Self Administered Art Therapy

This month I ended up in some self administered art therapy sessions. As with many others, I have found myself at home with more time than I ever imagined. With home delivery of groceries, prescriptions, and just about anything else, there is a huge savings of time.  Who knew? Not me.

So much news, so much time, what does one do? I invested some time in exploring learning platforms. I've always enjoyed teaching myself and learning new things, so what better time? It didn't take too long until I stumbled upon Skillshare, a wonderful platform full of all kinds of instructional videos and workshops.

I've been a painter all my life, so the videos on learning to paint didn't really draw me in. I've always practiced drawing skills, but I have too short of an attention span to become an artist with refined drawing skills. Drawing portraits and detailed still life just didn't work for me so I bypassed most of those, too. But then I stumbled upon a video about doodling by Cathy Wu and how it is beneficial to your creativity and memory skills. I used to doodle a lot, but then just drifted away from it.  It inspired me to spend my evenings doodling rather than playing solitaire on my phone. So I began.

Here is a snapshots of some of my initial doodles.

Very basic, indeed, but I kept at it.  Then I found a lot of videos on using Photoshop in your art. I don't have the full Photoshop version, but instead Photoshop Elements, a basic version that has enough features for a beginner. I took a photo of one of my doodles, colored it, and created a png file. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Skillshare, you can learn.  Anyway, here is one of my images all colored and pretty.

It is quite simple, but it made me happy that I had learned something new. I turned to my printshop and placed it on a t-shirt as well as some other products.

Now I am going somewhere.  I modified the design and created this:

Now I am having so much fun that I am learning about some new venues where my simple doodles look wonderful on a variety of products. I am going to keep creating and hope to turn my doodles into some passive income.  Stay tuned, I'll let you know where I go from here.  In the meantime, checkout Skillshare. It is a great way to productively spend your time and learn a thing or two. Here is a link to a free trial offer. Hope you like it as much as I do.