3 ways to enhance your art practice using the Notes app to sketch

TLDR : scroll to the bottom for video demonstrations of me using the notes app to sketch

1. Sketching C and S curves

   Proko and Jenna Rainey

2. Blind contour drawing

    Betty Edwards, Leighann Creates

3. Mama, Papa, Baby Shapes

    Kelly Ann Powers, Anne Abgott

Of course, these exercises can also be done on paper

Why did I start using my phone to sketch as part of my daily art practice?

In 2018, I got salmonella and lost the ability to do anything, including my art practice. I remember being so exhausted at one point that I could not even pick up my phone. Healthy people are not usually so destroyed by salmonella, but I was already living with multiple chronic illnesses and an autoimmune disease.

Before the infection, my daily art practice would include a watercolor sketch. Every day, after my internship, I would come home and paint with watercolors for hours while watching Parks and Rec.

Here are some of those old watercolor paintings from 2018 before getting sick. I even did my signature differently (if at all) back then.

Watercolor painting of three green cacti in orange pots

Watercolor painting of a succulent with a pink background

Painting in watercolor helped me feel regulated after spending all day under fluorescent lighting at the hospital. I was painting to survive, honestly. Once I got salmonella, I could no longer paint with watercolors, and I was distraught. This extreme feeling is probably due to my autism.

Eventually, once we found out it was Salmonella (It took us an entire month!) I got treatment and improved. I still wasn't 100% but at that point, I could at least pick up my phone again. I was desperate to DO SOMETHING CREATIVE. I had to think of something that did not involve gathering supplies, cleaning up, having to sit in a chair, etc.

My phone! Its the majority of my day while I'm recovering. (I drew this like two months after I recovered). I felt thankful that it became a lifeline to my creativity.

Pencil sketch of iphone 2018

I opened the notes app on my phone and played around with the marker. Joy. For the first time in a month, I was able to draw and/or paint. I felt like life was worth living again.

Painting with the notes app saved my life, I think. I was definitely having lots of unaliving thoughts, which are common among autistics, but at the time I did not yet know I was autistic. Because I couldn't really leave the bed, my brain got stuck on those thoughts, but creating something stopped them every time. I definitely used the crisis line during this time and I encourage you to use it as well. They have a phone line, text messaging, and a chat feature.

In a way, I sort of feel like a kind of disciple to art. I started playing guitar and expressing extreme emotions with it at age 9. I would cry as I wrote songs about how mad I was at my friend or whatever other thing that upset me that day Later, when music became my career, I needed to express my intense emotions in a different way, which became watercolor. When I didn't have access to making music or watercolor, I turned to my phone. Like Martha Beck says, creativity really is the opposite of anxiety.

I feel the need to tell everyone what the act of creating can do for you.

If and when you are going through an intense emotional or mental health struggle, consider trying to create something... anything... and make it very accessible to you and your needs. Even if you are too tired to even pick up your phone, maybe you could put on a creativity podcast by asking Siri? Not everyone has access to a smartphone or Siri, but perhaps that person has a tiny notebook that is always with them.

Here are the 3 easy exercises I recommend if you want to try using your notes app to sketch.

1. Sketching C and S curves

   1. Proko and Jenna Rainey

2. Blind contour drawing

   1. Betty Edwards, Leighann Creates

3. Mama, Papa, Baby Shapes

   1.  Kelly Ann Powers, Anne Abgott

   2. 
      
      
      

      reference photo source

      
      

      

      Rock formation in Capri by Mounzer

      Thank you for reading, and get in touch if you'd like to book a creative class with me!