Stephanie Peterson Jones - Drawing for Joy: 15-Minute Daily Meditations to Cultivate Drawing Skill and Unwind with Color

15-Minute Daily Meditations to Cultivate Drawind Skill and Unwind with Color

Stephanie Peterson Jones

2017 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text and Artwork 2017 Stephanie Peterson Jones

First Published in 2017 by Quarry Books, an imprint of The Quarto Group,

100 Cummings Center, Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.

T (978) 282-9590 F (978) 283-2742 QuartoKnows.com

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Digital edition published in 2017.

Digital edition: 978-1-63159-431-1

Softcover edition: 978-1-63159-295-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

Interior design & layout: Laura McFadden

Cover design & image: Stephanie Peterson Jones

I dedicate this book to Pip Jones, whose love and support allow me to live a creative life every day.

And to you, the artist. My greatest wish is that you find and nurture the love of drawing, and through it, experience great joy.

An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak. When you are present in the current moment. When you are resonating with the excitement of this thing that you are experiencing. When you are fully alive. SIR KEN ROBINSON

I grew up in a suburb of New York City where there were a lot of kids. When we werent playing Kick the Can, drinking Kool-Aid, or swimming, we sat around a coffee table with our #2 pencils and a pile of recycled office copy paper and we drew together. Our little community of friends had a drawing practice that would last a lifetime.

Several years ago, my final project for a masters program focused on a daily practice of meditation and art making. My goal was to quiet my inner critic and monkey mind and rekindle my joy of making art for its own sake. The academic goal of the project was to monitor the relationship between the practices and what effect they had on one another.

What I found that was that meditation quieted my mind and I became more present in making art. My approach to making art daily was influenced by and became similar to that of meditation, and I experienced a freedom from the result that I hadnt known before. My busy mind quieted down, and I felt relaxed and peaceful. I felt more like my true self, and thats where the joy happened.

Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think were supposed to be, and embracing who we are. BREN BROWN

Authenticity is choosing to accept all parts of yourself. In being real, there is freedom and beauty. When your mind wanders in meditation, the instruction is to let it go and bring your attention back to your breath. No judgment or reaction, just bring it back. Keep going. Think of drawing in the same way: creating one mark at a time. Get stuck? Dont like it? No judgment, just keep going. Let go of the perfection and focus on the present moment.

This process will help you enter a state of flow. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it. How will this process help you in art and in life? Consider the following:

It will make you happier.

It will make everything you do better.

It will decrease your stress level.

It will give you a sense of joy and peace.

You will learn about yourself, become more patient, and forgive yourself and others more easily.

You will let go of judgment of yourself and others and learn to trust your gut.

You will have the extremely satisfying state of flow and joy.

We live in a crazy virtual world, where everything moves like a flash and were conditioned to believe that theres never enough time to do what we think we need to do. Yet when we stop and give ourselves the gift of time to spend on something creative, were always grateful for it. Making the time to have an art practice is truly an act of self care, and youll reap the joy that comes from it, experiencing your life in real time, in the present moment.

Make no mistake about it: Creating art can be frustrating. Many people suffer from artists block and freeze when they face that white piece of paper. Our inner critic starts to talk to us. Practicing meditation will help you let go of those thoughts and bring you into the present moment, so you can make one mark at a time. Experts say that it takes twenty-one days to create a habit. A year is a long time, I know. I ask only that you do the best you can, and when you miss a day or two, let it go, and just agree to start again. That is the hardest part.

The cool part is that as you develop a rhythm of drawing every day, your work will get better. By better, I mean more authentically you, which is more beautiful. Even more exciting, your practice will extend to other aspects of your life.

My deepest wish for you is that by doing this practice, you know and remember that its always here for you as a tool for finding joy, authenticity, and peace in your life.

Its a scientific fact: Meditation can measurably improve your life in many ways. It will help you focus better, reduce mental chatter, connect better with people, lower your stress level, decrease anxiety, and improve sleep. Why wouldnt you want at least some of those things?

Meditating for a short time, even three minutes, will help you reap more from your art practice as well. Even if you take three deep and focused breaths before you start, it will be better than if you didnt. When I started my practice of meditation and art making, I followed the format offered in