Have you heard of Lisa Congdon? I first learned about her a year ago when she was interviewed on the Say Yes podcast. I listened and was intrigued by her idea of passion projects, but then forgot about her until recently when I discovered she teaches classes on Creativebug (which is my new favorite discovery...online art classes from accomplished artists).
Lisa is an artist, illustrator and author who also happens to be a great teacher. I'm currently taking her 31 Things to Draw class and really appreciate the way she encourages drawing because she shows her style and gives tips but also makes me feel like she’s giving me permission to try my own thing. Which is obviously the point of art, but sometimes it’s hard to think beyond what someone is showing me if I don’t feel like my skills are strong.
She has 31 prompts for 31 days and she gives a 3-minute lesson on how she draws the item. Her day 3 prompt is chairs, which are difficult. Lisa recommends drawing them for 20-minutes, even if it's the same style chair, to get comfortable with the 3-D aspect of chairs and I’m telling you, it worked. I chose to draw the same style chair (copying one of her styles), and it was so really frustrating until the twentieth time when I realized that what I drew actually looked like a chair. Success! I have a long way to go but was excited that the dedicated time and consistency paid off.
You’ll see my sketches are a mess...yikes. But I took the one that came out best, digitized it, and created a pattern. If you’re looking to spend 30-min a day on something creative, I recommend signing up for a free trial on Creativebug and finding a class that speaks to you. Have fun!
