Lessons from 30 Days of Drawing

What we tried, what we learned, and what's next.

Hi! I’m making this special Grown-Ups Table (AKA the GUT) dispatch open and free to the entire DrawTogether community. We learned a lot of valuable lessons in the GUT’s 30-Day Drawing Habit experiment that apply to all ages and stages of creative pursuits. They feel important to share. Hopefully these lessons can be helpful in educational and community contexts, too. If you’d like to join the GUT to participate in stuff like this and and receive future weekly dispatches including drawing-related lessons, missives, assignments and prompts, and become part of an growing interactive creative community, here you go:

---

GUTsters,

Holy smokes. You did it. We did it. 30 DAYS of daily drawing DONE. I am in awe of each and every one of you. I hope you feel the same way about yourselves.

☄️💥🔥🌈👨‍🎨🍦🍰🥂🤸‍♀️🏆🧻🔥🐣👑🕺💅👨‍🎨💥🌈🍦🍰🥂🤸‍♀️☄️🍰🥂!

A quick reminder of how this adventure started.

A little over a month ago I sent you this:

No doubt many of you have heard of The Artists Way, by Julia Cameron. The book and its practices is mostly focused on writing, but as Ms. Cameron says many visual artists have found it useful, too. One of the the exercises she suggests doing to free your creative self is “Morning Pages”: a daily free writing session done first thing in the day. Three pages. Uncensored. No backtracking… It’s about getting all the crap out of your hed onto the page and allowing space for your creative self to step forward. I know successful writers who swear by this practice, and I did it myself for several months a while back. I appreciated how it loosened my brain.

And as a visual person, I’ve always wondered how this practice could be altered for someone like me. What would happen if I did “Morning Drawings”…

So this is the model we are going to use for our 30-day drawing GUT experiment. Each week we’ll have a new assignment, but those timed 10 minutes in the morning won’t change.

Let’s see how daily drawing like this changes our brains, hearts and bodies.

And here we are 30 days later. We drew every day for ten minutes a day.

How is your brain, heart and body feeling??

If they’re anything like mine, the answer is full. Unexpectedly, surprisingly, hopefully full.

Why?

Because over the past 30 days you tried new things, pushed through fear and resistance, and used your hands, eyes, minds and imagination to CREATE THINGS that did not exist until you conjured them into being. With your bare hands. And in just ten minutes a day. And we did it together. Drawing, y’all. It’s magic. Drawing TOGETHER? That’s some miracle sh*t.

In education there’s this term “Scaffolding.” That’s where lessons progressively build on each other, increasing in complexity - and at the same time the instructor provides less and less support. Not sure if you noticed, but that was also happening over the past 30 days. Not only were we doing our “morning drawings” but we were learning new things all along the way. We started with a simple, highly-structured assignment and ended on an open-ended free for all. And judging from the drawings and comments I’ve seen in the chat, our GUT-Scaffolding worked.

Part of learning in reflecting.

In order to really bake what we learned into our bones, it’s helpful to step back and do a quick recap. So today, to mark the finish line of our 30 day experiment, we’re going to take a look back at all you drew, all you learned, and how far you’ve come.

What’s next

Since so many people have said they want to continue with the daily drawing beyond our 30-days, at the end of the dispatch I’ll offer suggestions and a structure to help you keep drawing every day and doing it together. One thing you can do to help make sure that I’m creating a structure that works, is by taking this survey: If you haven’t taken the GUT 30-Day Drawing Habit survey, PLEASE DO by clicking here! One survey responder will win a huge box of my favorite art supplies, just FYI. :)

Alright. Let’s reflect.

What You Learned in the Past 30 Days.

Big picture.

I built the GUT’s 30-day Drawing Habit with three things in mind. I thought if we could maintain these structures, it would create a space where everyone could thrive:

Achievable goals: Drawing can be scary. We are also all super busy. But 10 minutes feels approachable and manageable. Ironically, using a timer helps us not watch the clock. It’s just enough to get into a groove and leave you wanting more.

Frequency and Consistency: Like any new skill, we have to practice to get better. And creating habits takes repetition. Not only by showing up every day, but also by repeating an exercise over and over. That’s how we sink into something and start to learn nuance. That’s how we evolve. That’s how we grow.

Accountability and Community: I really mean it when I say everything is better when we DrawTogether. The support and accountability is key to showing up everyday and not listening to our inner critic. To see and to feel seen - and supported. Vulnerability and positive reinforcement. There’s no place better than the GUT for that.

Each weekly assignment took these things into consideration, and offered a new milestone on our journey towards becoming a habitual drawer.

Every day a new drawing. Each week a new milestone.

Week 1. Circle and Grids: slow down and focus

This week was our easy start. While drawing lines or making circles inspired by Hiroyuki Doi and Agnes Martin seems easy as pie, it pushes us to slow down, focus and become more present. Drawing becomes a mediation. Thoughts bubble up. Emotions emerge. And we learn to move them through our body with a pen. That feels good. And when something feels good, we will want to keep doing it. So this was a good way to start.

