Life drawing practice - art as an indicator of mental health

It’s not just a new year resolution. It’s something that shows how balanced my life is. If I get around creating art, learning a new skill, practising something and experimenting it means that I have enough space in my life to play and explore.
It also means that I have the mental stability to do so. Because only having the time won’t make me necessarily bring out the art tools. I might have the time and use it to stare into the void struggling with my worries.
I guess doing some art – no matter the quality – I am not here to deliver but to explore – is a bit of a push, it takes some energy to get me started. In my case, creating is not the means to an end but an indicator for good mental health.

Where to join the life drawing classes: Please check out Living Art on Instagram. Classes are usually Tuesday and Friday. Also, follow @oh.francoise and @t0zt0z and subscribe to the newsletter. Francoise is also on Patreon.

Practising something I tried twice in my 20ties: I hope to document some development/ progress:

26.01.2021 Life drawing class

26.01.2021 Online Art Class life drawing with https://www.instagram.com/oh.francoise/ https://www.instagram.com/draw.livingart/ by herrberta.art — quick and rough with wax crayons

19.01.2021 Life drawing class

Today I was practising getting the proportions of the head in relation to the body right. Most scribbles and short poses aren’t even good enough to be posted in this “documenting me practising” post. For the long poses, I had more time to also play around with the style. So I tried a soft, fuzzy pencil stroke in addition to colour. The idea of combining several sketches in one picture is from Clive – he’s in the same class and keeps blowing my mind with his bold, colourful and trippy scatches that are obviously inspiring.