrant and unsubtle that I'm a bit scared of them and they've been collecting dust in the corner of my room but today was their time to shine. Love seeing all your work, and LOVED seeing Wendy's Sennelier adventures. Reminded me of when I used to go to L. Cornelissen in London and it felt like walking into Wonka land. I'd go get my nibs from the magical man who made them in the back room and he'd show me all the artwork cartoonists made him to say thanks for the nibs (including my favourite Ronald Searle) What a dream!

Patti: I’ve been trying out making some stamps. I just found that some old ink that I’d never used is actually not all dried up!

Sarina Zoe: Hello Wendy and everyone, I literally just joined this community, I’d never heard of Wendy before the Gisèle Time drawing which I gratefully found on Notes, I know I’m in good company! I had told myself watercolour just wasn’t for me after a couple of frustrating attempts decades ago at school. But a friend bought me a little watercolour palette for my birthday, so I re-wrote that story. Nudes are my first love as a subject, so it would have been rude not to try it out. It surprised me how much I loved the process and the result. Keen to play some more 💜

Maxine Davidowitz: Tried using goauche in a figure study session. On marker paper, which held up really well. So two ‘new’ materials. 😌