Melinda Chan

Here are the rest of my February drawings. Let's see if we can keep the momentum going for another month!

For the January daily drawing challenge, I alternated between drawing in my sketchbook and on my tablet. I like drawing in my sketchbook better than doing it on my tablet because the feel of the paper and the drawing tool adds to the experience.

However, the convenience that comes from drawing on a tablet has persuaded me to do all my February drawings on a tablet. I even ended up purchasing the "full" version of the drawing app. I had been using a free version before.

Drawing on an app give me a lot of flexibility about when and where I draw. In bed, before going to sleep at night, at the dining room table, during lunch break, during a long wait for the bus, etc...Additionally, all I need is my tablet and my digital pen. Though a pen isn't necessary--I can just draw with my fingers. Finally, there's no clean up needed. No need to wash any brushes or put away markers, etc...

I will always enjoy drawing and painting on a real surface, but given how hectic life can get, I appreciate the convenience and ease that drawing digitally can provide. It eliminates many of the excuses I would typically have had for not doing art each day.

Daily drawings continued. This is the third set for February. A little creativity each day!

Still trying to keep drawing a bit each day. Here are the next set of drawings from February.

I'm trying to mix it up by doing more pieces using more muted, calmer colors. It still feels more natural for me to reach for the brighter colors, but I'm trying to give the new color scheme a try and see how it feels.

Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

I wasn't sure what I would do after the January daily drawing challenge ended, but I've since decided to continue with trying to create something each day.

The images above are some of pieces I've done so far this month.

I've decided my goal is to try to draw/paint something to represent each day. I'll be upfront about the fact that I will likely draw more on certain days to cover days when I know I'll be too tired or busy to draw. My goal is to take it one day at a time, but it would be nice to end up with 365 pieces by the end of the year.

The theme on which this illustration was based was "self compassion". The first thing that came to mind was things that I use to take care of myself, so I incorporated coffee, a croissant, reading, napping, doing arts and crafts. When life is getting stressful, I know I need a large dose of me time, when I can try to get centered again and recharge.

Most of the things I enjoy are simple so that's nice, but it's still not easy to be self-compassionate. It might to be due to how I was raised and what I learned in school, but I wasn't really taught the value of being compassionate to oneself.

Rather, it was more about pushing myself to do better, always trying to get better. Always being critical of oneself because you don't want to think you are ever good enough for fear that you'll end up thinking you're better than you actually are. This kind of thinking can quickly get tiring and unhealthy.

There is still much to learn, but this illustration is a little step in the right direction.

The prompt for this particular piece was to draw on something other than paper. Initially, I wanted to draw with sidewalk chalk, but the sidewalk outside of my home is a bit public and I didn't want to encourage others to draw anything on the sidewalk. I considered the backyard, but it's a bit dirty out there, so I nixed the sidewalk chalk idea.

Instead, I decided to draw on aluminum foil. It was readily available to me and I can work on it without being dependent on the weather.

I used some thin-point markers to draw a peacock from my trip to Portugal. It was pretty fun to feel the "give" as I drew on the foil. It almost felt a bit like carving on something soft. I was fine with the outcome (the second photo above), but when I turned the foil over, I liked how it turned out more.

The texture of each pen mark showed up very nicely on the back and really gave it some personality. I liked the 3-D effect of the piece.

This reminded me to stay open to possibilities as I'm creating stuff and encouraged me to experiment with different surfaces for painting/drawing.

Here are the final pieces from the January daily drawing challenge.

I'm pleasantly surprised I was able to do 31 pieces, especially when it's been busy at work.

Here are my main takeaways/observations:

1) Having done this challenge, it proved to me that I can fit in time each day for some creativity.

2) It was helpful to have a community (FB) where I could share my projects. I needed something to hold me accountable to producing something each day.

3) I was grateful to be able to finally use my sketchbook and art supplies. Buying sketchbooks and drawing pads is a guilty pleasure, but it's hard for me to open them up and use them. My initial reaction is to not use them unless I have something grand planned. The exercises this month forced me to use the sketchbook and now that the "preciousness" is gone, I feel more comfortable adding to it.

4) It's still challenging to me not to be critical of my own work. The focus of the challenge was on the process and not on the end result, but I couldn't get away from wanting to make my final pieces look "good"--at least on some level. I'm getting better about it, but will need to work on this further.

5) I'm unsure what I'll do next at this point, but I hope to leverage the momentum and keep up with drawing something each day, no matter how simple or rough it looks.

Here are the next six pieces I did as part of the daily drawing challenge. I'll post the remaining works soon and document what I got out of the experience.