Finding the Time

Sometimes I hear at work “How do you find the time to draw that much?”.

Drawing/ creative projects have always been a habit for me.

As a kid each summer I would get bored out of my mind so I would set myself projects.

My projects would range from creating binders of information on different animals to try and prove I was a responsible child who would be able to handle a pet.

I started with dogs, that one was a bust, but I managed to negotiate a cat with my parents (she was the best cat ever). I later moved to hamsters and other small animals, those were negotiated down to goldfish (not my favourite pet to be honest). Dolphins and whales were a hyper-fixation for a while.

Now I’m rambling but you get the idea. I always loved drawing and then once I started getting leftover sketchbooks from school, I’d use those in the summer holidays as my “project”, I’d try and fill them with cool drawings of anything I was enjoying.

I went to uni and the focus of my spare time turned to socialising more since it was a campus uni, and just focusing on enjoying this period of life where friends were within 5 minutes walking distance.

COVID came, I was on a placement year living at home, and I didn’t have anyone nearby anymore. I realised the work I was doing on my placement year didn’t completely fulfilled me. I loved the work and was learning a lot, but the circle didn’t feel complete, and when you have that much time alone you realise those gaps. I think a lot of people realised this in COVID.

I went back to drawing and painting.

A gentle encouragement I had at the time of getting back into it more regularly:

I had just begun talking to my now partner and he had this completely pure curiosity that was so kind. He wanted to see what I was drawing and asked if I would put the discord camera on my painting as we hung out and gamed or just sat quietly together And he didn’t make a big deal about anything which was also nice when you’re finding your feet again.

All this to say, drawing, projects etc has been a habit for a long time. It’s like reading or playing an instrument. It energises me and it has to happen otherwise I get restless.

I used to play piano because my mum thought learning an instrument makes you smart. Maybe she’s right, I don’t know. But it didn’t stick after 6 years of lessons.

You make time for the things that energise you. If you don’t know what energises you, the best thing is to try new things.

Also, it may not energise you at first! Things that are hard probably won’t but if you find you keep coming back to it or you have a goal towards it, then there’s probably something there that means in the future it will energise you.