This blog post is illustrated by students of the 4-week online workshop Inspirational Drawing. All the illustrations shown here are created at the class by these wonderful artists: Dianne Guerin, Ellen Schulz, Terri Elverum, Joan Gaetz, Alison Schockner, Cheryl Rayner, Carol Dickson, Debbie Kreischer, Virginia Clinton, Rosemary Bosse, Mary Joyce Weening, Donna Peake, Joyce Brown, Nancy Kvorka, Judy Shea and Janet Joehlin.
I have often thought about the contradiction between maintaining who I am and being open to what I can become. My friend said that when you know somebody for a long time, you can look through life circumstances and see the person that’s behind all those. And still, while situations change, we change too.
By creative drawing, we can find out where we are swimming and how deep we can go.
We can take personality tests but sometimes the best way to find out what kind of fish we are is to take a pen and start drawing.
By drawing, we can explore how we see ourselves in our surroundings.
We can pick ideas from new places and cultures.
And we can explore what’s going on inside our minds.
When we illustrate what we seem to be and how we see the world, new combinations start to grow and inspire us.
Our art journals become our inspiration books.
If we just use thinking, we can endlessly question our creativity and ability to find new solutions. But when we get into the habit of creative drawing, it will be evident that we are creative people regardless of circumstances.
When we draw out our new thoughts and ideas, we become more aware of who we are and what our style is.
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Well, nail me on the head with a hammer!!! My drawing is exactly how I have seen myself in my surroundings!! Separate….mechanically efficient, but certainly not a part of our beautiful organic world. I have been working on changing that in my life recently and spending more time with Nature. May-be your drawings will send you a message too! I highly recommend the class!! 🙂
Thanks, Cheryl! I love the way you described how you see your work and what you have done afterwards!
People see what they want to see in their drawing, rarely does looking and interpreting yourself have much to do with insight and accuracy. If you always draw flowers and look into a drawing and see flowers is that insight or seeing what you expect. Once worked with severely mentally handicapped adults and one man forever drew in the style of Picasso. Turns out parent had a huge collection of Picasso so that was what he drew. Conscious vs unconscious a n area of humanity easily exploited as in the latest trend of Intuitive painting. Great fun hardly a window to most souls.
Monica, thank you for the thought-provoking comment. I on the other hand believe that self-reflection is very important part of creativity. It is essential in learning new things and in starting up an important conversation. That interaction can lead us forward to the direction where we want to go. I do agree with you in some way however: I don’t think it is good to set a fixed image of yourself based on any of your drawings, but I think the same about short personality tests as well. If drawing cannot be seen as a part of self-expression, what about writing poems for example? I think that we need to keep out feet on the ground concerning our self-image but by drawing we are allowed to experiment, play, express and challenge ourselves in a very natural way. My approach to intuitivity is more design and idea based, than for example meditative. But I still think that we should be able to boost our imagination and explore our thoughts by drawing. What do you think?
So well said and so true. Self reflection and processing is such an important part of my life, particularly now that I am retired and having some aging-health issues. Your art process has helped considerably in expressing that.
Thanks, Valerie!
Hi Paivi!! More beautiful student drawings!! I have to say I HIGHLY recommend your Inspirational Drawing class to anyone interested (having been a student in the last one). These drawings truly show how much every person’s individuality shows up in their work. I think our artwork is like our fingerprints – no two are alike. But we can learn so much from each other! Paivi you did such an AMAZING job of structuring this class – each lesson builds to the next – growth HAPPENS – you are a very inspiring teacher!! I could go on and on, but I will stop here.
Thank you, Deb!!
Thank you Paivi! I loved the class too and recommend it.
Thanks, Nancy!!
Paivi, … I’m so impressed with all these artists. These are pieces an observer could get lost in…so much color, movement, and personality in each and every one. Great job everyone….loved this post! Thanks again, Paivi…..Sue
Thank you, Sue!
I had so much fun with this post! It got me thinking about not just the color, form and movement in these wonderful artworks, but also the marks themselves and how they were made. Brought up questions like why that color in that area? and Why that particular mark in that place? and what does that form mean? I can hardly wait for class to start in September. So glad I signed up. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Mary! Great to hear that you enjoyed the post and hopefully you’ll love Inspirational Drawing!