About a year ago I started sketching. I’d not drawn for a long time (decades, in fact), but drawing was something I used to do a lot as a child.

My story

Adulthood is a problematic space to navigate for many of us. Our priorities change and the expectations placed on us change too. Whether it’s parenting, home ownership, work responsibilities or something else, it’s easy to forget to fit in the things that don’t fall into the above categories.

We become more practical and often more boring, and before we know it, we become old too. There’s a benefit to age though – you are far more aware of who you are and how you want to spend your time. The things that you think will make you happy as an adult, often disappoint. We forget to be the child and do things just for fun, things like drawing.

Which leads me on to my initial question – can sketching heal?

First of all, thanks for persevering through my rambling ‘midlife-crisis style’ introduction.

You probably wondered what it had to do with drawing. Context is important though, and I wanted you to understand where I was coming from and what point I’m trying to make.

Maybe you can relate, or at least understand where I’m coming from, and whether drawing is something you’d like to give a go too.

Benefits

Let’s get the first hang up out of the way. You don’t have to be good. The amount of times I’ve heard people say “I can’t draw.” You can draw, and you can always improve. You just have to try.

Once you give it a go and stop worrying about whether you’re any good and what people think the magic starts to happen.

You play with it, you experiment and you start to enjoy it. Being creative brings with it its own rewards.

This short video says it far better than I could:

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A post shared by Brittany Praver artist & creator of Temporarily Not Famous (@temporarilynotfamous)

As an “adult” (by virtue of my age, rather than my behaviour…) I often find myself in situations that are dull. Long train journeys, online meetings, and so on. I often used to get restless in these situations. Irritated even. Now I draw, and they don’t seem so bad. My mood lifts, I feel better, because I’m doing something I enjoy.

What do you draw? Draw something you love. Filling your brain (and your time) with things you love will make you happier. There’s enough rubbish in our lives. Make time to think about the good things.

For me I started with portraits. My attempts were pretty rubbish at first. I didn’t understand the theory of drawing a face, but I improved. As I improved I started to study different approaches (check out the Loomis method by the way, if you want to draw faces). And guess what? Seeing yourself improve makes you feel happy too.

I take my pad and pencils with me all the time now. Opportunities to sketch often arise. As an adult don’t overlook those opportunities to build in moments where you can do something that makes you happy.

It’s okay to escape from adulting and be a child sometimes. Creativity is its own reward.