Hello from the Sketchy Traveler, a mostly free, mostly biweekly newsletter on finding flow, ease and joy in life and work. Paid subscribers make this newsletter possible and keep it free for those peeking out their inboxes. Thanks to everyone for your support! Scroll past the fold for the latest creative adventures, tips, and tricks.

When you look at a tree or cat what do you see? You probably don’t see every hair on the cat, or leaf on the tree. The brain naturally glosses over these details to create a general idea of a cat or tree in our mind. Usually this is great as it allows our brains to function and achieve things that we would never get to if we were obsessed with every detail. However, this also results in us building up an image of a cat or tree in our mind that we see instead of the thing in front of us and as a result we can miss out on important details in life.

The Ideal We Think We See

When we sit down to draw it is often this idealized image in our mind that we are striving to capture and we are inevitably disappointed when the result does not measure up. However, this idealized image is often more about what we think is in front of us based on past experience versus what we actually see. Learning to see what is actually in front of us instead of what we think is in front of us can be a powerful way to let go of perfection and reduce pressure on ourselves when drawing.

Capturing What We See

A great way to observe this is with a blind contour drawing. Start with a blank sheet of paper, a pencil and something to draw. A water bottle, coffee cup or mug make great subjects for this exercise. Place your pencil in the center of the page and now focus your gaze to a point on the object you are drawing. Begin tracing the outline of the object with your gaze and matching this movement with your hand. Continue until you have gone all the way around the objects outline.

Value of Blind Contour

What does the result look like? For most of us the result is often something more like a cubist painting than the actual object, but we can often see the object we were drawing too. The power of blind contour is that it removes our thinking from drawing and engages the involuntary hand eye connection to produce a drawing. While initial results may be wonky, hand eye coordination does improve with practice and helps to remove pressure felt when trying to reproduce the idealized image in your head.

Logan’s Updates

This Thursday is the Corvallis Art Walk and the Corvallis Foundry Gallery (257 SW Madison Ave, Suite 210) is included. We are hosting Jennifer Oakes’ show “Bouquet” this month. If you are in Corvallis would be great to have you stop in between 4pm and 8pm this Thursday.

What Now?

Wow, you read all the way to the end of the newsletter. Your dedication shows that you are serious about starting, growing, and navigating a creative practice and life. This is the end of the newsletter, but not the end of your journey. Here are some next steps to deepen your practice:

• Upgrade to Paid to keep this newsletter ambling and access monthly 1:1 coaching as you grow your creative practice.

• Reach out to Logan for a free creative coaching info session to explore your dreams and consider how we can collaborate to accelerate your creative practice, launch something new or navigate a transition.

See you soon at your neighborhood or digital watering hole😊