I am not an artist. Drawing has always been a weakness of mine and something I have never enjoyed. Even as a kid, I was never proud of my artwork. I always felt it just was not one of my talents, and no matter how much I tried, you could never tell what my art was supposed to be. As silly as it sounds, not being able to draw was something that I was kind of embarrassed about. My kids, nephews, and nieces often ask me to draw a specific animal or movie character, and I can’t even get a shape to resemble it! Drawing made me anxious.
Fast forward to our 2020 Pandemic and stay at home situation, and my family began looking for new ways to fill up our time under quarantine. We found a few YouTube videos that taught us how to draw, and while I was very hesitant at first, my daughter convinced me it would be a fun activity for us to try. I went along with it, and sure enough, I was very frustrated throughout the process; however, the artist said something that actually stuck with me, “Don’t give up on a drawing, always finish and be proud of it, no matter how different it looks from mine.” I took this motto to heart and told myself that I was going to try my best and that maybe as an adult, I would have more success in such a simple task.
Well, I have to say that after the first few attempts, I didn’t hate my results. In fact, I was actually proud of what I drew! On most afternoons, my kids and I would spend about 45 minutes watching videos and drawing various animals. It became a nice escape and something we started to look forward to each day. During family FaceTime calls, we would show our drawings of the day and share our new hobby.
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After about a week, my son suggested we try drawing Disney characters. We decided on which Disney animators to subscribe to, and depending on which character they drew, we followed along. We have even placed family members on FaceTime, and we each watch the drawing video at the same time and share our results right after. This small task has brought unexpected joy to my family and helped us to appreciate our differences and talents.
While quarantine has not been ideal most of the time, it has brought about some positive changes in our family’s routine. We are doing more family game nights and movie nights, backyard camping, bike rides, walks, and now have added drawing to the list. While following along and drawing a Disney character isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, this little activity has shown me to appreciate the small things, control my anxiety, and unearth this new found love of drawing!
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