Netflix and Draw, Baby
How drawing while watching TV impacts your mental health (and improves figure drawing practice!) Also, hello from the sofa, where I'm recovering from a gosh darn HIP REPLACEMENT.
Hi wonderful GUT friends,
Well that was a pretty great series on Creative Action. Over the past three weeks, we reinforced our own art practices and strengthened our creative community through drawing. Good job, GUT.
Your responses to last week’s prompt (notice and draw under-appreciated labor in your community) was extra heartening. Your drawings and comments in the chat show you noticing and celebrating people whose hard work we often overlook - including our own. This is just the kind of curiosity, attention, care, and creativity we need right now.
The DrawTogether/GUT creative community is unusually strong. We are there for each other, online and off. I learned that first hand when I shared with you earlier this year that I was staring down the barrel of a hip replacement. Members offered encouragement and tips. I took every one to heart, scribbled a lot of them down, was in touch with some of you directly. And, well…. I did it.
About ten days ago I became bionic. And whew. This is a doozy. This is my first big health-surgery thing (knock on wood) and despite the doctor’s warning, I wasn’t expecting so much… recovery. Honestly, I thought I’d be back to my old tricks within a week. Just like I think I can still pull all-nighters and drink red wine. Silly WendyMac.
Thankfully, I have an incredible community of wiser-than-I friends and family who have stepped up in every conceivable way: meals, visits, errands, phone calls, flowers, movie suggestions, etc. I feel like the luckiest human, truly. And also, I had no idea how little control I would have over this recovery. The time, the energy, the discomfort, the blurring of days/nights. The inability to shower. Even ice cream won’t speed it up. The hip takes the time it takes.
Aside: have you ever considered the double meaning of the word “Patient”? I never had enough time to think about such things.
My universe is small right now: my sofa is the sun, my bed my primary planet. Ice packs, Tylenol, and the TV remote are triple moons. I slowly lap my kitchen table using a hot pink walker. Yesterday I went outside for the first time. (The sun!)
My sketchbook rests next to empty cans of spindrift, open to a page where I scribble life lessons I’m learning on this life hiatus. For example: health is everything. All the art, drawing, relationship stuff I center during regular days are actually just sprinkles on the body sundae. I need to eat more protein and drink more water. I need more sleep. Shocker.
Also, I’ve stopped judging myself. Since 90% of my energy is going towards healing my hip, there simply isn’t enough left to fret. Want two cupcakes for lunch? Great. Want to ignore calls, pass on visitors and just veg in front of movies all day? Awesome. Who cares. In terms of creative output, there is a part of me that wants to draw. But mustering the motivation to decide what to draw feels fraught. And I don’t want to “should” myself into doing something I love. So what is a sofa-bound, low-energy, movie-mania impatient patient to do?
I was reminded of a GUT lesson some time ago when I posed the question:
How can we keep up our drawing practice when all we want to do is zone out in front of TV?
Even if you’re not recovering from surgery, I’m pretty sure most of us know this feeling. Yes? Yes. Well, GUT friends, I’m bringing back this classic this week for all of us who could use a little time to Netflix and… draw.
Because while it’s important to engage in Creative Action, we also need to learn to Creative Chill.
TV + Drawing = Art Therapy (sort of)
You might be surprised to learn that many artists watch movies or TV while they work. Not all the time, of course. It’s nearly impossible to think deeply while The Bachelor blares in the background. But after when we’re in that phase called “production” — when we actually MAKE the thing we’re working on — we don’t really have to think that much anymore. We just get the pleasure of letting our heads go and just moving our hands. Since this is when that art-making flow state can really kick in, some people prefer to make in silence or listen to music. Other people use music to inspire their mood and movements. And some people use the opportunity to listen to audiobooks or podcasts.
And some people watch TV.
“Watch” is a stretch. It’s more like listening to an audio play in the background. That’s why shows like The West Wing, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad are so great to “watch” while drawing - they are all about the dialog. (I watched almost the entire West Wing while painting Salt Fat Acid Heat.) Drawing with a show on the in the background helps distract your brain just enough to quiet that loud, judgy voice and helps let your hands take over. And for those of us who are easily distracted, ironically it can help us focus.
Drawing from TV
Another thing I personally love to do is draw what is ACTUALLY on TV.
Meaning: grab a sketchbook and pen, plot down in front of TV, put on a show or film and just watch for a while. And then when a moment or character or outfit grabs you, press pause on the remote, pick up your pen, and draw the moment.
It’s fun to be able to choose an exact moment from a film or show and use that as subject matter. We get to choose the person (or place), their expression, the lighting, the composition, really see the details, and draw it without interruption. When you pause someone on TV, everyone is a perfect model. They stay perfectly still. They don’t sneeze or cough. AND they are way cheaper than a figure drawing class.
These drawings can be close detailed studies, like the ones I did above. Each of those people took about 20-30 minutes each. But they don’t have to take that long.
In a traditional figure drawing class, the group almost always warms up by drawing quick, loose sketches. Maybe the class will start by drawing ten, quick 60 second poses, then do five 3-minute poses, then a few 15 minute poses. Only after that does the model settle in and hold long pose, and the class draws for an hour.
Each of those took about 3 minutes each. I watched till a moment grabbed me, pressed pause and drew the moment FAST.
Unless you are in a figure drawing class or have a very patient, physical skilled partner, it can be hard to get someone to hold still like this. Let alone ask them to repeat everything they just said a bunch of times so you can write it all down. (Wouldn’t it be nice to have a rewind or fast forward button for life sometimes?)
Of course drawing from a screen is entirely different from drawing from life. The screen is flat. Light comes from it, as opposed to bouncing off an actual body. Scale is all weird… But if it’s what we got, then who cares. It’s still fun and we can learn a lot from practicing drawing from it.
Drawing from Television is a twofer and I can’t recommend it enough. We get to practice drawing people (and dogs and gorillas) and we get to sink into the couch and chilllll.
And while it’s important to stay engaged with the world and keep our eyes and ears open, it’s also important to zone out and let our brains relax. We might as well get a little drawing in while we do it.
Netflix and draw, baby. Good for the hands, good for the head. And way cheaper than figure drawing classes.
Tell me, what do YOU watch or listen to while you draw? Got any good background show/movie/podcast drawing recommendations? Let’s share our suggestions for one another in the comments!
Which leads us to this week’s assignment….
Assignment: TV Figure Drawing Class!
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