Also, this assignment is a reminder that a drawing doesn’t always have to be “of” something. Drawing can just be making marks. Those marks can be abstract. A scribble. A doodle. What makes your a drawing a drawing (and a “good” one at that) isn’t the outcome. It’s the process.

Week 2. Blind contour self-portraits: process over perfection

In week two we got wild. We removed the possibility of control meaning we also let go of expectations. GOODBYE PERFECTIONISM! When we were able to focus exclusively on process (it’s harder than it seems!), the outcome was always energetic, vibrant and fun. What’s more, this exercise teaches us how to slooooowww down and pay attention. To ee beyond our expectations and see what is really right in front of us. This week we learned to look.

Week 3. Collage Drawing: creative sparks everywhere

This is where we started working with “source material” - AKA introducing an outside element to use as inspiration. (Nobody creates something from nothing!) Collage drawing inspired by Ariel Aberg-Riger worked our creative brains. We embraced chance, pushed our imagination, and let it all unfold. The 10 minute max helped us not overthink and just DO, which resulted in wonderfully imperfect and totally unexpected visual stories.

Week 4. Drawn Journaling: noticing our way through our days

This week we used all the tools we’ve developed to do some drawn journaling. We combined words and images to bring our attention to moments we wanted to focus on. (Because where we put our attention grows.) Everyone approached this a little differently, and all the outcomes were outstanding. Just as we find inspiration in source material like magazines, photos, and newspapers, we can find it in our daily lives. In our every day experiences. Drawn journaling helps us make meaning of our every day moments.

Final 2 Days. You do you

And just like that, the scaffolding falls from the building. You’re up and ready to go it on your own. For our last two days, you did whatever you wanted to do - using the 10 minutes as a helper (if helpful) and staying in community with your fellow GUTsters.

Can you believe it?

All that. And here you just thought you were drawing.

Which you were. Again, drawing together? That’s some miracle sh*t.

Tell me: what did YOU learn? What was a highlight for you? A lowlight? What was a challenge you pushed through, or maybe something you just plain hated? Did you fall off? Keep going? Love to get a group convo going here so we can learn from each other.

Want to keep going?

Great, me too. Here are some tips to help us keep going (or start if you feel inspired!)

First, subscribe and join the GUT. Duh.

Select a theme or a goal. You can choose to continue focusing on one of the assignments we did in the 30-days, or mix it up. Either way, create some structure for yourself to work within so you don’t find yourself feeling overwhelmed.

Use that timer. The 10 minute timer is always there to make drawing approachable and achievable. After three weeks of 10-minute daily practice, your drawing-habit muscles are strong. You might want to keep using the timer, or maybe you feel like you don’t have to. It’s up to you. (Note: The 10-minute timer will always be helpful for perfectionists (it me!🙋‍♀️) so if a timer helps you feel loose and free, keep using it.)

Create context and consistencies. If you can, try to draw in the same place every day. Or at the same time of day. When we create rituals like this, it tells our brains that we are entering making mode, and we sink into it more easily. We look forward to it. Something I do when I want to switch gears is light a candle when it’s time to draw, and put it out when I’m done. Like a little creative light switch. Click.

DrawTOGETHER: Accountability and support is everything is keeping a new habit going. Luckily, you have that built in here in the GUT. You can keep sharing your work and cheering for your fellow GUT members in the daily drawing share (more on that in a moment) and/or you can reach out to fellow drawers in your area or online and form a mini-GUT group. If there are other GUT folks who live near you, maybe meet up to share work. I know this is already happening in a couple places (Hello Tasmania GUT crew!) and it’s best thing ever.

Got your own tips to share? Please share them with the group!

The GUT is turning 1! What’s next?

It’s good to rest after a big push. As I mentioned on Sunday, I’m going on a short break starting next week. (Thanks for your continued support!)

This coming Sunday I’ll give a short lesson and an assignment to work while I’m gone. I’ll start a new art-share chat on Sunday, and I’ll be appointing a few GUTTAs (meaning GUT Teaching Assistants”, but I like the sound of “gutta!” lol) to help monitor the room, address issues and answer questions. (Thank you in advance, GUTTAs!)

When we return, we will have our first ever LIVE drawing meet up on Zoom for GUT members. It’ll be a big ol’ live drawing party/meet and greet.... Time announcement coming soon. It will be a SUNDAY, not Saturday as my earlier email suggested. (Clearly I need that rest.) Keep your eyes on your inbox for more info.

For now, huge congrats to everyone who participated in the first ever GUT 30-Day Drawing Experiment. What an incredible journey we went on together.

I have a hunch it will be the first of many.

Everything is better…

xoxo,

w

ps - my new little book How to Say Goodbye comes out on July 18 (next week!) I’ll send out a special dispatch on pub day, but meanwhile, thanks everyone for all the support for this special project. Pre-orders and telling your friends really help get the word out. And that’s the whole point of this book. To be there when we need it. <3