#114 - Make Your Drawing Habits Small Enough To Fit Into Your Life
So that you can always draw.
When I became a stay-at-home dad, I realized I had to design my creative process to fit the new realities. Well-being takes precedence over anything! But to take care of your baby well, you must also take care of your (mental) well-being, which might entail a creative outlet. I worked in sketchbooks mainly back then, but not necessarily portable ones, as I was mostly at home. I could open and close the sketchbook and start and stop drawing when the baby went to sleep or woke up.
The past few months, my life was in turmoil again for reasons that were not important, and I fine-tuned and optimized my small drawing habits quite a bit. I now have a small bag with me always. It fits an A5-size sketchbook and some pens. (I found out I love drawing directly in pen!) I have a mobile phone on which I can look up photo references if I can’t see anything nice around me, and I can start or stop drawing at the drop of a hat. You see the resulting sketchbook pages in my articles. For me, it doesn’t have to be more than this!
Making your creative habits small enough to fit into your life is vital. If you stop creating, it is tough to come back and build a creative habit again. But if you make it small, you can keep going. You can carry a small notebook and pen or pencil to write or draw. Or you can even do these on your mobile phone. But keep going.