A quick sketch of my hand (Graphite, 2021)

As many of you know, I have been involved with a daily drawing project that I’ve been calling my Drawing Amsterdam Dailies. I started with the goal of 100 days. Since that has been met, I’ve been curious to see how long I can keep the streak going. So far, so good.

The project has been quite satisfying on many fronts. I get to draw beautiful Amsterdam, relive memories, make a travel journal from it and maybe a book. I am learning new skills and techniques as I work primarily with black ink on grey toned paper. I get to draw everything I’m interested in, like buildings, canals, boats, food, people, bicycles, lettering, nature, windmills, and more.

I’ve realized though that by spending time every day on detailed and intricate drawings, I don’t have much energy or time left to spend on other creative pursuits or to work on other drawings.

I had an epiphany of sorts over the last week. As I’ve begun to feel that my Amsterdam Dailies may take over my life if I let them, I can still get in sketches of other things if I lower the bar of expectation. By limiting myself to only quick sketches of 5-10 minutes, I can take advantage of inspiration as it comes, and also practice a looser style with different art supplies during these quick play sessions.

I did a drawing of my hand in class last week and I really enjoyed it. It took just a few minutes. Parts of it are off, but a lot of it works. It felt like play because I took the pressure off myself to draw “well.” I started drawing without over-thinking things and enjoyed the process. It didn’t take long and had fun. I got in some practice and a picture of my hand out of it.

I think this will be a win-win strategy for me. I get to continue on with a creative project that is long term, daily and fairly detailed, and combine it with various short (time-wise), loose, playful experiments. More creating gets to happen!

Have you been able to reframe a challenge into an opportunity?