I joined a writing/art class!

Don’t feel like reading? Listen to the audio version here:

A few weeks back, I watched one of the Try Guys’ YouTube videos where they go to a professional art class. (You can watch the video here.) It inspired me to such a degree that I went out and bought a sketch book the next day. A couple of days after I bought it, I saw a post on Facebook about a free writing/art class for people who suffer from issues with mental health. They had a few cancellations, so there were a couple of open spots. I immediately sent them an e-mail and signed up. The class started less than a week from my sign-up, and I couldn’t really believe it – I was going to start writing and drawing again!

That evening, I drew my tea pot. It was the first drawing I’d done in more than a year, probably.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to draw again. It felt so familiar.

So, we’re five people in the class, and the instructor is an established author. We’re also joined by a nice young woman who’s doing a big research project on how art can have a positive affect on people with mental illness. At the end of the course, which spans over 12 weeks, we’ll be doing four workshops – two writing workshops, and two art workshops. After that, all five of us will have finished some sort of writing/art-piece, that will then be published in an anthology and be exhibited somewhere (anonymously). Pretty cool, right? Anyway, it’s every Tuesday from 10.15-13.30, and it takes place at the National Gallery of Denmark here in Copenhagen. It’s a super cool art gallery, very popular, and it has a small, beautiful park behind it.

The class is divided into 3 “parts:” First, we go to our work room, sit down, have some tea or coffee, and do a quick round of “what thoughts have we had during the week about last week’s exercises.” Then, our instructor (Sofie) tells us a bit about the art piece we’ll be working with, and then we go to the exhibition where the piece is. We each take a little folding chair and place ourselves in a half-circle in front of the art piece, and then we just take it in quietly for about five minutes. Then we do some non-stop writing, talk about different aspects of the piece, more non-stop writing, and another discussion. After that, we go back to the work room and have lunch, and then we do some writing exercises.

I actually thought there’d be more drawing involved, but no drawing so far. On our first day, however, I stayed at the art gallery afterwards and drew two different statues:

I’m working hard on getting the proportions right. I’m proud of how I’ve been doing so far!
I’ve also done a few other drawings since then:

I drew this from an old picture of myself. I focused on getting the proportions right, between the eye and the nose.
Then I did another drawing of a statue at the museum:

I spent a little over an hour on it. I also took a picture of the statue so that I can draw shadows on it later.

It is mainly writing so far, which I’m also really enjoying.

I hope this post might inspire you to get creative, and just have fun with it! I’m not really focusing on the result as much as I’m focusing on the experience itself.

Have a great week! 🙂