It's been quite a while since I've written a blog post (a LOOOOONG time), so here goes!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about drawing. Specifically practicing my drawing. You want to know why? Because I haven't been drawing that often lately. I've had some stuff going on in my life and I have sort-of pushed drawing to the backburner. And you know what has happened? I picked up my iPad the other day and I'm rusty! My hands are stiff and my wrists hurt, and SHOCKER - my creativity is a bit arthritic too! I guess it's because I haven't been exercising those creative brain cells. And since I am having some trouble getting back in the swing of things, I wanted to come on here to talk with you about it.

Just draw... draw often... draw every day!

It doesn't really matter what you draw or where you draw (I mean, you don't want to be drawing on the walls or anything)... the important thing is that you're drawing. The more you draw - the better you will get. When you draw frequently, you build "muscle memory" which allows you to perfect your skill! I’m preaching to the choir, here…

No, you don’t need fancy drawing paper. It can be notebook paper. You can scratch your drawing in your planner or your journal. You can grab an envelope and draw on that. The point is to just do it! You know the old saying “practice makes perfect”? Well, I had a math teacher in middle school that drilled into us, “perfect practice makes perfect” and for SO LONG that made me hesitant to try and not have a perfect result. I thought that unless it started off great it wouldn’t end great. But as an artist (at whatever stage of skill you are currently at), you have to practice. You have to practice and fail. In fact, you just have to fail. Period! How are you EVER going to get better or figure out your style if you don’t experiment? Art is about learning how YOU see the world and drawing is ultimately just muscle memory.

Here's what I want you to do:

1. First you need something to draw with (pencil, pen, marker, chalk, crayon, etc.) and something to draw on (any paper will do).

2. Draw something from memory (like a flower or some leaves or a unicorn) or look around the room and just draw what you see. It DOESN’T MATTER if you think it’s “good” or not - just draw.

3. Not sure where to start? I ALWAYS recommend starting with simple shapes…

4. STOP worrying that you’re “not any good”... just draw!

When I draw, I sketch my designs out first - very lightly with pencil and then I go over it with pen or markers (and I erase the pencil out from under the ink when it’s dry). If you're drawing on a tablet, it's really not any different. I sketch on my iPad with a light "pencil" brush and then I add a new layer over the top and redraw it with my final "pen" brush. If you want to learn a bit more about drawing on your iPad, check out this blog post from 2020.

I'm going to try and share some of my doodles on Instagram Stories over the next few weeks, and don't forget to tag me at @lauramurraycreative if you want to doodle long with me and share some of your own pics. I’d love to see how you're progressing!